Uppity Oops

I don’t usually bother my readers with local politics. Most of you aren’t from around here so it wouldn’t interest you. That still holds true so don’t start to worry -- I’m not starting a new trend here at Get the Flick.

Unfortunately, one of my representatives has gone and made himself famous -- nationally. Again. Congressman Lynn Westmoreland -- in what could have been a slip of the tongue -- referred to the Obamas as “uppity”. Everybody (including me) would have probably let that pass -- except for what Representative Westmoreland did next.

GOP Rep.: Obamas part of 'uppity' class

”"Uppity, you said?" he was asked.

"Yeah, uppity," Westmoreland replied.”

I’ve always been told that when you find yourself in a hole you should stop digging. Representative Westmoreland dug in even deeper. While the article in USA Today (linked above) tried to gloss it over, the editorial board blog at The New York Times offered the text of Westmoreland’s next statement.

”I’ve never heard that term used in a racially derogatory sense. It is important to note that the dictionary definition of ‘uppity’ is ‘affecting an air of inflated self-esteem — snobbish.’ That’s what we meant by uppity when we used it in the mill village where I grew up.“

Interesting. Congressman Westmoreland must have grown up in a mill village a lot different than the ones I’ve been in. And that’s real hard to do in that they all look just alike. My readers might remember that I’ve been in a few mill villages . And “uppity” was usually followed immediately by “the N word.”

I’m 8 years younger than Congressman Westmoreland. It hadn’t stopped when I was a kid in a mill village so I’m betting it hadn’t stopped 8 years before that. And, as we all know, it’s probably still happening today.

The cold, hard facts are that Congressman Westmoreland will probably survive this latest episode. The 3rd district of Georgia is so heavily Republican that he survived this classic episode with Stephen Colbert. (Note: the 3rd district was previously the 8th district.) Things probably haven’t changed that much in two years.

All the same, I’ll be voting for Stephen Camp. I’ve been to hear him speak and I liked what I heard. He’s articulate, educated and I like his stand on the issues. If you live down here, you might consider voting for him. If you don’t live down here but you’d like to help Mr. Camp -- donate money. Like everybody else, he has a place to do so on his web site and like everyone running for office, he needs money to run a winning campaign.

Don Brown
September 9, 2008