Over the last few weeks, it’s become a big thing among progressives to praise Republican Ron Paul. The reason is Representative Paul’s stand on one issue: Iraq.
However, a candidate for President must deal with more than one issue. So, progressives ought to be careful before praising Ron Paul to the skies just on the basis of his opposition to the continued occupation of Iraq. If they would only take a closer look at Congressman Paul, progressives would recoil at what they discover.
Consider one issue we don’t hear much about with Ron Paul these days: His fear and loathing of African-Americans. The following statements were made by Ron Paul in his newsletter in the 1990s:
“Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the `criminal justice system,’ I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.”
“If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be.”
“We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers.”
“We don’t think a child of 13 should be held responsible as a man of 23. That’s true for most people, but black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such.”
That’s just a sample of Ron Paul’s racist remarks. Do you still think that he’s a great candidate for President?
(Source: Houston Chronicle, May 22, 1996)
About jclifford
A senior writer for Irregular Times. Formerly an antiaquarian speech pathologist.
At worse, Ron Paul lost control of a newsletter that he had lent his name to. You can weigh how bad that is.
But he is certainly not racist. Any careful examination shows that.
The Houston Chronicle alleges that Ron Paul made comments in a 1992 edition of his Ron Paul Survival Report (a newsletter that he had published from 1985) which could be construed as racist, including disparaging remarks about fellow congressperson Barbara Jordan, and that this could help his political opponents.
In a 2001 interview with Texas Monthly magazine, Paul acknowledged that the comments were printed in his newsletter under his name, but explained that they did not represent his views and that they were written by a ghostwriter. He further stated that he felt some moral responsibility for the words that had been attributed to him, despite the fact that they did not represent his way of thinking:
“They were never my words, but I had some moral responsibility for them…I actually really wanted to try to explain that it doesn’t come from me directly, but they [campaign aides] said that’s too confusing. ‘It appeared in your letter and your name was on that letter and therefore you have to live with it.’”
He further stated:
“I could never say this in the campaign, but those words weren’t really written by me. It wasn’t my language at all. Other people help me with my newsletter as I travel around. I think the one on Barbara Jordan was the saddest thing, because Barbara and I served together and actually she was a delightful lady… we wanted to do something on affirmative action, and it ended up in the newsletter and became personalized. I never personalize anything.”
Texas Monthly wrote in 2001, at the time they printed the denial, “What made the statements in the publication even more puzzling was that, in four terms as a U. S. congressman and one presidential race, Paul had never uttered anything remotely like this.” They state that it would have been easier for him to deny the accusations at the time, because the controversy would have destroyed most politicians.
Yet articles like this, with nothing better to do than kick up a hornet’s nest, fail to mention the other half of the story. Hell, you didn’t even mention he DENIED writing them.
It’s a shame when you can find more info on Wiki than “news” sites. What a lamentable state of affairs D:
I think you’ll find that this isn’t a “sample” of Ron Paul’s racist remarks — it’s the sum total of them.
Paul has stated (long before his presidential campaign) that these comments were penned by a staffer while he was traveling.
Given that there have been no similar comments in Paul’s extensive volume of articles, newsletters, and speeches during the past 15 years, I’m inclined to give Paul the benefit of the doubt on this.
Ron Paul is not racist. I think you’re evil for trying to propagate this misinformation and smear a good man.
I still can’t see what people think is racist about those quotes and why they are being used to smear Dr. Paul. Most nowaday know that the criminal justice and education systems are chock full of discrimination and cause a lot of problems within minority communities. That is what I see from those quotes, not bigotry or racism. It would be racist to hate people for certain issues or problems. To acknowledge and try to fix the problems, like RP does, is far from racist.
Wow you guys are really stretching… and really really behind the times. These ‘remarks’ were debunked long ago.
Since as stated in the above posts this isn’t anything near what Ron Paul speaks and writes about I would like to hold you to your closing where you state:
“That’s just a sample of Ron Paul’s racist remarks.”
