Uppity-ness Defined

I have done my best to keep my political views as far from my blog as possible, except for the occasional response to a random media outburst. But I just read an article that literally made me laugh out loud…

Here are the highlights…

In a Washington D.C. conversation with reporters, the two-term Sharpsburg congressman Lynn Westmoreland, was discussing the speech of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin when he was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.

According to The Hill, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill:

“Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Senator Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class of individuals that think that they’re uppity,” Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

MY REACTION - Ok, “uppity” really? Firstly, who “thinks” they are uppity? A person either is, or isn’t, and they surely don’t think it. That’s suggesting that I wake up in the morning saying ‘I think I will be uppity today.’

Though raised by a struggling, single mother, Obama studied at both Columbia University in New York and Harvard University. This spring, Obama apologized for his “poor word choice” at a California fundraiser in which he described small-town Americans as “bitter” over the souring economy and clinging to religion and guns in response.

MY REACTION - Hmmm, dare I assume that the implication aforementioned is suggesting higher education equates to being “uppity?” Or maybe its only when you go to an ivy league? And as far as Obama’s statement from a couple months ago — what he actually said was: “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they feel through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” I see no reason why he even apologized - the man’s got a point. Like it or not.

Hillary Clinton seized upon the “elitist” label in the primary, and Republicans have done so during their national convention in Minnesota, vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, among them.

But some Obama supporters have said the “elitist” title has sometimes served as cultural code for “uppity,” a word that for decades in the segregated South was applied to African-Americans who attempted to rise above servile positions.

MY REACTION - I just hope with all my optimism and faith in humanity that Obama is not being punished for his intelligence, his ambition, and the fact that he’s actually doing something to make a difference… unlike many people who complain about the ways of the world, and just drink themselves into oblivion to make the problem go away.

U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, who was born and raised in the South, said Thursday that he’s never heard the word “uppity” used in a racially loaded fashion, and meant nothing more than “elitist” when he applied it to Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. “If anyone read more into it, no undercurrent was intended,” Westmoreland spokesman Brian Robinson said this evening. Considered one of the most conservative members of Congress, Westmoreland represents the 3rd District, which covers much of central and western Georgia, from Henry County to Muscogee County. He was first elected to Congress in 2004, after beating Republican primary rival Dylan Glenn, an African-American.

MY REACTION - Well, actually Jay Bookman’s (Atlanta Journal Constitution) reaction: “According to his spokesman, U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a Southerner born and bred, had no idea on earth that the word “uppity” had racial connotations when he used it to describe Barack and Michelle Obama.

No idea at all. Could have knocked him over with a feather when someone told him. Really, who knew?

I wonder what they call that line of defense in PR school. I propose we name it the “My client is stupider than dirt” defense.”

Jay Continues…