<p>
So the Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland would likely have been using the term in a racist fashion? That is depressing.</p>
<p>“The Obama campaign, asked about the quote, did not note any racial context.”</p>
<p>So the Obama camp is willing to allow that Rep. Westmoreland may not have been using the term in a racist fashion. But the language of racism runs deep, especially in the South. Referring to Obama as “boy” is definitely another example.</p>
<p>Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
uppity </p>
<p>1880, from up; originally used by blacks of other blacks felt to be too self-assertive (first recorded use is in “Uncle Remus”). The parallel British variant uppish (1678) originally meant “lavish;” the sense of “conceited, arrogant” being first recorded 1734.</p>
<p>Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper</p>
<p>The Obama campaign was simply being polite. </p>
<p>They obviously have better things to do with their time than get into a pi ssin match with a skunk.</p>
<p>I grew up in Ohio and Missouri and I definitely heard the expression combined with the “n” word - not in my family but in plenty of other places. </p>
<p>It is depressing to see the Republicans using deliberate tactics such as this to cast doubt on the character of Obama. They are using the same strategy that got Bush elected in 2004 only in reverse - remember the often repeated line that Bush is the kind of guy you can drink a beer with? Well now they are characterizing Obama as elitist and uppity, hoping to convince both whites and blacks that he is someone to fear “cause he is not like them.” </p>
<p>I’ve noticed many right leaning posters commenting that the Obama supporters are scared, especially in reaction to Palin. We are scared alright, but not in the manner suggested. We’re scared of the same old Rovian tactics being used again to win an election. A hallmark of Rove’s method is to take a candidates strength and turn it into a weakness. This time we have an exceptionally strong team with leadership ability but I am truly fearful that they will lose the election. It is compounded by the choice of Sarah Palin , who from what I read is even more radically conservative than Bush and has more chance of becoming President than any other candidate in recent history.</p>
<p>I also live in the midwest, in Minnesota but in a particularly conservative part of the city. My family is predominantly Republican so I know how the common voter thinks. These kinds of comments hold sway.</p>
<p>No one said anything about the KKK - you are naive to political strategy if you don’t think word usage is very deliberate. </p>
<p>The common “talking points” are that the Democratic party is elitist - it is communicated in a hundred different ways and within your own post: “The amount of bigotry on display toward rural America, those without IVY degrees, and teased hair in the last week or so has been without parallel in this election. And it has been unapologetically waged by the left.”</p>
<p>I was described as being ‘uppity’ on more than one occasion in my salad days. Especially in my youth by coaches and teachers; it was one of my mother’s favorite retorts to mine, and my siblings, otherwise presumptuousness, as well.</p>
<p>I grew up in Michigan. Maybe it’s local.</p>
<p>I have no idea whether or not this instance of its use was racists. Though to make a very big deal of this verbiage seems to be begging the question or issue, as it were, in this electrically charged political season. A whole thread?</p>
<p>…my humble opinion.</p>
<p>Okay, I’ve only lived in GA since I was 27, but I never, ever associated the word with racist anything. I do think of it as an upper-class Brit sort of term. </p>
<p>I admit to a lot of ignorance about racial things, even as an adult. I took a class once on racial differences and learned a lot. I learned, while teaching middle school, that it was not okay to use “boy” when referring to a black student (okay with other male students), that there were racial connotations for things like watermelon and fried chicken. I learned that my neighbor was out of line for putting a noose up with his over-the-top Halloween yard display. There was some problem with ghosts, too, but I can’t remember what it was. I remember that I got in trouble in college for implying that my black roommate was messy. (Even though I was just as messy, and she was allowed to say that.) I remember being rebuked without even knowing what I did wrong. I grew up in PA, in an ethnic Swedish household, and just didn’t get these things explained.</p>
