nytimes.com — Forum sells 'Obama Waffles' with racial stereotype- WASHINGTON (AP) -- A conservative political forum on Saturday sold boxes of waffle mix depicting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a racial stereotype on its front and wearing Arab-like headdress on its top flap.
Sep 13, 2008 View in Crawl 4
haecceitySep 14, 2008
I was about to ask which part of "wearing Arab-like headdress on its top flap" did you not understand. It's right there in the description of the article.
kas70Sep 14, 2008
Why do you consider it "weird"? Obama's perception of himself has much to do with how he is perceived and treated. He has been seen and treated as a black man for his whole life, his percentages don't matter in that case. Maybe the question you ought to ask is why we don't refer to people who are mixed (black/white) as 'dark-skinned whites"? I'd be interested in anyone's answer to that...
erikerikerikSep 15, 2008
well... how else would you discribe a typical white grandma?"that old lady of different color of my own who reared me" THAT would go over really well.
rotundoSep 15, 2008
@SakisRakis - I spent some time in South Africa, and I can say that did not seem to be the case. Though mixed race people were uncommon, I didn't get the sense that they were considered "white". In any case, the Zulus I met were relatively accepting of all races, compared to the whites I met. Of course other areas may be different.
oldgalSep 19, 2008
I live North of San Francisco and worked for many years in San Francisco and never heard the N word. When I lived in Oakland I only heard it from some Texans who were visiting - I am sure we didn't change their beliefs, but at least their behavior improved significantly.
americanb4blackSep 19, 2008
Blacks "are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both of body and mind."--Thomas Jefferson, 1787Co-founder of the Democratic Party (along with Andrew Jackson)President, 1801-09"I hold that the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good--a positive good."--Sen. John C. Calhoun (D., S.C.), 1837Vice President, 1825-32His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol.If blacks were given the right to vote, that would "place every splay-footed, bandy-shanked, hump-backed, thick-lipped, flat-nosed, woolly-headed, ebon-colored Negro in the country upon an equality with the poor white man."--Rep. Andrew Johnson, (D., Tenn.), 1844President, 1865-69"Resolved, That the Democratic Party will resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1852Blacks are "a subordinate and inferior class of beings who had been subjugated by the dominant race."--Chief Justice Roger Taney, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1856Appointed Attorney General by Andrew Jackson in 1831Appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Andrew Jackson in 1833Appointed to the Supreme Court by Andrew Jackson in 1836"Resolved, That claiming fellowship with, and desiring the co-operation of all who regard the preservation of the Union under the Constitution as the paramount issue--and repudiating all sectional parties and platforms concerning domestic slavery, which seek to embroil the States and incite to treason and armed resistance to law in the Territories; and whose avowed purposes, if consummated, must end in civil war and disunion, the American Democracy recognize and adopt the principles contained in the organic laws establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the 'slavery question' upon which the great national idea of the people of this whole country can repose in its determined conservatism of the Union--NON-INTERFERENCE BY CONGRESS WITH SLAVERY IN STATE AND TERRITORY, OR IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA" (emphasis in original).--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1856"I hold that a Negro is not and never ought to be a citizen of the United States. I hold that this government was made on the white basis; made by the white men, for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and should be administered by white men and none others."--Sen. Stephen A. Douglas (D., Ill.), 1858Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, 1860"Resolved, That the enactments of the State Legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1860"The Almighty has fixed the distinction of the races; the Almighty has made the black man inferior, and, sir, by no legislation, by no military power, can you wipe out this distinction."--Rep. Fernando Wood (D., N.Y.), 1865Mayor of New York City, 1855-58, 1860-62"My fellow citizens, I have said that the contest before us was one for the restoration of our government; it is also one for the restoration of our race. It is to prevent the people of our race from being exiled from their homes--exiled from the government which they formed and created for themselves and for their children, and to prevent them from being driven out of the country or trodden under foot by an inferior and barbarous race."--Francis P. Blair Jr., accepting the Democratic nomination for Vice President, 1868Democratic Senator from Missouri, 1869-72His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol."Instead of restoring the Union, it [the Republican Party] has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten states, in time of profound peace, to military despotism and Negro supremacy."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1868"While the tendency of the white race is upward, the tendency of the colored race is downward."