Since this is the ONLY sample everyone against his campaign seems to be able to come up with, please enlighten us wool headed supporters as to the remainder of the “samples” of racist remarks. A man running for President with such an “obvious” racist mindset must have an entire dictionary of such rasicst comments awaiting our discovery. Please enlighten me!
The comment wool head seems a bit racist to me…his staffer got those opinions from somewhere…why would they write those remarks if they didn’t feel it was his view point…his own son wants the civil rights movement repealed…product of our environments people…they got these ideas about his view point somewhere…
These remarks were debunked long ago. The fact that it keeps getting rehashed makes me think a lot of people don’t do research before arriving at their views. This plays right into the mainstream media’s hands of sound byte journalism (i.e. taking a sound byte and stretching it to fit whatever their agenda is)
I think what I find racist about this particular quote, Frank, “We don’t think a child of 13 should be held responsible as a man of 23. That’s true for most people, but black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such.†is the difference of treatment and assumptions about children. What does Mr Paul think about white children who grow up on the streets, and join gangs? Do they get bigger and scarier? Then, it seems just offensive to say that all young black teenagers in gangs even are so much worse than white offenders that they deserve the separate punitive adult standard, rather than the slightly more rehabilitative, relaxed standard for juvenile offenders. And I think he is implying that black children should somehow be held to the stricter standard of adult crimes because they are more capable of vicious crimes, and because of the tough environment they grow up in are more likely to behave as adult criminals and are apparently more capable than white children of making adult decisions, albeit bad ones.
I think that most child behaviourists and pyschologists would agree that all children raised in very harsh environments have equal chances of becoming criminals, and that it is prison itself that hardens them and over time increases the chance that the crimes will become more violent.
Plus he is lumping all black teenagers in gangs into one big generalized statement, based on their skin color; rather than recognizing that there is a vast difference in individual behaviour, history, circumstances under which they turned to crime, crimes committed, chance of rehabilitation, etc.
I should say, in this quote as attributed to him, he is saying…
For Ron Pauls supporters here, seperate from whether you believe he said these things and if you believe he thinks this way or not; do you think that these remarks are or are not racist? Isnt making assumptions and generalizations about people approaching you on the street simply based on their skin color racist?
Remember back when a politican made a remark that whenever someone was following him on the street, he would look back and if they were black he would get nervious and if they were white he would relax? That politician was Jesse Jackson (the elder). Obviously what makes a remark racist is the race of the person who makes the remark.
It seems like you are being a bit facetious, IH, but you do point out the need to arrive at a common definition of what racism is, and I agree that anyone can be racist; or make too broad of generalizations about people based on their skin color. I don’t remember that particular quote but I see it indicates we are all susceptible to poor thinking.
The statement was made in Iowa back when he was running for president. Perhaps the Rev. Jackson was speaking from experience. Have you ever walked down the street at night over in the Hyde Park area of Chicago where Rainbow/Push has its offices?
Nope, but my recipe for crime is not: Black people. My recipe for crime is: a dense urban population, lots of underemployed and undereducated males between the ages of 14 and 24.
Well, I live in the kind of neighborhood you just described and guess what, it’s not the trailer trash I have to watch out for. It’s the blacks. The Hispanics have their own problems with violence, but it seems to be more contained within the Hispanic community. If someone white attacks someone black it’s all over the national news in a heartbeat. But black on white crime is hushed up and you will never hear about it in the media. Likewise you will never hear about prejudice against whites as an issue, but believe me it does exist. It’s okay to be prejudiced against whites, you see, and target them for crime too, because white people are the Oppressor.
IH
Do you mind if I ask what your definition of racism is, IH?
Well, we’re not really talking about race are we, since the Africans here–of a much darker persuasion–don’t have that “get whitey” thing goin’ on like the African-Americans do. We’re talking about culture now.
The urban definition of racism here is when a white person judges a Black person by the color of their skin without knowing them as an individual. It’s okay for Black people to judge white people by the color of their skin without knowing them as individuals because Black people are Oppressed and white people are Oppressors and icky.
