Follow Up on Fast Eddie

This post from The Field has an interesting anecdote about a 1983 Pennsylvania election that puts the lie to Ed Rendell's comment.

Imagine my surprise when, some weeks later, in his presence, a television ad came on the air for Wilson Goode, an African-American candidate for mayor of Philadelphia that would win that election. This same guy said to me, “Yup. I think it’s time to let a nigger have that job.” Upon further inquiry, I discovered he was absolutely sincere in that statement. 

“You would vote for him?” 

“Absolutely.” 

It was an eye opener for me. And over the years I’ve learned from experience: the most destructive forms of racism come from those that deny they have any racist tendencies (and in fact cry like babies when their silent bigotry is pointed out to them), whereas many folks that would offend the speech cops with the N-word and such, on an operative level, are much more tolerant of coexistence with groups of people they say they don’t like.

Well, this latest admission by the northern liberal Rendell will certainly have the effect of bringing back the race-baiting card, but we’ve already seen in 2008 how it’s going to backfire. Rendell’s statement was a bigger insult to rural white Pennsylvanians even than to African-Americans. He’s saying, “you hicks are the bigots, and I’m not, but I’m happy to exploit your ignorance.” And on April 22, rural Pennsylvanians will give the governor a lesson in civics.