--Sen. Thomas Hendricks (D., Ind.), 1869Democratic nominee for Vice President, 1876Vice President, 1885"We, the delegates of the Democratic party of the United States . . . demand such modification of the treaty with the Chinese Empire, or such legislation within constitutional limitations, as shall prevent further importation or immigration of the Mongolian race."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1876"No more Chinese immigration, except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and that even carefully guarded."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1880"American civilization demands that against the immigration or importation of Mongolians to these shores our gates be closed."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1884"We favor the continuance and strict enforcement of the Chinese exclusion law, and its application to the same classes of all Asiatic races."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1900"The repeal of the fifteenth amendment, one of the greatest blunders and therefore one of the greatest crimes in political history, is a consummation to be devoutly wished for."--Rep. John Sharpe Williams (D., Miss.), 1903House Minority Leader, 1903-08"Republicanism means Negro equality, while the Democratic Party means that the white man is supreme. That is why we Southerners are all Democrats."--Sen. Ben Tillman (D., S.C.), 1906Chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs, 1913-19"We are opposed to the admission of Asiatic immigrants who can not be amalgamated with our population, or whose presence among us would raise a race issue and involve us in diplomatic controversies with Oriental powers."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1908"I am opposed to the practice of having colored policemen in the District [of Columbia]. It is a source of danger by constantly engendering racial friction, and is offensive to thousands of Southern white people who make their homes here."--Sen. Hoke Smith (D., Ga.), 1912Appointed Secretary of the Interior by Grover Cleveland in 1893"The South is serious with regard to its attitude to the Negro in politics. The South understands this subject, and its policy is unalterable and uncompromising. We desire no concessions. We seek no sops. We grasp no shadows on this subject. We take no risks. We abhor a Northern policy of catering to the Negro in politics just as we abhor a Northern policy of social equality."--Josephus Daniels, editor, Raleigh News & Observer, 1912Appointed Secretary of the Navy by Woodrow Wilson in 1913Appointed Ambassador to Mexico by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933USS Josephus Daniels named for him by the Johnson Administration in 1965"The Negro as a race, in all the ages of the world, has never shown sustained power of self-development. He is not endowed with the creative faculty. . . . He has never created for himself any civilization. . . . He has never had any civilization except that which has been inculcated by a superior race. And it is a lamentable fact that his civilization lasts only so long as he is in the hands of the white man who inculcates it. When left to himself he has universally gone back to the barbarism of the jungle."--Sen. James Vardaman (D., Miss.), 1914Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources, 1913-19"This is a white man's country, and will always remain a white man's country."--Rep. James F. Byrnes (D., S.C.), 1919Appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941Appointed Secretary of State by Harry S. Truman in 1945"Slavery among the whites was an improvement over independence in Africa. The very progress that the blacks have made, when--and only when--brought into contact with the whites, ought to be a sufficient argument in support of white supremacy--it ought to be sufficient to convince even the blacks themselves."--William Jennings Bryan, 1923Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, 1896, 1900 and 1908Appointed Secretary of State by Woodrow Wilson in 1913His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol."Anyone who has traveled to the Far East knows that the mingling of Asiatic blood with European or American blood produces, in nine cases out of ten, the most unfortunate results. . . . The argument works both ways. I know a great many cultivated, highly educated and delightful Japanese. They have all told me that they would feel the same repugnance and objection to have thousands of Americans settle in Japan and intermarry with the Japanese as I would feel in having large numbers of Japanese coming over here and intermarry with the American population. In this question, then, of Japanese exclusion from the United States it is necessary only to advance the true reason--the undesirability of mixing the blood of the two peoples. . . . The Japanese people and the American people are both opposed to intermarriage of the two races--there can be no quarrel there."--Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1925President, 1933-45"This passport which you have given me is a symbol to me of the passport which you have given me before. I do not feel that it would be out of place to state to you here on this occasion that I know that without the support of the members of this organization I would not have been called, even by my enemies, the 'Junior Senator from Alabama.' "--Hugo Black, accepting a life membership in the Ku Klux Klan upon his election to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Alabama, 1926Appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937"Mr. President, the crime of lynching . . . is not of sufficient importance to justify this legislation."