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I think many people would agree with me that Courtland Milloy would not have called a black man a "Tiger Mom."

You believe he was making a racial attack against Rhee by using the title from an author's (who happens to be Asian) controversial book about she educated her kids

It's more than that, the book is - according to the subtitle - "a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones." So it's a book by an Chinese-American author about a Chinese way of raising children. It's much more than just a similarity between the author and Rhee.

scoffed at the notion offered by many Clinton supporters that it was somehow understandable why he would compare Obama to Jackson (two decades earlier) and not Edwards (four years earlier) but didn't mean to invoke race as a dismissing factor against Obama.

He was invoking race - or more accurately demographics - as a dismissing factor against Obama's win - not Obama. He was saying that a win in S.C. by a black candidate does not mean they will be the nominee because S.C. is not a bellweather - "just look at Jackson." Mentioning Edwards would not have played into that narrative. Had Hillary lost to a North Carolinian, he might have pointed to Edwards and said the same sort of thing, but this time using "favorite son" factors instead of demographics. I get that it's a sensative issue, but it's hardly the same. Race is relevant in politics, for good or bad, it is. But it isn't relevant in the way Milloy used it. That, in my mind, is the difference.

It's long way from saying "Like Jackson, Obama is black and that explains why he won S.Caroline" to saying "Like Jackson, Obama is black and that explains why he isn't qualified."

by David C on Jul 17, 2012 11:21 am • link • report