MSNBC's Toure says Romney Is Engaging In The "nization" Of Barack Obama

[minionofmidas]

"Racist" isn't really anything that can be defined in black-and-white, either-you're-one-or-you're-not terms anyways. At least not unless you want to limit it to the handful of kooks who actually talk about and think in terms of White Supremacy as an ideology, but then that's a meaningless non-debate.

Also,

I think being called a racist has become such a negative thing in America that people react as we see above if they get even an inkling they might be accused as such.

And not just in America. It's very un-pc to talk about it.

[opebo]

Why should he be fired for telling the obvious truth?

Oh telling the truth is fine, but use of certain words are strictly verboten in the Bad Place, opebo.

Not forbidden for blacks.

[minionofmidas]

Why should he be fired for telling the obvious truth?

Oh telling the truth is fine, but use of certain words are strictly verboten in the Bad Place, opebo.

Not forbidden for blacks.

They are forbidden for Blacks who want to be treated as equals in a White-dominated setting.

[Sbane]

"Racist" isn't really anything that can be defined in black-and-white, either-you're-one-or-you're-not terms anyways. At least not unless you want to limit it to the handful of kooks who actually talk about and think in terms of White Supremacy as an ideology, but then that's a meaningless non-debate.

Also,

I think being called a racist has become such a negative thing in America that people react as we see above if they get even an inkling they might be accused as such.

And not just in America. It's very un-pc to talk about it.

Yes, this exactly. If you say racist people automatically assume kkk or neo nazis when in reality it's much more complicated than that.

[Хahar 🤔]

It's fun to see the moderate heroes falling all over themselves in condemnation.

[opebo]

Not forbidden for blacks.

They are forbidden for Blacks who want to be treated as equals in a White-dominated setting.

That's terrible.  I can't imagine anything more racist than that.

[Lief 🗽]

I don't know who this Toure guy is, but he's obviously correct here. The Republicans have been running a campaign of racially-based fear against Obama non-stop since 2008.

[opebo]

I don't know who this Toure guy is, but he's obviously correct here. The Republicans have been running a campaign of racially-based fear against Obama non-stop since 2008.

But it is equally obvious any African-American voice that names what they are doing with its proper name will be silenced.

[angus]

This is a ndly thread.

Hardly.

Three pages on an guy that nobody ever heard of making up a word?  I'd say that's the antithesis of ndly. 

Or we just have a lot of free time and nothing better to do. 

[Napoleon]

Toure's observation isn't even novel, let alone outrageous. It's a tragic commentary on American politics that the Romney campaign's response is to take offense.

White America doesn't want to talk about race. I'm sure you can imagine why.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Racial code language has been used by the GOP since Reagan...not sure whether this qualifies though. The whole "chicago politics" meme the Republicans have been pushing on Obama for a long while now does qualify though. This is just an extension of that, but it was said in context to what Biden said so I dunno. This guy definitely should not be punished though. That would be wrong.

Chicago politics is racial code language? Against who? Irish, Poles and Italians ?


I mean, good god man, did nobody talk about the corrupt Chicago political machine before Obama showed up?  Or was it all because someone thought Richard Daley was a secret muslim?

Did I ever say the code words were effective against Obama? These days the Republicans can't even use good old fashioned, perfectly innocent surely, descriptors such as welfare queen so they have to really stretch with "Chicago politics" and "angry". Political correctness has gone too far!

"Welfare queen" is plausibly racist.  But the approach of many on the left to understanding the rhetoric of the American right  reminds me of a documentary on the History Channel about explaining prophecy and phenomena in the Bible in it's single minded focus and ill-informed self-assuredness, and you seem to be buying into a great deal of it.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

MSNBC makes me ashamed to be left-wing. Seriously, it's the liberal Fox News.

This is why I tend to avoid both.

Though I do have Rachel Maddow on, sometimes.

[© tweed]

c'mon shua you're not a dumbass, at all.  what is "the rhetoric of the American right" but a mass deception game to convince people to be just angry or scared enough to vote for a bunch of billionaires over themselves?  I know a dude, an Italian dude, he has NOTHING, can't pay his rent, but hates his ns, hates his illegal employees (he's a small business owner), HATE is his political belief, and it is that which is mass-produced by the American right.  "welfare queen" is more than "plausibly racist", it undermines the entire concept of a social wage, quite consciously so, and shows how the Reaganist (1980-present) GOP has been totally marxist and very successfully so, waging a bitter marxist class war.  don't play dumb, you get it.

[angus]

Damn.  It may very well be a word.  Well, okay, a newspeak word, like pwned or something.  Nevertheless, it has precedent.  I found an etymology and reference on usage.  

UrbanDictionary.com defines it thusly:  "verb - To convert something whereby it receives the characteristics to that of a nigga." (Assuming here that we suspend verbal justice and accept nigga as a word as well, then we have a working definition of the verb.  The noun nization follows logically, I suppose.  For the unitiated, UrbanDictionary.com links to the "related word" nigga, which it defines as follows:  "NIGGA- a black man with a gold chain on his neck" and says that the word was coined and initially defined by Tupac.  I'll assume here that they don't mean the famous Inca Tupac Amaru, who lead a courageous but ultimately failed revolt against the Spaniards, since Tupac Amaru probably didn't speak English.  They must be referring to some other Tupac.)  Anyway, UrbanDictionary.com uses it in the following example:  "We're gonna go nize ourselves surfing all day."  nize, then, would mean something like "to make something seem like a black guy with a gold chain on his neck."