--Sen. Claude Pepper (D., Fla.), 1938Spoken while engaged in a six-hour speech against the antilynching bill"I am a former Kleagle [recruiter] of the Ku Klux Klan in Raleigh County. . . . The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia. It is necessary that the order be promoted immediately and in every state in the union."--Robert C. Byrd, 1946Democratic Senator from West Virginia, 1959-presentSenate Majority Leader, 1977-80 and 1987-88Senate President Pro Tempore, 1989-95, 2001-03, 2007-presentHis portrait stands in the U.S. Capitol.President Truman's civil rights program "is a farce and a sham--an effort to set up a police state in the guise of liberty. I am opposed to that program. I have voted against the so-called poll tax repeal bill. . .. I have voted against the so-called anti-lynching bill."--Rep. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), 1948U.S. Senator, 1949-61Senate Majority Leader, 1955-61President, 1963-69"There is no warrant for the curious notion that Christianity favors the involuntary commingling of the races in social institutions. Although He knew both Jews and Samaritans and the relations existing between them, Christ did not advocate that courts or legislative bodies should compel them to mix socially against their will."--Sen. Sam Ervin (D., N.C.), 1955Chairman, Committee on Government Operations, 1971-75"The decline and fall of the Roman empire came after years of intermarriage with other races. Spain was toppled as a world power as a result of the amalgamation of the races. . . . Certainly history shows that nations composed of a mongrel race lose their strength and become weak, lazy and indifferent."--Herman E. Talmadge, 1955Democratic Senator from Georgia, 1957-81Chairman, Committee on Agriculture, 1971-81"These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again."--Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), 1957"I have never seen very many white people who felt they were being imposed upon or being subjected to any second-class citizenship if they were directed to a waiting room or to any other public facility to wait or to eat with other white people. Only the Negroes, of all the races which are in this land, publicly proclaim they are being mistreated, imposed upon, and declared second-class citizens because they must go to public facilities with members of their own race."--Sen. Richard B. Russell Jr. (D., Ga.), 1961The Russell Senate Office Building is named for him."I did not lie awake at night worrying about the problems of Negroes."--Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, 1961Kennedy later authorized wiretapping the phones and bugging the hotel rooms of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."I'm not going to use the federal government's authority deliberately to circumvent the natural inclination of people to live in ethnically homogeneous neighborhoods. . . . I have nothing against a community that's made up of people who are Polish or Czechoslovakian or French-Canadian or blacks who are trying to maintain the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods."--Jimmy Carter, 1976President, 1977-81
americanb4blackSep 19, 2008
Blacks "are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both of body and mind."--Thomas Jefferson, 1787Co-founder of the Democratic Party (along with Andrew Jackson)President, 1801-09"I hold that the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good--a positive good."--Sen. John C. Calhoun (D., S.C.), 1837Vice President, 1825-32His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol.If blacks were given the right to vote, that would "place every splay-footed, bandy-shanked, hump-backed, thick-lipped, flat-nosed, woolly-headed, ebon-colored Negro in the country upon an equality with the poor white man."--Rep. Andrew Johnson, (D., Tenn.), 1844President, 1865-69"Resolved, That the Democratic Party will resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1852Blacks are "a subordinate and inferior class of beings who had been subjugated by the dominant race."--Chief Justice Roger Taney, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1856Appointed Attorney General by Andrew Jackson in 1831Appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Andrew Jackson in 1833Appointed to the Supreme Court by Andrew Jackson in 1836"Resolved, That claiming fellowship with, and desiring the co-operation of all who regard the preservation of the Union under the Constitution as the paramount issue--and repudiating all sectional parties and platforms concerning domestic slavery, which seek to embroil the States and incite to treason and armed resistance to law in the Territories; and whose avowed purposes, if consummated, must end in civil war and disunion, the American Democracy recognize and adopt the principles contained in the organic laws establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the 'slavery question' upon which the great national idea of the people of this whole country can repose in its determined conservatism of the Union--NON-INTERFERENCE BY CONGRESS WITH SLAVERY IN STATE AND TERRITORY, OR IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA" (emphasis in original).--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1856"I hold that a Negro is not and never ought to be a citizen of the United States. I hold that this government was made on the white basis; made by the white men, for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and should be administered by white men and none others."--Sen. Stephen A. Douglas (D., Ill.), 1858Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, 1860"Resolved, That the enactments of the State Legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1860"The Almighty has fixed the distinction of the races; the Almighty has made the black man inferior, and, sir, by no legislation, by no military power, can you wipe out this distinction."