Naderz* With Attitude

This is slightly stale news, but did you see where Ralph Nader is dropping N-bombs and comparing himself to the Black Panthers and victims of Jim Crow laws? From the New York Daily News:

Speaking Wednesday night at a Washington fund-raiser to retire the debt from his 2004 presidential campaign, Nader complained that Democratic Party powerbrokers had kept him off the ballot in such Southern states as Georgia and Virginia -- which reminded him of the oppressive Jim Crow laws that denied African-Americans equal rights.

"I felt like a [n-word]," remarked the 70-year-old white multimillionaire graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. […]

Yesterday, Nader told me he was using the word in the same spirit as the Black Panthers of the 1960s -- "as a word of defiance."

Link via Sploid, who remark on the incident's non-traction thusly: "Could it be that Nader is finally, mercifully irrelevant?"

My May 2002 take on how Nader speaks lies to power here. During his 2000 campaign, I wrote a rambling bit on the awkward consumer crusader's weird problems with race here.

(* "s" changed to "z" at the suggestion of commenter Monkey RobbL.)

Comments

[Lowdog]

Love the title.

Have little to say about Nader.

[joe]

It's odd to see a libertarian criticize a candidate for failing to cast economic issues as race issues.

"His interactions with African-Americans on the campaign trail are telling. On Leno, he sat next to D.L. Hughley, a black comedian from South-Central L.A., and the next day he was still impressed with the encounter. "That D.L., he's the real deal!" he told supporters at a Brentwood fundraiser."

Gee, that IS telling. What other possible reason could a person by impressed by DL Hughley, other than his negritude?

[WSDave]

"I felt like a [n-word],"

He felt like a Nader? Isn't he already a Nader? Oh, wrong N word.

[Jim Walsh]

Al Sharpton said while he found it distasteful, he intends to let it slide because politically Nader is one of the good guys.
Sharpton is now so arrogant he doesn't even bother to hide his hypocrisy.

[Danny]

Not that this justifies the use of the "n" word, but Nader isn't white he's Lebanese.

[Evan Williams]

I like how Sharpie gives him a pass, because of his "track record". If it had been someone who was less in-line with Sharpie's views, then it somehow would have been worse? Nice double standard, dumbass.

Hmm, it begs the question: what exactly does one have to do to earn these "nigger passes"? They'd be nice to have, you know, just in case I accidentally blurt out the word in the middle of the Source Awards, BAM, I can pull out one of my trusty "say nigger free" cards, and avoid a beatdown.

[Evan Williams]

And what's this with the "finally, mercifully irrelevant"? Was he ever truly relevant, and in what manner? I went to listen to the douche speak when I was in college---believe me, any relevancy he ever had was way too much.

[Ironchef]

Ahh Nader. Making the world safer. One Corvair at a time.

[trainwreck]

So when's Ralph gonna start preaching "fuck the police"?

"Fuckin with Ralph cuz he's a old-ager,
With a little bit of gold and a pager,
Searchin his car, lookin for the product,
Thinkin every failed candidate is sellin narcotics"

[Matt Welch]

joe -- *I* wasn't criticizing Nader for taking the anti-corporate approach to racial issues, the pro-Gore progressives quoted in my article were. (The article was also written for a far-left website.)

And what the Hughley anecdote illustrates (when coupled with the "equal opportunity" & "right on!" cracks), is how Nader adopts a sort of antiquated hep lingo when talking to or about black people, one that he never ever uses outside those situations. He has a personal awkwardness with most humans, especially females, but around black people & in front of black audiences he tends to act with an almost anthropological curiosity.

Nothing necessarily wrong with that; the man's 70, and who's to say how one should act about anything. But it also reflects a kind of tone-deafness that played a role in his comments of last week.

[Lowdog]

I often change my vernacular or intonations in when speaking to different people. I've always been a chameleon that way. I often did it without thinking about it, but one day I realised that I was doing it. So I was talking to a gentleman from Japan a few days later, and I asked him if he felt as though I was being patronising by doing my best to make him feel "at home" by employing any social behaviours I had learned while hanging out with other Japanese and asian folks. He assured me it was not. Which made me feel better, but he coulda been patronising me, too. 🙂

Anyway, the point is, maybe Nader's just a chameleon, and he wants to make people comfortable when he's speaking to them

Or maybe he's just a crazy old coot.

[zach]

not to get off topic or anything... is your name really evan williams?

best $20 handle of bourbon you can buy.

[joe]

Matt, you are reading an awful lot into a couple of innocuous phrases. "Right on" is a common boomer-era phrase. Telling someone who's hogging the mike that everyone should have an equal opportunity to talk is just plain polite.

This stuff reminds me of my undergrad "Critical Methods" class. Talk about your close readings.

[Evan Williams]

Zach,

Yep, no aliases here. And I assure you, you are the first one to ever make the connection. No, really, I never get ribbed when I show my ID at the liquor store, nosiree...