<p>There probably needs to be a whole class in school dedicated to what different groups find offensive. How will we ever learn to get along if everything we say or do offends someone? Having to tip-toe - or avoid - because we might inadvertantly fan the flames does not lead to genuine discourse and open communication.</p>
<p>I applaud the Obama group for refusing to engage.</p>
<p>Woodwork,
I think you will see a fair amount of scrutiny and pushback on the Republican party’s tactics this time. Democrats were blind sinded by the Swiftboat strategy in the last election and they are hyper aware of it this time. They understand that even the best candidate can lose under these terms.</p>
<p>Someone early on here said it was irrelevent and a personal attack to retort by mentioning McCain’s eight houses. Excuse me? How is calling someone “uppity” (however we agree to define that), not a personal attack? And if we mean “elitist,” then bringing up someone else’s excess houses seems exactly on topic. Ya gotta be fairly “elite” to lose track of how many houses you own.</p>
<p>liz, I agree. </p>
<p>But then, as they say, it is not personal, it’s business (politics). Is it not? </p>
<p>Moreover, I do not see how a Republican would advance his electoral prospects by knowingly using what to some is a racial epithet during an election. How does that fit in with the whole ‘Rovian’ thing? That would be pretty dumb politics, imo.</p>
<p>I cannot imagine someone suffering from some Rovian mind-trick being instructed to go racist in an election that fights for the voter in the middle. Can you?</p>
<p>On the other hand, I know nothing about this particular politician. Is he known to be a racist?</p>
<p>For my money, I would say that McCain is VERY, very uppity. It is in the nature of a so-called ‘Maverick’ to be uppity. It’s what they do. The way they roll. So I will say it: **McCain is Uppity! **</p>
<p>Not sure about Senator Obama.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>McCain was the one who injected the notion of “elitism” into this campaign by trying to paint Obama as elitist. Yes Obama went to ivy league schools, but so did Bush!!</p>
<p>Using a racially tinged word to describe Obama does play on some people’s fears about Obama’s race. So while Rove probably didn’t coach any republican to use the term “uppity,” one’s use of the term fits neatly with the McCain campaign’s narrative.</p>
<p>A friend of mine used the word “uppity” to describe his perception of a photo of a black woman who had recently been promoted to a high position in our organization. I was shocked, and since he really is a friend, I asked him to explain, and then I explained the racist connotation of the word. He genuinely didn’t know, and said he never would have used the word if he had.</p>
<p>I once spent two months reading every news report and court document that I could track down on lynchings in Texas between 1900 and 1950. No question at all in my mind about what the word means.</p>
<p>A bit off the uppity topic, but a week ago, I heard a woman on a radio talk show severely upbraid Sean Hannity as being racist for saying, “they drank the Kool-Aid” in reference to people buying the Obama rhetoric hook-line-and-sinker (uh oh, might offend some pirates). </p>
<p>I have heard that term used millions of times, and never in a racist way, it’s usually used to describe the blind loyalty of Clinton lovers, and stems back to the Jonestown Massacre where those poor people blindly followed their leader into drinking the poisoned kool-aid.</p>
<p>So, has “drinking the kool-aid” become racist somehow? I have loved kool-aid since I was a kid, I never thought there was anything racial about it…</p>
<p>My point is, I think people can see “racism” anywhere if they are looking hard enough for it…</p>
<p>ag54 - there were a few posts on this board, on one of the political threads, discussing the horrors of someone saying Kool-aid, and I admit, I was clueless. I also think of it as a reference to gullibility, based on the Jim Jones situation.</p>
<p>Geez, I can’t tell you how many times I’VE been accused of drinking the kool-aid! :)</p>
<p>[Don’t</a> Drink The Kool-Aid](<a href=“T. M. Anderson - Rapture Ready”>http://www.raptureready.com/rr-kool-aid.html)</p>
<p>When I saw the title, I thought this is about writting that big tuition check.</p>
<p>I learned “uppity” from my white Tennessee relatives when describing blacks who didn’t want to stay in their place.</p>
<p>I never knew that “democrat party” was a perjorative until Curmudgeon told me. But even I knew that “uppity” is racially charged.</p>