Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Rush Limbaugh says Obama is Arab, ‘not black’

Hat-tip to Media Matters for reporting Limbaugh’s latest lie.

During his Monday broadcast, Rush told his listeners that Barack Obama is “not black. ... He’s Arab. You know, he’s from Africa, he’s from Arab parts of Africa.”

Click here to hear it with your own ears on my Vox blog.

The truth, of course, is that Obama’s father – Barack Obama, Sr. – belonged to the Luo tribe, one of seven major black ethnic groups in Kenya. And Kenya is not an “Arab part of Africa.” Less than 1 percent of the Kenyan population is Arab.

But wait, there’s more!

Another liberal site, Think Progress, caught Limbaugh doubling down on that lie today.

Rush read from a Philadelphia Daily News article that says, in part: “Obama’s name and his African heritage are obstacles to the party’s chances of capturing the White House, party activists are finding.”

That’s not how Limbaugh read it, though. Limbaugh actually said – swear to God – that “Obama’s name and his Arab-African heritage are obstacles to the party’s chances...” (Click here to listen.)

So what’s Limbaugh’s hustle here?

He is feeding into a rumor/smear campaign/Internet meme that’s been out there for months.

Back in February, a right-wing blogger who uses the pseudonym “John Trenchard” quoted this from another conservative blog:

“Mr. Obama is 50% Caucasian from his mother’s side. He is 43.75% Arabic, and 6.25% African Negro from his father’s side.”

“If true,” wrote Trenchard, “this could well be the nuclear bomb that destroys his candidacy.”

That “43.75%” figure is oddly specific. It’s also easily Googlable. So let’s see who else has been spreading it around.

Linda Cowan, on a popular website called The Conservative Voice, headlined her July 23 column: “Obama, a 43.75% Arab-American.”

She followed that up the next day with a piece called “Arab Obama and his Arab Friends.”

(The Conservative Voice was founded by Nathan Tabor, who worked on Duncan Hunter’s Republican campaign for president this year... and whom Jerry Falwell once called the “young Jesse Helms.”)

On June 9, a New York lawyer and online essayist named Michael J. Gaynor wrote a piece for WEBCommentary.com titled “Obama, Pride of Arab-Americans?”

“I have not found references to Obama’s Arab heritage in the mainstream media,” he wrote, “but one Internet poster reported this:

“ ‘Senator Obama will be the first Arab American president if he is elected. The Senator’s background is: Caucasian from his mother [and] Arab African from his father. Before all the Obamiacs jump on the answer, the Kenyan Obamas are listed in the Kenyan census as Arab African not as Tribal ‘Black’ African. His father’s great great grandmother was a Tribal African.

“ ‘Therefore by ethnic lines the Senator is 50% Caucasian, 43.75% Arab, and 6.25% Black African (from where the Senator gets his skin pigmentation). ...’ ”

On Wednesday, I’ll tell you about the guy who started this “43.75%” business.

17 comments:

Nida'nın Mutfağı said...

Bush is new Hitler and Arabs are the new Jews of USA?! what's this Arabophobia!!!?

"is Obama a good politician?" this must be the real question. what of it if he's a black or Arab or white or Jew, etc etc..? i can't understand this openly, declared, aggressive fascism in USA. even blacks are frosty about Arabs...

Barack Obama is a real product of USA, he has all African, American, white, Muslim, Christian roots at the same time. but the only thing people speak about is his blackness or Arabness. he's a true, real, genuine American, why don't they accept this?

Undercover Black Man said...

^ Thanks for commenting, lady lazarus. Welcome to my blog.

Mahndisa S. Rigmaiden said...

09 24 08

And some folk are saying that race isn't an issue in this country, okay well ethnicity certainly is then! Thx for pointing out this nastiness. Rush lost my respect a long time ago, but this is just really low. Playing off the fears of xenophobic asshats and profitting from it? He oughta be taken to the town square and tarred and feathered!

Jess said...

