Pat Buchanan's Racist Rant

MSNBC has another Imus problem, and his name is Pat Buchanan.

In fact, the racist drivel that Buchanan has recently penned (posted on Human Events [1], among other places) is arguably more offensive than the insult Don Imus thoughtlessly tossed at the Rutgers University women's basketball team, which eventually led to the simulcast of his syndicated radio show being pulled from MSNBC. Imus, after all, conceded his off-the-cuff comment about "nappy-headed 'hos" was a tasteless joke and profusely apologized. Buchanan's comments are not the fruit of rapid-fire talk show banter but are deliberately chosen written words that read as if they were copied from a white supremacist polemic.

While it is not breaking news [2] that Buchanan is trafficking in KKK talking points, his latest column ought to have rational people on both the left and the right saying enough is enough.

Buchanan writes in response to Sen. Barack Obama's speech on race last week that in the conversation about race, "White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to."

And what does "white America" have to say? According to Buchanan:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

... Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.

Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks — with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas — to advance black applicants over white applicants.

He wraps up his column with a set of jaw-droppingly misleading statements about black-on-white crime and "hoaxes" perpetrated by a "Rev. Al" — presumably the Rev. Al Sharpton, who apparently no more merits the courtesy of having his full name published than Sen. Barack Obama, who Buchanan referred to as "Barack."

In Buchanan's world, being an elected United States senator and a presidential candidate does not entitle you the basic courtesy of being called by your first and last name if you fall under the one-drop rule.

AgentX on the African American Opinion blog [3] wrote that "I don't have all night to debunk this entire sack of crap" but his blog has made a start at it. But, more importantly, he publishes the e-mail address of the president of NBC News, State Capus: steve.capus@nbc.com [4].

"Here's hoping this dinosaur gets put out to pasture," Agent X writes.

In fact, we need to do more than hope for it. We need to insist on it.

Hat tip to Monroe Anderson [5] for his alert on this.