--Rep. Fernando Wood (D., N.Y.), 1865Mayor of New York City, 1855-58, 1860-62"My fellow citizens, I have said that the contest before us was one for the restoration of our government; it is also one for the restoration of our race. It is to prevent the people of our race from being exiled from their homes--exiled from the government which they formed and created for themselves and for their children, and to prevent them from being driven out of the country or trodden under foot by an inferior and barbarous race."--Francis P. Blair Jr., accepting the Democratic nomination for Vice President, 1868Democratic Senator from Missouri, 1869-72His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol."Instead of restoring the Union, it [the Republican Party] has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten states, in time of profound peace, to military despotism and Negro supremacy."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1868"While the tendency of the white race is upward, the tendency of the colored race is downward."--Sen. Thomas Hendricks (D., Ind.), 1869Democratic nominee for Vice President, 1876Vice President, 1885"We, the delegates of the Democratic party of the United States . . . demand such modification of the treaty with the Chinese Empire, or such legislation within constitutional limitations, as shall prevent further importation or immigration of the Mongolian race."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1876"No more Chinese immigration, except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and that even carefully guarded."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1880"American civilization demands that against the immigration or importation of Mongolians to these shores our gates be closed."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1884"We favor the continuance and strict enforcement of the Chinese exclusion law, and its application to the same classes of all Asiatic races."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1900"The repeal of the fifteenth amendment, one of the greatest blunders and therefore one of the greatest crimes in political history, is a consummation to be devoutly wished for."--Rep. John Sharpe Williams (D., Miss.), 1903House Minority Leader, 1903-08"Republicanism means Negro equality, while the Democratic Party means that the white man is supreme. That is why we Southerners are all Democrats."--Sen. Ben Tillman (D., S.C.), 1906Chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs, 1913-19"We are opposed to the admission of Asiatic immigrants who can not be amalgamated with our population, or whose presence among us would raise a race issue and involve us in diplomatic controversies with Oriental powers."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1908"I am opposed to the practice of having colored policemen in the District [of Columbia]. It is a source of danger by constantly engendering racial friction, and is offensive to thousands of Southern white people who make their homes here."--Sen. Hoke Smith (D., Ga.), 1912Appointed Secretary of the Interior by Grover Cleveland in 1893"The South is serious with regard to its attitude to the Negro in politics. The South understands this subject, and its policy is unalterable and uncompromising. We desire no concessions. We seek no sops. We grasp no shadows on this subject. We take no risks. We abhor a Northern policy of catering to the Negro in politics just as we abhor a Northern policy of social equality."--Josephus Daniels, editor, Raleigh News & Observer, 1912Appointed Secretary of the Navy by Woodrow Wilson in 1913Appointed Ambassador to Mexico by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933USS Josephus Daniels named for him by the Johnson Administration in 1965"The Negro as a race, in all the ages of the world, has never shown sustained power of self-development. He is not endowed with the creative faculty. . . . He has never created for himself any civilization. . . . He has never had any civilization except that which has been inculcated by a superior race. And it is a lamentable fact that his civilization lasts only so long as he is in the hands of the white man who inculcates it. When left to himself he has universally gone back to the barbarism of the jungle."--Sen. James Vardaman (D., Miss.), 1914Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources, 1913-19"This is a white man's country, and will always remain a white man's country."--Rep. James F. Byrnes (D., S.C.), 1919Appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941Appointed Secretary of State by Harry S. Truman in 1945"Slavery among the whites was an improvement over independence in Africa. The very progress that the blacks have made, when--and only when--brought into contact with the whites, ought to be a sufficient argument in support of white supremacy--it ought to be sufficient to convince even the blacks themselves."--William Jennings Bryan, 1923Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, 1896, 1900 and 1908Appointed Secretary of State by Woodrow Wilson in 1913His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol."Anyone who has traveled to the Far East knows that the mingling of Asiatic blood with European or American blood produces, in nine cases out of ten, the most unfortunate results. . . . The argument works both ways. I know a great many cultivated, highly educated and delightful Japanese. They have all told me that they would feel the same repugnance and objection to have thousands of Americans settle in Japan and intermarry with the Japanese as I would feel in having large numbers of Japanese coming over here and intermarry with the American population. In this question, then, of Japanese exclusion from the United States it is necessary only to advance the true reason--the undesirability of mixing the blood of the two peoples. . . . The Japanese people and the American people are both opposed to intermarriage of the two races--there can be no quarrel there."--Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1925President, 1933-45"This passport which you have given me is a symbol to me of the passport which you have given me before. I do not feel that it would be out of place to state to you here on this occasion that I know that without the support of the members of this organization I would not have been called, even by my enemies, the 'Junior Senator from Alabama.' "--Hugo Black, accepting a life membership in the Ku Klux Klan upon his election to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Alabama, 1926Appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937"Mr. President, the crime of lynching . . . is not of sufficient importance to justify this legislation."--Sen. Claude Pepper (D., Fla.), 1938Spoken while engaged in a six-hour speech against the antilynching bill"I am a former Kleagle [recruiter] of the Ku Klux Klan in Raleigh County. . . . The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia. It is necessary that the order be promoted immediately and in every state in the union."--Robert C. Byrd, 1946Democratic Senator from West Virginia, 1959-presentSenate Majority Leader, 1977-80 and 1987-88Senate President Pro Tempore, 1989-95, 2001-03, 2007-presentHis portrait stands in the U.S. Capitol.President Truman's civil rights program "is a farce and a sham--an effort to set up a police state in the guise of liberty. I am opposed to that program. I have voted against the so-called poll tax repeal bill. . .. I have voted against the so-called anti-lynching bill."--Rep. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), 1948U.S. Senator, 1949-61Senate Majority Leader, 1955-61President, 1963-69"There is no warrant for the curious notion that Christianity favors the involuntary commingling of the races in social institutions. Although He knew both Jews and Samaritans and the relations existing between them, Christ did not advocate that courts or legislative bodies should compel them to mix socially against their will."--Sen. Sam Ervin (D., N.C.), 1955Chairman, Committee on Government Operations, 1971-75"The decline and fall of the Roman empire came after years of intermarriage with other races. Spain was toppled as a world power as a result of the amalgamation of the races. . . . Certainly history shows that nations composed of a mongrel race lose their strength and become weak, lazy and indifferent."--Herman E. Talmadge, 1955Democratic Senator from Georgia, 1957-81Chairman, Committee on Agriculture, 1971-81"These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again."--Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), 1957"I have never seen very many white people who felt they were being imposed upon or being subjected to any second-class citizenship if they were directed to a waiting room or to any other public facility to wait or to eat with other white people. Only the Negroes, of all the races which are in this land, publicly proclaim they are being mistreated, imposed upon, and declared second-class citizens because they must go to public facilities with members of their own race."--Sen. Richard B. Russell Jr. (D., Ga.), 1961The Russell Senate Office Building is named for him."I did not lie awake at night worrying about the problems of Negroes."--Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, 1961Kennedy later authorized wiretapping the phones and bugging the hotel rooms of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."I'm not going to use the federal government's authority deliberately to circumvent the natural inclination of people to live in ethnically homogeneous neighborhoods. . . . I have nothing against a community that's made up of people who are Polish or Czechoslovakian or French-Canadian or blacks who are trying to maintain the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods."--Jimmy Carter, 1976President, 1977-81
americanb4blackSep 19, 2008
Blacks "are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both of body and mind."--Thomas Jefferson, 1787Co-founder of the Democratic Party (along with Andrew Jackson)President, 1801-09"I hold that the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good--a positive good."--Sen. John C. Calhoun (D., S.C.), 1837Vice President, 1825-32His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol.If blacks were given the right to vote, that would "place every splay-footed, bandy-shanked, hump-backed, thick-lipped, flat-nosed, woolly-headed, ebon-colored Negro in the country upon an equality with the poor white man."--Rep. Andrew Johnson, (D., Tenn.), 1844President, 1865-69"Resolved, That the Democratic Party will resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1852Blacks are "a subordinate and inferior class of beings who had been subjugated by the dominant race."