Spartan Ethic Redux, Take Two

In case you haven't encountered it yet, there's an unpleasant graphic that was emailed around from a staffperson to the Tennessee GOP chair / state senator for Gallatin, Diane Black. One Sherri Goforth was responsible for the distribution.

Nashville is Talking has probably the choices initial responses.

I spoke with Sherri Goforth minutes ago to confirm she sent this email. She confirmed she had sent it and also said she had received a letter of reprimand from her superiors but said she will stay on the job.

When I asked her if she understood the controversial nature of the photo, Goforth would only say she felt very bad about accidentally sending it to the wrong list. When I gave her a second chance to address the controversial nature of the email, she again repeated that she only felt bad about sending it to the wrong list of people.

“I went on the wrong email and I inadvertently hit the wrong button,” Goforth told NIT. “I’m very sick about it, and it’s one of those things I can’t change or take back.”

Note the total indifference to - or perhaps celebration of - the impropriety of the image inherent in Ms. Goforth's non-apology. Note also the fault she perceives: it wasn't that she sent an offensive, racist image - it was that she sent an offensive, racist image to the wrong distribution list, delivering it to hypersensitive people without a sense of humour who obviously don't get the joke instead of the GOP in-crowd who'd think the image hilarious.

One more thing struck me reading through the noise on this incident. One of the comments at Nashville is Talking included this gem from a commenter calling itself Slimey:

First of all, this is not racism. Racism is the belief that one race is superior over another. This is plain and simple being stupid. Please people, stop calling this racism. Grow up! How many of you laugh during Blazin Saddles? Yet it’s full of racial innuendos and language. I don’t oppose the guy cause he’s black, it’s because he’s a socialist liberal.

Deconstructing for Slimey:

First off, the image. "OOH! A SPOOK! Visible only by the whites of its eyes (as opposed to the whites of the skins of the previous 43 MEN in the progression), here to rape your women / steal your stuff / take over your government." NEWSFLASH: that's what racism looks like.

Second, the "socialist liberal" bit. The US has moved quite far to the right on the political scale in global terms, so it all depends on one's position. To a Fascist, everything looks Socialist.

H/T Shakesville, BBWW et al.

On Humour, or Lack Thereof

Anyone who thinks Southwest Florida is any less prone to the bigoted outbursts common elsewhere in the south better think again.

Hillsborough County GOP committeeperson Carol Carter, who recently resigned over a racially-tinged email, now wants her job back.

The spark to this whole brouhaha was choice:

Carter's e-mail, sent Friday, was a joke saying black people were able to travel to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration, but unable to evacuate New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

You know, because all those folks had plenty of warning, and could easily get out of town in their cars, and all. So if they can get to something planned months in advance you know they could get out of the way of something about which they had a whole 30 hours' notice.

Apparently all the local GOP bigwigs are busy passing the buck on this one:

[State Republican Party Chairman Jim] Greer said that in her e-mail [rescinding her resignation], Carter contended the resignation she submitted to him and local party officials last week isn't official until she sends a letter to the county supervisor of elections, which she hasn't done. Greer said he is "taking her position into consideration" and will consult with the party's lawyers, but for the time being, "It's our current position that [Carter's contention] isn't accurate because it's a party office.

...County party Chairman Debbie Cox-Roush accepted Carter's resignation last week.

Cox-Roush said today it's up to the state Republican Party whether Carter can rescind her resignation. "We don't have the authority to accept or reject Ms. Carter's resign," Cox-Roush said. "It's out of our hands and we are waiting for direction from the Republican Party of Florida." Asked whether she would recommend that the state party uphold Carter's resignation or allow her to rescind it, Cox-Roush said, "I have no authority over it," but added, "The party still stands on a zero tolerance level for racial insensitivity."

Personally I find any attempts at humour regarding the whole Katrina fiasco in pretty poor taste. This, however, strikes me as worse than most, mostly because Ms. Carter, after resigning in shame over the whole thing, apparently decided it wasn't so bad after all, and is using technicalities to insist that she didn't really officially resign rather than ask to rescind the resignation she admits she sent.

Humph.