Also you are supposed to capitalize the word “black” but not the word “white”, but I’m not sure about the reason for this. I think that’s what Barack Obama’s Trinity church does–they set the standard for racially correct behaviour.
It is these ridiculous smear jobs that ruin political debates. How about discussing explicit policies instead? Is that really too much to ask for?
It’s not a policy matter, Holly, to have a 13 year-old African-American child charged for a crime as an adult, but to have a 13 year-old European-American child put through the criminal justice system?
Did Ron Paul fire the people responsible for making these remarks in his name? I don’t see any evidence for that.
Ron Paul admits that he is responsible for these remarks made by someone he hired to write things for him under the pretense that Ron Paul wrote them himself.
There are two problems in this incident for Ron Paul. #1: Saying he wrote things he didn’t. #2: The racist remarks show what kind of people Ron Paul associates with.
I actually DO live in Hyde Park and I won’t walk the streets at night. Not because I am afraid of the black men in the neighborhood, but because regardless of race, nighttime is when the rapist and muggers are most active anywhere, not just Hyde Park.
However, I can tell you in the daylight I much prefer my black male neighbors than the white ones. As a white woman, I get a lot more friendly respectful treatment from black men in this neighborhood than the white males. Black men will give a friendly hello to you as you pass them in the street even if they don’t know you. White men wouldn’t give you the time of day. I certainly don’t share Jesse Jackson’s views.
That said, I am probably going to be voting for Ron Paul. I was thinking of voting for my neighborhood Senator Obama but I grew fed up with the racist campaign staff (e.g. the D-Punjab remark) he has surrounded himself with and the intolerance of his supporters. Go to the Obama blog and you will find that if you say something that doesn’t jive exactly with what everyone else agrees on you will be branded a Hillary supporting troll.
Go to the Ron Paul forums and you will find intellignet, healthy and respectful debate on the same topics-with an impressively diverse range of Ron Paul supporters-fundamentalist Christians, lesbians, Spanish-speaking immigrants-you name it, they are there. While Obama talks the talk about grassroots campaigns and unifying the country, it is only among Ron Paul’s supporters that I see people walking the walk.
Noonoo in Arabic is a child’s word meaning peepee–sorry about that if that’s your real name.
I can’t afford to even walk down the street in Hyde Park, the rents are easily twice what they are in my section of Chicago. I DO walk the streets at night every week, and quite late too, as I work late. I have read the police blotter for Hyde Park, as soon as you get far enough west to be in the black section, there are constant daily crimes at those addresses. I wouldn’t walk there at night either, and I would be looking over my shoulder in the daytime.
As a white woman I certainly get friendly–I don’t know about respectful–treatment from black men, and yes they do say hello to me when they don’t know me, even though I am a blond of now indeterminate age…but what about the black women? They snub you, don’t they. That should tell you something.
Jesse Junior is my congressman, I will vote for him again, his father is a fool.
I would not vote for a candidate based on whether their internet forum fulfills my social needs. I want to know their voting record.
The Ron Paul supporters who post here are certainly from another planet.
If the ABSOLUTE worst thing that can be dug up about Ron Paul HAPPENED 15 YEARS AGO, then we should all be thankful. He has never been involved in bribery, dishonesty, or adultery. He is not member of any secret societies, the Council on Foreign Relations, (Obama and Clinton are-look it up), Bilderberg groups or anything else that could be seen as truly devastating to our country.
You have honestly not looked very far if you think that the only leg that Ron Paul has to stand on is his stance on Iraq. He is most popular to the people because he has a proven record of voting constitutionally and wants to protect our civil liberties. How could anyone that has half a brain not want to restore and protect our constitution and bill of rights? What other candidate is there is better than Ron Paul? Have you even looked at the other candidates voting records? Attack the politics not the man, and especially not something that was said 15 years ago. I’m sure that you have said something in the past 15 that you regretted.