;->

Actually, we used to give my dad alot of shit, since he used to be a heavy drinker...we'd joke that when I was born, and the doc asked what name they'd like on the birth cert, my drunken pops just rattled off the first name he saw, which happened to be what was printed on the handle that he was pounding.

[Stevo Darkly]

For whatever it's worth, I also half-instinctively modify my way of speaking, vocabulary, pop culture references and even sense of humor when talking with different people in my social circle. People have different vocabularies and different points of reference.

[zach]

lol... well at least your dad had good taste amidst his haze.

[Matt Welch]

joe -- The one who is doing an overly close reading is you. I spent two months of my life with Nader, and witnessed this dynamic at play on literally scores of occasions. It was a running joke among his younger staffers. I did not go hunting for a couple of examples to hang a bogus characterization on.

[Monkey RobbL]

Shouldn't it be "Naderz" With Attitude? Gotta work that "z" in there.

[Matt Welch]

Why, yes it should, thank you.

[joe]

Well, I guess I'll take your word for it, Matt. Since that's pretty much all we have to go on here, your examples being somewhat short of entirely convincing.

[Evan Williams]

"Well, I guess I'll take your word for it, Matt. Since that's pretty much all we have to go on here, your examples being somewhat short of entirely convincing."

Even when you get put in your place pretty handily, you try to slink out of being dealt wit. Good god, be a MAN, admit that your comments were out of line, and let it be.

[scape]

Straight Outta Cambridge!

[spur]

The ballot access laws in this country are basically Jim Crow laws that can be used to keep anyone the DsRs don't like and they used it to royally screw Nader this year -- they use them to screw LP, Green and other third party and independent candidates at the federal and state level all the time. Don't get me wrong, I don't support Nader, but he had a right to be on the ballot. Combine this with campaign finance laws and 98% incumbency re-election rates in Congress and democracy at the federal level is essentially dead -- they can't even find two presidential candidates who were in different frats at Yale...

[joe]

Evan,

"No, it is true, trust me" is not usually considered "being put in your place pretty handily."

[Sandy]

joe--

I know a lot of boomers, and I know not one who uses "Right on!" with any consistency, or anything short of a sense of irony. I think you need to back up your assertion.

I seem to remember the Worst Book Ever Written as viewed by the Washington Post getting a jab for the use of having a black character say "Right on!"

I also remember a description of Leonard Bernstein meeting with one of the Black Panthers and using "Right on!" as an attempt to demonstrate his cultural fluency. It was not related in the purpose of complimenting the man.

Straight up, G. Word is bond. You know, 'cuz us Xers use that lingo a lot.

[Mo]

Fuck the Polis!

[wellfellow]

I thought "Right On" was a Canadian thing.

[nofrontin]

"And what the Hughley anecdote illustrates (when coupled with the "equal opportunity" & "right on!" cracks), is how Nader adopts a sort of antiquated hep lingo when talking to or about black people, one that he never ever uses outside those situations."

Sorry, Matt, but when Nader came to speak at Brown he used exactly such "antiquated hep lingo" and I don't think you'd consider an ivy league institution to be an HBC.

[Herbert Kornfeld]

"I gots skillz, muthafuckas. Shit be COLLATED. Copier out of toner? I be all over that shit, 'cuz only I can replace tha Hewlett-Packard toner cartridge without gettin' all that inky powder shit all over tha insides. "

Herbert Kornfeld
Supervisor, Accounts Receivable Dept.
Midstate Office Supply
(from The Onion)

[gaius marius]

anthropological curiosity

lmao! well said, mr welch.

[Jim Walsh]

I also remember a description of Leonard Bernstein meeting with one of the Black Panthers and using "Right on!" as an attempt to demonstrate his cultural fluency. It was not related in the purpose of complimenting the man.

Sounds like Tom Wolfe's Radical Chic, always worth a read, or a re-read. Ol' Tom skewered the hefty lefties more effectively than David Horowitz ever did on his best day...

[Jared]

Last year, at a Model Congress thing in DC, i met Ralph Nader and asked him to sign a picture of Ronald Reagan that I picked up from some Reagan camp lackeys, and he refused. Jerk.

This was two days before he annoucned his candidacy on Meet the Press. He was giving all the attending people a speech about how we need to stand up to corporate interests and some other power to the people crap. Some kid asked him "Well, if your so power to the people, why don't you tell us now instead of waiting to do it on some powerful Big Media show?"

And then Nader mumbled something out in stroke talk and moved on. The jerk.

[Stevo Darkly]

Last year, at a Model Congress thing in DC

That's a cool idea. If people had to be models in order to qualify for Congress, it would be a lot easier to keep an eye on them. Viewership of C-SPAN would soar.

[Jared]

The best part about Model Congress had to be the heroin. If its one thing models know, its dank ass heroin.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

joe:

The easiest thing to do in the world is to offer bald criticism and nothing else. Any idiot can do it.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

..irony..

[Rodney]

I surprised that Salon.com (Home of the Nader-bash and the self-absorbed parent) hasn?t jumped all over story.