--Chief Justice Roger Taney, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1856Appointed Attorney General by Andrew Jackson in 1831Appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Andrew Jackson in 1833Appointed to the Supreme Court by Andrew Jackson in 1836"Resolved, That claiming fellowship with, and desiring the co-operation of all who regard the preservation of the Union under the Constitution as the paramount issue--and repudiating all sectional parties and platforms concerning domestic slavery, which seek to embroil the States and incite to treason and armed resistance to law in the Territories; and whose avowed purposes, if consummated, must end in civil war and disunion, the American Democracy recognize and adopt the principles contained in the organic laws establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the 'slavery question' upon which the great national idea of the people of this whole country can repose in its determined conservatism of the Union--NON-INTERFERENCE BY CONGRESS WITH SLAVERY IN STATE AND TERRITORY, OR IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA" (emphasis in original).--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1856"I hold that a Negro is not and never ought to be a citizen of the United States. I hold that this government was made on the white basis; made by the white men, for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and should be administered by white men and none others."--Sen. Stephen A. Douglas (D., Ill.), 1858Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, 1860"Resolved, That the enactments of the State Legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1860"The Almighty has fixed the distinction of the races; the Almighty has made the black man inferior, and, sir, by no legislation, by no military power, can you wipe out this distinction."--Rep. Fernando Wood (D., N.Y.), 1865Mayor of New York City, 1855-58, 1860-62"My fellow citizens, I have said that the contest before us was one for the restoration of our government; it is also one for the restoration of our race. It is to prevent the people of our race from being exiled from their homes--exiled from the government which they formed and created for themselves and for their children, and to prevent them from being driven out of the country or trodden under foot by an inferior and barbarous race."--Francis P. Blair Jr., accepting the Democratic nomination for Vice President, 1868Democratic Senator from Missouri, 1869-72His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol."Instead of restoring the Union, it [the Republican Party] has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten states, in time of profound peace, to military despotism and Negro supremacy."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1868"While the tendency of the white race is upward, the tendency of the colored race is downward."--Sen. Thomas Hendricks (D., Ind.), 1869Democratic nominee for Vice President, 1876Vice President, 1885"We, the delegates of the Democratic party of the United States . . . demand such modification of the treaty with the Chinese Empire, or such legislation within constitutional limitations, as shall prevent further importation or immigration of the Mongolian race."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1876"No more Chinese immigration, except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and that even carefully guarded."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1880"American civilization demands that against the immigration or importation of Mongolians to these shores our gates be closed."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1884"We favor the continuance and strict enforcement of the Chinese exclusion law, and its application to the same classes of all Asiatic races."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1900"The repeal of the fifteenth amendment, one of the greatest blunders and therefore one of the greatest crimes in political history, is a consummation to be devoutly wished for."--Rep. John Sharpe Williams (D., Miss.), 1903House Minority Leader, 1903-08"Republicanism means Negro equality, while the Democratic Party means that the white man is supreme. That is why we Southerners are all Democrats."--Sen. Ben Tillman (D., S.C.), 1906Chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs, 1913-19"We are opposed to the admission of Asiatic immigrants who can not be amalgamated with our population, or whose presence among us would raise a race issue and involve us in diplomatic controversies with Oriental powers."--Platform of the Democratic Party, 1908"I am opposed to the practice of having colored policemen in the District [of Columbia]. It is a source of danger by constantly engendering racial friction, and is offensive to thousands of Southern white people who make their homes here."--Sen. Hoke Smith (D., Ga.), 1912Appointed Secretary of the Interior by Grover Cleveland in 1893"The South is serious with regard to its attitude to the Negro in politics. The South understands this subject, and its policy is unalterable and uncompromising. We desire no concessions. We seek no sops. We grasp no shadows on this subject. We take no risks. We abhor a Northern policy of catering to the Negro in politics just as we abhor a Northern policy of social equality."--Josephus Daniels, editor, Raleigh News & Observer, 1912Appointed Secretary of the Navy by Woodrow Wilson in 1913Appointed Ambassador to Mexico by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933USS Josephus Daniels named for him by the Johnson Administration in 1965"The Negro as a race, in all the ages of the world, has never shown sustained power of self-development. He is not endowed with the creative faculty. . . . He has never created for himself any civilization. . . . He has never had any civilization except that which has been inculcated by a superior race. And it is a lamentable fact that his civilization lasts only so long as he is in the hands of the white man who inculcates it. When left to himself he has universally gone back to the barbarism of the jungle."--Sen. James Vardaman (D., Miss.), 1914Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources, 1913-19"This is a white man's country, and will always remain a white man's country."--Rep. James F. Byrnes (D., S.C.), 1919Appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941Appointed Secretary of State by Harry S. Truman in 1945"Slavery among the whites was an improvement over independence in Africa. The very progress that the blacks have made, when--and only when--brought into contact with the whites, ought to be a sufficient argument in support of white supremacy--it ought to be sufficient to convince even the blacks themselves."--William Jennings Bryan, 1923Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, 1896, 1900 and 1908Appointed Secretary of State by Woodrow Wilson in 1913His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol."Anyone who has traveled to the Far East knows that the mingling of Asiatic blood with European or American blood produces, in nine cases out of ten, the most unfortunate results. . . . The argument works both ways. I know a great many cultivated, highly educated and delightful Japanese. They have all told me that they would feel the same repugnance and objection to have thousands of Americans settle in Japan and intermarry with the Japanese as I would feel in having large numbers of Japanese coming over here and intermarry with the American population. In this question, then, of Japanese exclusion from the United States it is necessary only to advance the true reason--the undesirability of mixing the blood of the two peoples. . . . The Japanese people and the American people are both opposed to intermarriage of the two races--there can be no quarrel there."--Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1925President, 1933-45"This passport which you have given me is a symbol to me of the passport which you have given me before. I do not feel that it would be out of place to state to you here on this occasion that I know that without the support of the members of this organization I would not have been called, even by my enemies, the 'Junior Senator from Alabama.' "--Hugo Black, accepting a life membership in the Ku Klux Klan upon his election to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Alabama, 1926Appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937"Mr. President, the crime of lynching . . . is not of sufficient importance to justify this legislation."--Sen. Claude Pepper (D., Fla.), 1938Spoken while engaged in a six-hour speech against the antilynching bill"I am a former Kleagle [recruiter] of the Ku Klux Klan in Raleigh County. . . . The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia. It is necessary that the order be promoted immediately and in every state in the union."--Robert C. Byrd, 1946Democratic Senator from West Virginia, 1959-presentSenate Majority Leader, 1977-80 and 1987-88Senate President Pro Tempore, 1989-95, 2001-03, 2007-presentHis portrait stands in the U.S. Capitol.President Truman's civil rights program "is a farce and a sham--an effort to set up a police state in the guise of liberty. I am opposed to that program. I have voted against the so-called poll tax repeal bill. . .. I have voted against the so-called anti-lynching bill."--Rep. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), 1948U.S. Senator, 1949-61Senate Majority Leader, 1955-61President, 1963-69"There is no warrant for the curious notion that Christianity favors the involuntary commingling of the races in social institutions. Although He knew both Jews and Samaritans and the relations existing between them, Christ did not advocate that courts or legislative bodies should compel them to mix socially against their will."--Sen. Sam Ervin (D., N.C.), 1955Chairman, Committee on Government Operations, 1971-75"The decline and fall of the Roman empire came after years of intermarriage with other races. Spain was toppled as a world power as a result of the amalgamation of the races. . . . Certainly history shows that nations composed of a mongrel race lose their strength and become weak, lazy and indifferent."--Herman E. Talmadge, 1955Democratic Senator from Georgia, 1957-81Chairman, Committee on Agriculture, 1971-81"These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again."--Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), 1957"I have never seen very many white people who felt they were being imposed upon or being subjected to any second-class citizenship if they were directed to a waiting room or to any other public facility to wait or to eat with other white people. Only the Negroes, of all the races which are in this land, publicly proclaim they are being mistreated, imposed upon, and declared second-class citizens because they must go to public facilities with members of their own race."--Sen. Richard B. Russell Jr. (D., Ga.), 1961The Russell Senate Office Building is named for him."I did not lie awake at night worrying about the problems of Negroes."--Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, 1961Kennedy later authorized wiretapping the phones and bugging the hotel rooms of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."I'm not going to use the federal government's authority deliberately to circumvent the natural inclination of people to live in ethnically homogeneous neighborhoods. . . . I have nothing against a community that's made up of people who are Polish or Czechoslovakian or French-Canadian or blacks who are trying to maintain the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods."--Jimmy Carter, 1976President, 1977-81