Friday, August 13, 2010

TAKING RACIAL OFFENSE: IOKIYAR

I want to discuss James O'Keefe's new "reporting" partner, but first I'll get to a story that's receiving a lot more attention. I think there's an odd link between the two.

You may know that Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the right-wing radio advice-show host, got into a contentious discussion on her program with a woman named Jade, who's African-American and who has a white husband. Jade feels that her husband's friends regularly make racially insensitive remarks to her:

CALLER: OK. Last night -- good example -- we had a neighbor come over, and this neighbor -- when every time he comes over, it's always a black comment. It's, "Oh, well, how do you black people like doing this?" And, "Do black people really like doing that?"

Jade said they also use the N-word in her presence -- a point that set Dr. Laura off. She complained that the word is off-limits to whites, after which she used it repeatedly (For which she's since apologized).

OK, now to James O'Keefe.

Dave Weigel reports:

The ACORN sting mastermind is previewing a new sting of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Ca.) and OneUnited, putting plenty of innuendo but no real allegations in the first clip. Interestingly, the sting this time is pulled off by a female, African-American reporter. Post-ACORN, the days of white conservatives posing as prostitutes with names like "Kenya" might be over.

Here's that preview video. About a minute in, O'Keefe's new partner gives her name -- Nadia Something-or-Other-That-Begins-with-an-N.



I believe that would be Nadia Naffe.



Bio Blogger. Conservative Activist. Lover of Jesus, free markets, and American exceptionalism....

She's the Tampa editor of Red County ("The place for state and local conservative politics"). She also writes for Breitbart.

But there's one conservatively awkward moment in Naffe's Google-able past:

A former field director for the Republican Party of Florida is suing the state party, the Republican National Committee and the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, alleging that she was the victim of racial discrimination, a racially hostile work environment and retaliation during her year-long job.

Nadia Naffe, who is African American, served as Southwest Florida field director for the state GOP between August 2003 and April of this year.

According to the complaint filed Tuesday, Naffe was forced to perform job assignments against her will that concentrated heavily on black organizations, events and issues....

The lawsuit also alleges that Naffe's supervisor, RPOF executive director of party development, Terry Kester, made several comments Naffe found offensive....

Kester ... allegedly referred to African-Americans "routinely" as "you people" or "your people," telling Naffe that she was given her "race matching" assignments because "you understand your people."

At one point, Kester allegedly showed Naffe a portrait of the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, calling him "the best senator who ever lived," according to the lawsuit....


Oh.

Despite this, Naffe is clearly still a right-winger. Lucky for her. If her experience with Bush/Cheney had made her go apostate and liberal, she might have been turned into an Antichrist by the very people she's now working with, people like James O'Keefe and Andrew Breitbart. If she'd complained to the right-wing Dr. Laura about workplace references to racist senators and "you people," she'd have been met with a torrent of N-words.

But she's still on their side, so I guess it's all OK.

No comments: