Nader asks if Obama will be "Uncle Tom"

Pj_Gurl wrote:

Nader is an activist. This is what he does. He makes bold proclamations, issues challenges, gets his name in the limelight, gets his cause some attention. This is who he is. He’s done it for the last fifty years. He’ll do it until he dies.

The statement was dumb and unneccessary. Nader has a knack for saying dumb things. He’s an activist. He’s not a politician. He’s not a coalition-builder. He has a strategy but no tactics. He does not play well with others. He’s not sensitive, he's not nice and he comes across as a cranky old man. The saddest thing is, Ralph should be remembered for his great consumer advocacy, but for some reason he seems hell bent on destroying his own legacy.

If Nader wants to attack Obama for being a sell-out, then he should’ve used the word “sell-out.” He’d be wrong (as he almost always is lately), but it would convey his idea waaaaaaaay more effectively. Instead he chose a smear specifically directed at Obama’s race. When faux news thinks that’s a low blow, its a low blow, but the faux news people are the worst fucking hypocrites to be the ones calling him on it, though. Sad. I don't need some Fox slimeball to tell me what's right.

Obama, not Nader, built a progressive, grassroots organization that took on and ended eight years of despicable Republican rule. Obama, not Nader, encouraged the highest turnout of young voters in a hundred years. Obama, not Nader, now leads a nation. He is the President-elect, and now, without question, he is my President.

How does one go from being a great hero to a sore loser who results to using deragatory statements to express how he feels?

Bitter much Ralph?

really well stated.
he has done amazing things, but sadly running for president isn't one of them imo.

Smartypants wrote:

Sad. Despite agreeing on many issues, I've never liked this guy:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibsP6XN2dIo

making perot look like a genius more and more.

Nader is clown shoes.

The idea behind Nader's statement is a perfectly realistic one, but why he had to resort to using the term "Uncle Tom" is beyond me. It automatically renders his valid point-of-view moot. There are many reasons most haven't taken him seriously since 2000 (if even then) and this may well be the final nail in his coffin. It's a shame becuase he makes a lot of sense. He just has zero idea how to organise himself politically. I don't regret voting for him in 2000, but I sure as hell don't regret not voting for him since then.

I think it's pretty much an unwritten rule that white people shouldn't call black people by terms that could be or are considered racial pejoratives. There's a lot to like about Nader, but he had to know better. It would be like saying, "Hopefully Sen. Lieberman will jew down the price of paper at the Dirksen Building."

Obviously it was a dumb choice of words, and he should have used a term like "sellout" or "corporate whore" or whatever. that's not even debatable. But I would say that Nader's choice of asking if he'll be an Uncle Sam or an Uncle Tom seems like it's based more on the wordplay than any sort of racist notion. Clearly it's a bad idea to put clever puns ahead of being sensitive to racial discrimination, but beyond the terminology used, he does ask an important question.

I have followed Ralph Nader for years. My wife and I were Nader's Raiders in University and took part in many volunteer efforts in our Communtiy to get Ralph on the ballot in 1996 and 2000. We knew full well what we were doing in 2000 by casting our vote to Ralph. I felt very strongly at the time that voting for Nader was the way to go, regardless of whether it would send a clown like Bush to The White House.

I've always believed that we need a strong 3rd party opposition in this country. But of course alot has changed since 2000, and I now believe strongly that we have to organize and build the party from the ground up rather than simply throw Nader on the ballot every 4 years without any other representation in government.

I do not recognise the man that I once held in such high regard. Despite pleas from his closest friends and workers in 2004, Ralph basically told us all to "Fuck Off"; shunning the very people that have supported him, and been with him since the very beginning.

I do not believe in this man any more because I strongly feel that his campaigns are no longer the agent of change that he proclaims, but nothing more than a selfish ego driven exercise in vannity.

These comments by Ralph comparing Obama to an "Uncle Tom" are further proof that Ralph has completly lost the plot.

His ideas regarding this country are still very strong, but it's tragically apparent that he has let his ego take control of the wheel. These actions have sadly lead him to a series of tragic mistakes and untasteful comments that do nothing more than tarnish his once great vision and legacy.

I'm positive that a younger Ralph Nader would shutter at these recent comments.

I hope that someday Ralph comes to his senses and works with us rather than continue to shut out those that share his vision, yet have different ideas on how to fully realize them.

Rhinocerous Surprise wrote:

Obviously it was a dumb choice of words, and he should have used a term like "sellout" or "corporate whore" or whatever. that's not even debatable. But I would say that Nader's choice of asking if he'll be an Uncle Sam or an Uncle Tom seems like it's based more on the wordplay than any sort of racist notion. Clearly it's a bad idea to put clever puns ahead of being sensitive to racial discrimination, but beyond the terminology used, he does ask an important question.

yes. what i enjoy in my president and leader of this ginormous, diverse nation is a total lack of communication skills!

if nader can't even handle denigrating obama, a man he's be slamming for quite a while now so he supposedly knows a lot about him, how would he handle communication with the rest of us, with congress, with leaders of other nations?

sadly for nader, who after years of running for president, hasn't figured out that people will pay attention to the uncle tom part and will ignore or dismiss the rest. what's that they say about someone who keeps doing the same thing, expecting different results?

I think Nader just isn't capable of communicating a simple thought very well.
Around here, a black, any black who takes on a leadership position or stands out in the community, is expected to take up for other blacks no matter. One of the finest men I have ever known is a black man and he has heard the 'Uncle Tom' shit for years. Bottom line is, Obama will in all likelihood eventually be called an Uncle Tom....that's how it would work around here anyway. Nader, I believe, was trying to say that Obama will have to prove that he does indeed care about the so-called little people and won't be a big-money butt sniffer.
The use of the term "Uncle Tom" was just stupid though, can't argue against those who think that. Perhaps Nader, although a numskull, is aware of the fact that a portion of the black population -- usually the less-fortunate -- hurls 'Uncle Tom' at those is positions of prominence.

I'm undecided on how racist the comment really is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom

"Uncle Tom is a pejorative for a black person who is perceived by others as behaving in a subservient manner to White American authority figures, or as seeking ingratiation with them by way of unnecessary accommodation. The term Uncle Tom comes from the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, although there is debate over whether the character himself is deserving of the pejorative attributed to him. Stowe never meant Uncle Tom to be a degrading character, but the term as a pejorative has developed based on how later versions of the character, stripped of his strength, were depicted on stage.[1]

It is commonly used to describe black people whose political views or allegiances are considered by their critics as detrimental to blacks as a group."