This is just so hilarious to me. They keep fabricating reasons to hate Barack, nevermind if they contradict each other. They think he's a Muslim, but they also hate him for his Christian (ex) reverend. They hate him because he's black, but that's not scaring enough people away so they now claim he's Arab and will try to re-draw geography to try to do so, pathetic. What a bunch of buffoons, these people don't couldn't understand the social construct of race if it hit them in the face.

Kellybelle said...

watch Israelis for Obama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2VFRt5W4FM

Ann Brock said...

UBM they are getting ready to run Rev. Wright again, especially since Obama have gotten the so call white women vote.

Anonymous said...

People like Rush spread this shit out on their radio programs, and then when they're confronted for pushing racial undertones into the political debate they just deflect criticism it by saying "Well, I'm not racist, but *some* people are and this will resonate badly with them".

This is the same Rush Limbaugh who bitches and cries when Obama ads "inject race into the election". Pot, meet kettle.

Anonymous said...

Rush must need another infusion of Oxycontin.

Speaking of open racism: Saw the following bumper sticker on a Chevy Cobalt yesterday:

Built by tools
Not chopsticks

1) "Tools" can be read two ways, heh
2) I wanted to add, "And driven by a racist a-hole," but the white bruiser behind the wheel could definitely take me down in a fight, yikes.

Anonymous said...

Wow, Rush reads from the Philly Daily News. Thanks a lot, guys!

Anonymous said...

I do not lower my self to name call people. I do not "hate" Barack H. Obama. I also do not need reasons to be scared at the thought of Obama being president. It is just plain a scarey though. He had a poor record in my home state (IL), he has not represented us at all in DC.

And not representing IL in DC actually is a good idea in that Obama's ideas are socialist and will destroy our economy. Remember, it was socialist ("everyone should have the american dream of a house" that was part of Clinton's administration. And we are the verge of a collapse because of that policy.

I pray the rosary every night that Obama will lose the election and just go back to the private sector so that he can keep his socialist views out of my government

Anonymous said...

Where is this "socialist" meme coming from? Or is it merely an RNC talking point? It's so friggin' annoying.

Undercover Black Man said...

Socialist... Muslim... Arab... cokehead faggot... Hell, something's gotta stick.

odocoileus said...

Obama's ideas are socialist and will destroy our economy. Remember, it was socialist ("everyone should have the american dream of a house" that was part of Clinton's administration. And we are the verge of a collapse because of that policy.

Because the closet Trotskyites, George Soros, and Warren Buffet, are backing him to the hilt.

It's absolutely brilliant that the international Marxist conspiracy has found a way to control the government through the world's leading capitalists.

Those Commies, they're always one move ahead!

Anonymous said...

Rush is right
Facts
1) Baracks grandfather is a Middle Eastern muslim

According to sharia law that makes Barack a middle eastern muslim
In islam you very rarely change your religion
Have you ever heard Jesus say a wolf in sheeps clothing thats Barack
This isnt about being black thats low to use that The muslims when they planned this candidate so many years ago they knew they could use a black arab muslim.
and they were hoping black Americans would fall for that Muslims will use who they can its there nature Wise up black America dont be fooled I have more confidence in you than that A concerned black American

Anonymous said...

Know your bible well and you will know islam well

Unknown said...

If Rush and the other are wrong, how come you cannot refute the specifics about Obama's ethnicit? How do you think he got his Arabic name- Barack Hussein? I know you don't want to believe it, but if he were not of Arabic origin he would have had a Christian name instead. The Arab Kenyans were actually slave traders, not descendents of slaves.

Sorry to see you have all been duped by a dishonest and untruthful man, and a very dishonest media. If you really wanted to elect and African American who is the descendent of slaves, and not slave traders, you should have elected Dr. Alan Keyes.

Anonymous said...

LMAO at those two idiot posters above. You can always spot white racists by their poor (non-existent) reasoning, and their underestimation of black folks.

What more proof is needed than the pictures of Barack's father and family all over the place, and the the fact that his African ancestors are Luo? Plus, just look at the man. SMDH.