Rick Perry's "Big Black Cloud" Comment, And The Problem With Mangled Racist Soundbytes.

Few people would deny that even in post-racial America, this country still has issues with race. This issue persists in all areas of American life, so it's no surprise it pops up in political campaigns. The GOP routinely uses an "Us vs Them" tactic to scare rural whites into supporting them. The Democratic party often plays the "white guilt" card to scare whites into not wanting to be associated with the GOP, and thus vote Democratic.

We saw a million and one variations of this tune back in 2008, both during the Democratic primaries and in the run up to the general election. The rise of The Tea Party and such numbskulls as Donald Trump and Newt Gingrich only kept the ball rolling. And inevitably, as the 2012 race heats up, we'll see more.

This incident, however, doesn't fit the bill. Sorry.

Barely days into his official presidential campaign, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been a gusher of controversial quotes, calling President Obama’s patriotism into question, making vaguely threatening statements about Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, and now, making what some see as a blatant reference to President Obama’s race by saying that “a big black cloud” is hanging over the country. AURN White House Correspondent April Ryan, for one, wasn’t shy about calling Perry out.

ABC News’ Michael Falcone and Arlette Saenz report that Perry made the remark at the Iowa State Fair on Monday, while delivering remarks at the Des Moines Register Soapbox:

“He says he’s on a listening tour,” Perry said, “so I’m going to talk to him.”

“Mr. President, you need to free up the employers of this country to create jobs.” Perry called on Obama to “free up this country” from “stifling regulation.”

“I’m a pro-business governor, I don’t make any apologies about it and I will be a pro-business president.”

Perry warned that a “big black cloud” hangs over the country.

The quote has been held up as a not-so-veiled reference to the President’s race.

The Mediaite story goes on to quote a handful of black bloggers and journalists who happily took the bait without hearing the "black cloud" comment in its full context and ran with it. I'm not going to mention those bloggers by name, I'm actually so embarrassed for this folks that I'd rather not do them the disservice. Go over to the link to read them yourself, but come on fam, let's be a little less sloppy with the charges of racism here. It sorta defeats the overall purpose.

Ya'll know how much it kills me to use anything associated with Andrew Breitbart to prove a point, but if you listen to the full context, it's clear Perry isn't talking about Obama specifically, just the debt/deficit that he (unfairly) associates the President with racking up.



Look, there are more than enough perfectly valid reasons to think Governor GoodHair would be a terrible choice for President. He's a little too anti-gubb'ment to be leading the country (ok, a LOT anti-gubb'ment). He deliberately distorts his "job creation record" in the state of Texas. And he used the very Stimulus dollars he publicly mocked to make his state's deficit situation appear far healthier than it actually is. An examination of any of those things would make perfect sense. I mean, damn, it's easier than shooting fish in a barrel, or however than cliche goes, if you just do a quick Google search. Sheesh.

Pulling a reverse Shirley Sherrod to discredit a guy when his own track record is sufficient enough is just plain lazy though. Seriously, black folks. Come the *uck on.

Do better.

Please.

And on that note, I'll take a dose of my own medicine and commit to not running these sorts of trivial asses stories about official 2012 candidates here either. I've obviously wallowed in this same sort of drivel in the past. It's easy work, and usually results in a flurry of comments, which is blogger gold. But these sideshows seldom educate readers about the more pertinent issues (ie: a candidate's actual record/platform). It's all empty calories.

So I, for one, am committing to weaning myself off these types of stories for this campaign cycle and I'm hoping my fellow ObamaBots black bloggers will too. I'm sure I'll occasionally fall off the wagon. Feel free to correct me by pointing to this very post when I inevitably do.

Question: Was Perry's comment racist, or was the "black cloud" statement merely misconstrued? What are the dangers of incorrectly identifying something as racist when it actually isn't?