The fact is that Ron Paul did not say those things. He is not racist. It’s obvious that there are people that are willing to only tell half of the story in order to demonize a perfect candidate for the Presidency. I think we should look at the things that gives him real credibility, like not being apart of private organizations; secret societies. Then there is no reason to dig for dirt when everything is out in the open.
Is this all you could come up with? If he really means what he says, in terms of his debates on tv, I am voting for him in 08. Nice try with the smearing. I assume you are voting democrat, possibly Hillary.
In 1996, Paul gave an interview to the Houston Chronicle in which he did not disown the comments. Instead, he admitted that he made them. Here’s what the reporter said: “Paul, a Republican obstetrician from Surfside, said Wednesday he opposes racism and that his written commentaries about blacks came in the context of ‘current events and statistical reports of the time.’ ” Your could look it up: http://web.archive.org/web/20070512114222/http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/aol-metropolitan/96/05/23/paul.html
Yes, Ron Paul’s account of what actually explains these racist comments has evolved over time in suspicious ways. It bears considering that he actually might have written them, or approved of them.
Check out the many links of the Ron Paul for President campaign to neo-Nazi white supremacists:
http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2007/11/19/ron-paul-white-power-links/
Let’s face it. We’re all prejudice against a race or some group of people. But making generalizations about blacks being involved in more crime is not racism. It might suggest the question of racism, but saying that these types of comments that Dr. Paul supposedly made in only 1 instance makes him racist, is obviously exaggerating it. The people who are bashing Ron Paul based on this newsletter and maybe some other questionable sources (with no citation or evidence to boot) are obviously either Republican neo-con supporters trying to demerit him and destroy their own party, or liberals who don’t accept their own prejudices and only point fingers at others.
Also, based on Dr. Paul’s record as a congressman, he makes decisions true to his beliefs. Although, even if he is ‘racist’, if he were president he wouldn’t want his personal social beliefs to interfere with states’ decisions on the issues, which is where they were intended, and where they belong – to the states. Instead of talking about something irrelevant to Paul’s political agenda, lets talk about something that is relevant to many candidates.. So, who wants to talk about Hillary’s fraudulent campaign fundraising? Giuliani’s cowardice and flip flopping? Hmmm?
By the way, he’s right about the zionist movement.. Fundamentalists and Israel supporters are lobbying the fed big time to support the Israeli military against any kind of diplomacy.
“The reason is Representative Paul’s stand on one issue: Iraq.”
Actually I’m voting for him mainly because he supports the constitution and my liberty. There is nothing progressive about socialism.
He supports liberty, just like the white supremacist Don Black, who he was standing next to in that picture, smiling for the camera?
I repeat….
Back around May, before all this “white supremacist” BS was popping up, Ron Paul was asked who he would like as Vice President. Ron Paul responded to the effect, “Walter Williams because he is a good economist.”
Guess what? Walter Williams is a black guy.
Ron Paul believes in individual liberty. Ron Paul believes that racism is an ugly form of collectivism. Collectivism such as the brand that Jesse Jackson and the KKK equally represents.
So what if Ron Paul took a picture with a white supremacist? In Ron Paul rally’s hundreds, if not thousands of people, line up to get a picture with him. Do you think he asks people their life story?
You show me one picture of Ron Paul with a white supremacist and I will show you 10 more pictures of Ron Paul with a minority. Enough of the BS arguments, it only makes this blog look foolish. Have some dignity and try to search for the truth instead of grasping at straws with cheap rumors.
“Do you think he asks people their life story?”
Actually, Ron Paul does know Don Black’s life story. He took 500 dollars from Don Black, and has acknowledged to the press that he knows that Don Black is a white supremacist leader. And he refuses to return the money.
What will it take for you to stop defending this earmark-spending libertarian?
Hurricane Ike…
where’s ron paul?
Oh, right, that’s Texas’ problem. No place for federal government.
hmmmm
A regular article promoting hate and degrading anyone the author does not like. Racist? This is laughable and proves anyone with a computer can promote their agenda. Poor guy, Don’t forget to take your medication.