Mea Maxima Culpa
I screwed up, and I had absolutely no excuse for doing so.
The other day I posted on the McCain campaign's continued smear of Obama because of his relationship with William Ayers, a member of the 1960's Weathermen. In that post, I referred to Mr. Ayers as "a scary black man." As my canny commenters pointed out at the end of the post and as Avedon pointed out in her post at The Sideshow, Mr. Ayers is not black man. He is a white man.
While Avedon was gracious enough to posit several possible reasons for this egregious fuck-up, the fact, none of them apply. I was a young adult during the '60s and fancied myself a liberal, marching for civil rights and against war and the military-industrial complex. While I wasn't radical enough to support such organizations, I knew about the SDS and Weather Underground and knew that Weathermen were primarily white and well-educated. And while I don't watch television now, and haven't for the last two or three years, I did back then.
The fact is, I was in a hurry and made a (yes) sloppy error, one that is all the more embarrassing because I have taken great delight in pointing our such errors in the mainstream press whenever I can. That error came out pretty quickly (see the comments at the end of the post, all of them directly on point and far more gentle than I deserved). That's one of the benefits of this interactive medium. Of course, one of the other benefits is access to tools which, had I used them, would have made it clear that Mr. Ayers was white. Google is indeed our friend, as is You Tube and a host of other fact-checking devices.
So, like I said, I screwed up, and for that I apologize.
The other day I posted on the McCain campaign's continued smear of Obama because of his relationship with William Ayers, a member of the 1960's Weathermen. In that post, I referred to Mr. Ayers as "a scary black man." As my canny commenters pointed out at the end of the post and as Avedon pointed out in her post at The Sideshow, Mr. Ayers is not black man. He is a white man.
While Avedon was gracious enough to posit several possible reasons for this egregious fuck-up, the fact, none of them apply. I was a young adult during the '60s and fancied myself a liberal, marching for civil rights and against war and the military-industrial complex. While I wasn't radical enough to support such organizations, I knew about the SDS and Weather Underground and knew that Weathermen were primarily white and well-educated. And while I don't watch television now, and haven't for the last two or three years, I did back then.
The fact is, I was in a hurry and made a (yes) sloppy error, one that is all the more embarrassing because I have taken great delight in pointing our such errors in the mainstream press whenever I can. That error came out pretty quickly (see the comments at the end of the post, all of them directly on point and far more gentle than I deserved). That's one of the benefits of this interactive medium. Of course, one of the other benefits is access to tools which, had I used them, would have made it clear that Mr. Ayers was white. Google is indeed our friend, as is You Tube and a host of other fact-checking devices.
So, like I said, I screwed up, and for that I apologize.
posted by Diane at 3:43 AM
5 Comments:
Diane, thanx for your mea culpa but don't beat yourself, instead I think you inadvertently revealed a 'hidden' portion of the smear attack - we're supposed to think William Ayres is a scary black man.
I would be interested to know what the 'average' McCain supporter believes as far as Mr. Ayres' skin color.
On average we make about 10 mistakes a day, if we are careful. So you had a bad day and made 11. The sky shows no sign of falling.
Keep up the great work.
I think the "hidden" portion is the tendency to see every attack on Obama as racially motivated. It would be useful to remember that he is the Democratic nominee and Republicans do tend to attack the Democratic nominee, regardless of the level of melanin in his skin. There is enough stupidity in the attacks which can be responded to without resorting to playing mind-games with ourselves about what we are supposed to see.
Also, this electronic medium is all too fast and easy. I'm not the only commenter who has realized soon after clicking the mouse that I have said something inaccurate or dumb.
**hugs**
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