Thursday, February 06, 2003

More Coble coverage: Ed Cone: I really don't think Coble is a racist, but he sure put his foot in it this time. I don't agree that Coble isn't a racist. To suggest that it could ever be justified to lock up innocent people because of their race shows a complete disregard for their personhood. Which I would say is the definition of racism. IsThatLegal?: Representative Howard Coble (R-NC), who explained today that 120,000 Japanese Americans were placed into internment camps during World War II for their own protection, did not come to his bizarre views of the internment recently. Fifteen years ago he rose on the floor of the House of Representatives to speak and vote against the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which offered an apology and a token redress payment of $20,000 to the surviving internees.   6:49:05 PM

Civil rights panel head decries congressman's remark North Carolina congressman Howard Coble says he was only trying to make a point about segregation when he said he agreed with internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. [News & Observer] Mr. Coble is on Apology #1, but his excuse was not "I was just joking" but rather "I was just making a point". Next up for him: Apology #2 - "I'm sorry if I offended anyone (but not because what I said was wrong)". It's amazing how the same pattern plays out every time someone is caught with their hand in the racism cookie jar. I just hope that the press puts the same kind of scrutiny on his remark that it did with Senator Lott's. There is no excuse for anyone suggesting that the forced migration of an ethnic group within a country to concentration camps is ever acceptable, regardless of what the norms of the society were at the time. And to his argument that the internment was justified for the sake of "protecting" the Japanese American community from other Americans (basically, white America), I only have this to say: It is immoral to punish an innocent person for the intolerant actions of another, simply because you don't want to stand up to their intolerance. Once again, the Republican Party's dirty little secret rears its ugly head.   5:55:57 PM

Lawmaker Says Interning U.S. Japanese Was Proper. The lawmaker, Representative Howard Coble, Republican of North Carolina, said in an interview that President Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision "was appropriate at the time," and added: "We were at war. We were under attack by a sovereign nation. We were not a multicultural society." [New York Times] Mr. Coble, famous for his sponsorship of a bill to give the entertainment cartel the right to hack into our personal computers, is at it again. But this time, his offense is more than a mistake of policy. It is an offense no less severe than Senator Lott's remarks a few months ago. The question is, will there be a double standard because the victims of his thoughtless remarks are Japanese Americans, not African Americans? Racism is racism. And the internment of Japanese Americans was racism on a scale which is only eclipsed by slavery in our history. His argument that they were locked up "for their own protection" is one of the most absurd things I've ever heard. "We're sorry, but there are racist people in our country who might hurt you. So we'll send you to prison instead of them." It's time to demand Mr. Coble step down from his chairmanship. If Trent Lott was forced to resign as Senate majority leader, then Howard Coble should resign as well. We cannot tolerate racism at any level of our government.   12:23:48 AM