Harshing on Herman Cain

I've quoted Chauncey DeVega a few times on the topic of Herman Cain. If you think DeVega is harsh on the man, check out Anthea Butler in Herman Cain Sings For the Press Religion Dispatches 10/31/2011:

Cain, a member of Antioch Baptist church North in Atlanta, Ga, has mentioned his Christian faith on the campaign trail, and has recorded a gospel album. Cain’s singing of “He looked beyond my faults” [during his National Press Club appearance in October] was, in my opinion, a combination of minstrel show, an Amos and Andy riff without Amos, and a sly admission. By going into entertainment mode with the crowd, Cain tried to both deftly testify to his faith with his Teavangelical base, while at the same time throwing the throngs of reporters off from the trail of the sexual harassment suit. All while confessing that while “others saw his faults, He (Jesus) saw my need.” One wonders what Cain’s faults really are.

I've hesitated to write about #TheHermanCain in part because he honestly irks me. I understand conservative Republican African Americans, but Herman Cain panders to the worst of racial fantasies about the black man who loves whites more than his own life. Cain’s statement at the National Press club—“This many white people can’t pretend they like me”— smacks of buffoonery. A Morehouse man who did not participate in any Civil Rights events during his time at the school in Atlanta in the early 1960s, Cain also blames African Americans for being “brainwashed” by the Democratic party into not being open minded and considering a conservative point of view. Cain also believes the “Planned Parenthood promotes black genocide" line from Maafa 21. Others may disagree, but Cain's arrogant dismissal of anyone who disagrees with him, and his racialized posturing, may be intented to convince his audience that he has transcended race. On the contrary.

Cain’s singing, his effusive happiness that “whites” love him, and his constant so-called joking all remind me of a statue that was placed in Louisiana in 1927 called the "Uncle Jack, the Good Darky.” Designed to honor faithful slaves that kept the plantations while their masters went off to war, the statue has a plaque that says “Erected by the city of Natchitoches in grateful recognition of the arduous and faithful services of the good darkies of Louisiana.” The statue aggravated many blacks, but wasn't put away into storage until the Civil Rights Movement. [my emphasis]

Speaking of Chauncey DeVega, he's still harshing on Herman. For instance, in More Bucking, Shucking, and Jiving: Herman Cain is the Koch Brothers "Brother From Another Mother" WARN 11/04/2011, he catches Cain declaring his familial allegiance to the one-percenter Bircher Koch Brothers:



Tags: 2012 election, herman cain, koch brothers