Anyone see Aaron Schock’s very brief speech to the Republican National Convention? I did.
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Barack Obama’s keynote speech from the 2004 Democratic National Convention is wasn’t.
Note that his first sentence was about John McCain.
He then proceeded to talk about himself — how he appealed to Black voters, how he’s just 27 and a candidate for Congress, how he defied conventional wisdom to ask black people to vote for him, despite the stereotype that Republicans don’t do that sort of thing.
In other words, this was a campaign speech by Aaron Schock on behalf of Aaron Schock.
Funny, he never mentioned his school to end state-sponsored terrorism … by threatening to give nuclear weapons to Taiwan.
UPDATE: The liberal-learning blog Progress Illinois made this observation after seeing Schock’s speech:
I’d like to see some examples of how McCain is bringing inner-city Americans into the Republican fold. Back in June, the Center for New Urbanism noted that McCain’s campaign website made no mention of urban policy. More recently, the Center for American Progress’ Wonk Room pointed out that his site also lacks any plan to combat poverty. And in early August, during an appearance before the National Urban League, McCain advocated fighting inner-city crime in the same ways that the U.S. military has “clamped down” on neighborhoods and cities in Iraq. I’m sure that went over well …
I think they are missing the point. I don’t think the point was to reach out to black people on behalf of McCain, but to reach out on behalf of Aaron. It would be easiest thing in the world for McCain to start up some kind of “outreach” program similar to what the GOP does here in Peoria. But I applaud politicians who avoid that sort of thing.
85 days 23 hours ago.
Billy Dennis
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Anon E. Mouse
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C.J. Summers
Diane Vespa
David P. Jordan
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Merle Widmer
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Neil Johnson
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Billy Dennis
Everything done by Aaron Schock is for Aaron Schock (or shall I say “Aaron Shock”?)
Meh, I thought the speech was more corny than anything.
I was hoping he would throw a little red meat to the enthusiastic crowd. You know some quotes about Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter! being socialists, or confusing John and Ted Kennedy. I have to give him credit for at least mentioning minorities. Too often the G.O.P. tends to at best ignore and all too often play the race card. I was a little disaappointed that there wasn’t anything that could have been used at a 6PM newcast.
I wish I could put a visual asterisk on the screen when he says “a leg up, not a hand out.” At the end of his speech we’d print on the screen “* exceptions include: big business, the top 5% income bracket, political allies, countries who do our bidding, buddies from college who want to overcharge the taxpayers for contracts of various sorts or people within the justice department who solely focus on investigating and bringing charges against political opponents.”
It was a two minute speech. It was there. I found it disconcerting that he was talking about Peoria as if it were the South Side of Chicago. Nothing against either place, I just think they’re very different places.
And funny how he talked about community organizing in the wake of Sarah Palin’s total dis of grassroots organizations.
Aaron did an AWESOME job on stage and off . I as a neighborhood leader have worked with him and his office over the yeard . Aaron has never lost touch with the people and you all should be very proud of him. Aaron really cares about us all. I wish him all the very best. You should also.He is a hard worker ….. Mamma Hen
I was impressed as well. When giving such a short speech, you have to focus on just a few topics… and he focused on areas not normally associated to this GOP campaign: reaching out to blacks and the poor as a young conservative with energy and excitement. Good Job, Aaron!
We all saw a different speech, apparently. But I’m guessing that Mamma and Pez and Vespa and Beej are all white middle-aged & middle-income bloggers who have never had the humiliation of being patronized and marginalized by professional politicians, simply because of your ethnicity.
The blurb that Aaron blathered-out yesterday was demeaning to black communities. It was, in fact, racist rhetoric. His demagoguery -while in the GOP spotlight- has finally exposed his true-colors: Aaron Schock espouses the most dangerous of all “isms”… SUBTLE racism.
He flies just below the radar - just low enough to sound like he understands and supports minorities, but those of us who endured the struggles for civil rights first-handed can hear Aaron’s racist beliefs squeaking through our more finely-tuned ears.
EXAMPLE: First he implied that that the 20,000 food stamp recipients in his state district were either mostly or all African-Americans, by pairing the two statements in back-to-back sentences.
But he really clinched it When he equated “impoverished folks” with his winning “39% of the African-American vote”, thereby lumping all those black voters into one stereotypical group of “impoverished folks”.
It’s obvious that, in his own mind, Aaron cannot even comprehend that a caucasion might ever need public assistance or food stamps. And he added insult-to-injury by acting as if he was a great white God who tossed a bone down (or his “leg up”) to all of us ‘little po’ colored folk’ so that we’d suddenly be appreciative of his magnanamous gifts by blindly following him into his re-election bid.
To a person-of-color, who bears the literal scars of racism, we know a bigot when we see one. It is even more disappointing that Aaron’s comments came from the podium of my very own GOP party.
After his self-important braggadocio last night, and the entire week of the ‘head-in-the-sand’ Republican convention, I am still planning (hoping) to support McCain-Palin (but just barely), but as for the US 18th district congressional seat from IL, you can now add me to the ranks of:
* “Republicans for Anybody-but-Schock”. *
I’ve survived enough insults and obstacles from slick-talking politicians (mostly Dems) in my life, to give my support to young kid who tries to hide his rasict beliefs behind a boyish grin.
Not no Schock - not no how! (voluntary slang)
G’mornin’ to ya’ Mr D;
Yes, I saw a replay of Aaron’s brief self-important blurb, just a bit ago. I’m ’shocked’, saddened and disappointed -by both Aaron AND my Republican party. As of today, I am officially a “Republican for Anybody-but-Schock”.
