Sweeney calls Rutgers Camden protesters a "lynch mob"

This Post is laughable!! (0.00 / 1)

To even insinuate that he was being racist in any form is a joke.

To have this Post promoted is embarrassing. Has Blue Jersey sunk to this type of nonsense?

You are a well known Sweeney hater who has never given him any credit.

This post is a new low. A true cheap shot from a phony
armchair activist.
 

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by: firstamend07 @ Mon Feb 06, 2012 at 21:02:50 PM UTC

Do you understand... (0.00 / 0)

...what it means to be racially insensitive?

Sweeney used a word, "lynch mob", that has a very specific meaning with a very specific history for a very specific group of people and using a word like this as a euphemism to describe nonviolent protestors, acting within their rights, is about as racially insensitive as one can be.  Saying that someone is being racially insensitive is not the same as saying that they are being racist, so your comment fails right off the bat, because you are defending Sweeney from an insinuation that was not being made.  Then you use this as an opportunity to bash Rosi and Blue Jersey, both of whom have been far too patient with your behavior here.

Yes, 12 hates Sweeney, as do many of us, and we probably will continue to do so until he actually accomplishes something on behalf of the progressive community.  His work on behalf of marriage equality has been a step in the right direction, but considering how far backwards he has taken our party and our state over the last few years, nothing short of a veto override is going to come close to making up for what he has done to date and calling protestors a "lynch mob" takes him further backwards.

Your defense of Sweeney's racially insensitive words is a new low.  It is a tone-deaf defense from a phony tool of the Norcross machine.  As I have said before, the best advocacy that you can provide for Sweeney is your silence, because when he does something right, the way that you break your arm patting him on the back makes the rest of us feel less good about what he did and when he does something wrong, your nonsensical defense of him just confirms how wrong what he did truly was.  You do your cause no good by posting here.  Please stop.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Mon Feb 06, 2012 at 21:29:28 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Post wherever I Want! (0.00 / 0)

Thankfully you and your elitist buddy do not run this site.

To call Sweeney racially insensitive or racist is just plain ignorant.

Stop cherry picking phrases and then using them to your own elistist advantage.

The very last thing Sweeney IS is a racist.

If this hate mongering is the " progressive way" then Progressives will never succeed.

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by: firstamend07 @ Mon Feb 06, 2012 at 22:39:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

go ahead and post (0.00 / 0)

You do more harm for your cause than good.  If you are not willing to recognize this, then feel free to do as much damage as you want.  It doesn't matter to me.  You should at the very least proofread what you write before you click the "post" button.

Once again, I did not call Sweeney a racist.  I did not call what he said racist.  I am also not making a general statement that he is racially insensitive person.  

However, calling peaceful protestors a "lynch mob" is racially insensitive.  This is not debatable.  Anyone who uses these words in this way is going to be criticized for it.  I am not cherry-picking anything.

You can call this hate-mongering if you want, but it is honest criticism.  I cannot speak for 12, but if someone, who I liked and respected like Dick Codey or Loretta Weinberg, said something like this, my reaction would be the same.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 03:41:07 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

When will Sweeney apologize to RU Camden (0.00 / 0)

students and faculty?  He owes them an apology.

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by: 12mileseastofTrenton @ Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 02:55:26 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Jim Crow Ignorance (0.00 / 0)

Definition: Jim Crow laws, or Jim Crow for short, maintained racial segregation in the South beginning in the late 1800s. Under Jim Crow, whites and blacks drank from different water fountains, used different bathrooms and sat separately on public transportation and in restaurants.

How is what Sweeney said a " improper comparison" to Jim Crow.

Each time I read your post it gets more ignorant.

Why are you such a hater?    

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by: firstamend07 @ Mon Feb 06, 2012 at 21:15:58 PM UTC

In the Jim Crow south lynching was a (0.00 / 0)

common means of oppression.  

Chris Christie knows more about civil rights history than you do.

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by: 12mileseastofTrenton @ Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 02:53:54 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

lynch mob (0.00 / 0)

It was an unfortunate term to use, especially given that the crowd was well behaved with no reporter incidents of violence or intimidation.  

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by: birdofprey @ Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 04:37:24 AM UTC

Unfortunate term,but.. (0.00 / 0)

Could a better term have been used. Sure. But to insinuate that State Senate President Sweeney is a racist or even " insensitive" to minorities is despicable!

There are a couple of people who post on Blue Jersey who have such an irrational hatred of the Senate President  that no matter what he does or says he will be vilified.

Unfortunately oneo ftheir Posts was promoted to highlight status and THAT was wrong.

Ignorance is ignorance and it has nothing to do with education.

The two arm chair elitists who are out right Sweeney haters prove that point.

The real apology should be posted on this site for calling Sweeney a racist!

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by: firstamend07 @ Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 11:11:26 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

firstamend07 (0.00 / 0)

You have been asked before to refrain from characterizing writers and commenters on this site as "arm chair elitists" or the even more dubious name "arm chairs". Take this as a last warning.  

It's not a particularly snappy signature, but here's what I think we need in the next NJ Democratic State Chair.  

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by: Rosi Efthim @ Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 12:44:55 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

If Christie had used that term (0.00 / 0)

to describe a peaceful group of students and faculty, people would be screaming for an apology.  And they'd be right.  Why should there be a double standard with Sweeney?  The remark was not only racially insensitive, but totally unwarranted, even leaving race aside.

It's time for Senator Sweeney to apologize to the RU Camden students and faculty.

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by: 12mileseastofTrenton @ Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 13:04:30 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

racially insensitive term (0.00 / 0)

Once again, nobody called or insinuated that Sweeney was a racist or even a racially insensitive person outside of this incident.  However, you cannot argue that what he said at that moment was not racially insensitive.

That said, maybe if Sweeney did go to college, took a few college-level American History classes, hopefully with some African-American classmates, and had the opportunity to be engaged in some discussions with them about topics like these, he might have had a better understanding of the history, impact, and power of words like these.

But instead, he received most of his education from the school of hard knocks in South Jersey's mostly white, working class suburbs and the Building and Construction Trades, which have by far the worst record in terms of minority hiring of any sector of the organized labor movement.  Also, because of his special relationship with South Jersey's political boss, George Norcross, Sweeney does not have to engage elected officials of color and learn about issues like these from them because of his position of power over them in the South Jersey political machine's hierarchy.

As a result of his lack of education and experience with these issues, I think that it quite fair to argue that Sweeney's ignorance is what fueled these racially insensitive remarks.  That is not a defense of them, but simply an explanation.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Tue Feb 07, 2012 at 13:23:02 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thread makes the Inquirer (0.00 / 0)

http://www.philly.com/philly/b...

Still no apology from Steve Sweeney.

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by: 12mileseastofTrenton @ Wed Feb 08, 2012 at 13:13:11 PM UTC