A slightly more thoughtful definition and etymology, though still crude, is provided by LibertarianRepublican.net.  On that site, an article by Clifford F. Thies reads, in part, that "The term "nization" ... was coined by the National Socialists of Germany (Nazis) during the 1930s. They castigated the "nization" of the arts, sports, the culture and the economy, and promoted racial purity."  Thies goes on to suggest that the word nization basically means the promotion of race-mixing or racial equality.  Thies does not provide any references, but he seems to know what he's talking about.  After all, it's on the internet, so it must be accurate.

nmania.net also provides some background in its forum pages.  Although not particularly scholarly, the site proves that the term nize has been in use for at least ten months.  Then again, a quick perusal shows that words like niggturds and nigglets are also in common use on that forum (and I'm equally unconvinced of their formality).

Tough call.  I haven't really come up with a scholarly source yet.  Neither Mirriam-Webster's on-line search engine nor that of OED recognize the word nization or nize.  Still, its use is common enough, as evidenced by a google search.

Interestingly, Yasminola goes a step further and uses a term "nizationology," which it carefully defines as "the study of humans or human societies who take on or emulate the characteristics, mannerisms, and mentalities of the ghetto black man."  Yasminola goes on to point out that "the act of nization does not necessarily apply to black races alone and the role can be reverse. An example of (role reversal such as) nizationology can be relate to the story of one unfortunate white ‘collar worker’ inmate (the usual tom, dick and harry with a high flying career and envious qualification prior to imprisonment)."

All of which I find somewhat confusing, and very amusing.

[Sbane]

Racial code language has been used by the GOP since Reagan...not sure whether this qualifies though. The whole "chicago politics" meme the Republicans have been pushing on Obama for a long while now does qualify though. This is just an extension of that, but it was said in context to what Biden said so I dunno. This guy definitely should not be punished though. That would be wrong.

Chicago politics is racial code language? Against who? Irish, Poles and Italians ?


I mean, good god man, did nobody talk about the corrupt Chicago political machine before Obama showed up?  Or was it all because someone thought Richard Daley was a secret muslim?

Did I ever say the code words were effective against Obama? These days the Republicans can't even use good old fashioned, perfectly innocent surely, descriptors such as welfare queen so they have to really stretch with "Chicago politics" and "angry". Political correctness has gone too far!

"Welfare queen" is plausibly racist.  But the approach of many on the left to understanding the rhetoric of the American right  reminds me of a documentary on the History Channel about explaining prophecy and phenomena in the Bible in it's single minded focus and ill-informed self-assuredness, and you seem to be buying into a great deal of it.

Look, it is actually a winning strategy if Romney can "nize" Obama. Even better word of course would be ghettoization. Not sure if that is actually a word but it perfectly describes what I am talking about. The vast, vast majority of Americans are not racist in the KKK or Neo-Nazi sense of the word but there is a gray area. It's really a conflation of race and class more than anything. These people are wary of ghetto culture, think Trevon Martin shouldn't have been wearing a hoodie, always think black politicians are being racist etc etc. They probably also think a majority of blacks are just waiting around for a handout, which fits in perfectly with GOP economic policy. At the same time though a Barack Obama or Corey Booker makes them tingly in all the right places.....

[minionofmidas]

nizationology

[Zioneer]

MSNBC makes me ashamed to be left-wing. Seriously, it's the liberal Fox News.

Yeah, MSNBC is full of blowhards (Ed Schultz, Al Sharpton most of the time, and a few others I can't remember, plus Joe Scarborough who is a blowhard while being spineless at the same time). Still, I think Rachel Maddow and her "clique" (Chris Hayes, Melissa Harris-Perry, Ezra Klein), are well-spoken and thoughtful.

[7,052,770]

MSNBC makes me ashamed to be left-wing. Seriously, it's the liberal Fox News.

What?  It's not even close to being that bad...

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Though I do have Rachel Maddow on, sometimes.

Same. She's my guilty pleasure.

[Sbane]

Rachel Maddow is the only person who is watchable on cable news and yes that includes the moderate heroes at CNN. It seems like some of you actually watch cable news...don't you know it ruins your brain? Stay clean and save your brain, kids.

[Torie]

Rachel Maddow is the only person who is watchable on cable news and yes that includes the moderate heroes at CNN. It seems like some of you actually watch cable news...don't you know it ruins your brain? Stay clean and save your brain, kids.

I hate them all, except for the gay guy, who sometimes spends too much time on the superficial, but whatever.

[angus]

I hate them all, except for the gay guy who sometimes spends too much time on the superficial

Piers Morgan?  He gets on my nerves after about five seconds.

I like John Stossel.  I think it's the porn star mustache that does it for me.

[Torie]

I hate them all, except for the gay guy who sometimes spends too much time on the superficial

Piers Morgan?  He gets on my nerves after about five seconds.

I like John Stossel.  I think it's the porn star mustache that does it for me.

Well Stossel has a special beat, and of course, he is very good at it, and knows his stuff. I don't consider him one of the usual suspects. His major contribution is chewing O'Reilly up and spitting him out into a spittoon on issues where O'Reilly allows his prejudices to have free rein over reasoned analysis.

[anvi]

Almost the only thing I see or hear now, and for almost the entirety of the rest of the year, is Canadian news (I'm on sabbatical in Nova Scotia till January).  I am so relieved not to be watching or listening to American news this year...it may be adding years to my life.  If I'd only listen to the better angels and not look at the 2012 board, I'd have an almost completely clean bill of health.

[J. J.]

Actually, Chicago is 45% white and 33% black.