After enduring the civil rights unrest of the 60’s, I understood that racism had to become more subtle, in order for hate-mongers to carry-on. However, when we came into the new century, I thought (hoped?) we could put even subtle racism to rest.
I guess I was wrong. In one simple paragraph - just 2 sentences - Aaron sucsessfully implied that ONLY persons-of-color ever need a leg-up or a handout.
In 1/5 of his lifetime alottment of fame, Aaron Schock managed to lump the entire black community into ONE group.
It started with his statement about “his” district having so many thousands of food stamp recipients, but then he clinched it in his next two sentences, when he proclaimed:
“…the Republican party stands for… helping impoverished folks”, then went right into “…I was reelected with 39% of the African-American vote”.
That statement is indicative of a deeply-felt racist philosophy. In one paragraph, Schock reminded us all that some of tomorrow’s ‘leaders’ still have the biggotted belief that blacks and other minorities are the only impoverished “folks” among Peoria’s inner-city, and that 35% of blacks followed him blindly to reelection, based solely on the fact that HE thinks he knows what WE think — e.g. ‘take care of us, and we’ll be sure to vote for you’.
It was sad and pathetic to see that this bright young boy still harbors a deep, cynical, stereotypical view of blacks.
Sad Aaron, sad. You are, with those remarks, exposing your true colors. And to think he is running for the same seat once held by Lincoln?!?
Aaron now has yet another new title to add to his list of important-sounding prefixes:
Along with being a Sexist, Aaron can now add the title of ‘RACIST’ to his resume’.
As of today, I’m still supporting McCain-Palin, but I will be switching my ballot to ‘blue’ when I reach the page for IL’s 18th district seat in Congress.
Sad, sad, sad.
It was mentioned in prior comments (cgiselle12 and Pez) that Schock only had a couple of minutes. In this extremely short speech, he took an opportunity to briefly explain something that he did to support the Republican party that was DIFFERENT than anyone had done before. As such, he made it a point to highlight exactly WHAT made his efforts different than what the stereotypical Republican candidate would do.
In the URBAN areas of Peoria, there aren’t too many white folks that I’ve seen. I’m sure there are some, but they seem to be a resounding minority. As such, when Schock says that he represents the URBAN part of Peoria, and then implies that his constituents are mostly African-American and on food stamps, I don’t see where there is a problem.
I, being a White-American (isn’t that an absurd pun?), find it overwhelming when individuals FIND reasons to be offended. In my opinion, this is one thing that has helped us, as Americans, to remain divided and segregated in so many ways.
Correct me if I am wrong but since Peoria is A CITY isn’t EVERYWHERE in Peoria URBAN? I hate to break it to you AverageJoe, but just because you don’t live on the south side doesn’t mean you don’t live in the suburbs or rural parts. Its a result of the attitude that has plagued Peoria for quite a while and created a competitive, instead of cooperative, environment in the different neighborhoods.
As a republican, who lives in a RURAL area (no cable television or internet, and a creek running through my yard in case you want proof) your attitude about Peoria is pretty disturbing. There is a problem when you speak of the city like its split down a geographic line of “haves” and “have nots”. I, being a white-American, am offended that you think Schock should be holding up his election record among african-american voters as something he has done for the republican party.
If he were a worthwhile candidate he would have been able to explain how he had taken a disadvantaged district and applied republican principles to raise the people of his district up and teach them to provide for themselves. But, he can’t because he hasn’t.
In case I wasn’t clear enough, when running for politicians (whether republican or democrat) should be able to talk about the accomplishments they’ve made for the people, not the party. Its a problem that is present in both parties right now.
average joe says “In the URBAN areas of Peoria, there aren’t too many white folks that I’ve seen. I’m sure there are some, but they seem to be a resounding minority. As such, when Schock says that he represents the URBAN part of Peoria, and then implies that his constituents are mostly African-American and on food stamps, I don’t see where there is a problem.”
If you want to go with a strictly “urban” vein - tall buildings and not houses per se - the absolute downtown core of Peoria - then actually almost nobody lives there. That’s part of the problem with downtown, there’s almost no residential buildings - so it’s dead as a doornail. But those who can afford to live in the Twin Towers or in the lofts down by the water, then I’d actually guess that most of those people are white.
So what you have done in just a few sentences is to classify, I am guesstimating here, the east and west bluffs and the south end of town - all mostly residential - as “Urban” which appears to translate to “poor.” And that most of the folks in these areas are not white - in your meme it reads black.
Then you appear to admit that you have the same blindness as Aaron - you ask what is wrong with equating African Americans with food stamps. Well, let’s play that out a little. What’s wrong with equating black men with jail time? What’s wrong with equating black women with welfare? What’s wrong with equating black teens with gangs? What’s wrong with equating black families with title loan stores?
And further, what’s wrong with equating Jews with penny-pinching? What’s wrong with equating Irishmen with drinking alcohol? What’s wrong with equating women with extreme emotionality?
What’s wrong with it ALL is that you are playing into deep STEREOTYPES. And people in this world are individuals - with individual sets of problems and issues - and should be granted the respect and dignity to be treated as such. Most of the African American people I know are NOT on welfare, collecting food stamps, living in public housing, uneducated or any of the other stereotypes Aaron used. A lot of the people living in the East and West Bluffs or the South End are not doing that either. They are not taking “hand outs” - another negative stereotype. A leg up is great, but when you lump an entire community in a city as the type of folks who are just looking for “hand outs” - and you were oh so smart and kind as to give them “leg ups” - you are indeed feeding into some of the most evil and pernicious stereotypes about black people.
For what it’s worth, I am a white woman living in a semi-rural part of Peoria. I don’t look to find offense - but sadly see it often.
11B, re: your last comment…well said, sir, well said.