But it goes much further and is much more ingrained in the modern Republican ideology. From Bill O'Reilly, Steve King, and Pat Robertson to the Delaware Pogrom and Indiana's "2% solution" against Jews, references to blacks as monkeys, the institutional racism involved in leaving poor blacks to drown in New Orleans, and racism in Montana against Indians, right down to Republican hatred of Catholics, Jews, and Muslims, Republican racism may not be unique, but it is particularly nasty, widespread and dangerous.

I have, however, compared and contrasted Republican racism vs. the more subtle Democratic racism in "Angry White Men and Conveniently Compassionate White Men". I also should state that I know many non-racist Republicans, but I have found them almost universally disgusted by their own party since Bush took over, and they aren't too happy about McCain. Democrats reflect the inherant racism in America, and let's face it the nomination of Obama with such high voter turnout shows that Democrats as a group are overcoming that at least to some degree. Republican racism reprepsents the embracing of an extremist right wing fanatical ideology that has split the Republican party. The man I met today embodied the worst kind of American racism.

I have written about left wing racism and recognize it as a problem. Of course many argue about how much of racism in general is really classism and how much is racism. In my general experience what I have been most disgusted by among my Park Slope progressive peers is the classism. In general (and I am sure there are things I don't see and hear) a wealthy black family with the right brand of strollers and acceptable neuroses about where their kids will go to school may well fit in better in many Park Slope crowds than my wife and I would with our decidedly not proper approaches to pre-K education (hey, let the kid develop how he wants to!) and our used strollers. I have always pointed out that it is hard to ignore that the sharp economic gradient seen in Park slope as one goes from the park to the canal is matched by an inverse melanin gradient...but the rather irritating attitudes many people I know in Park Slope seem more to do with wealth, which baby boutique you shop at and whether you have your kid enrolled in Latin, chess and advanced Neitche by the time they reach their second birthday. The racism I encounter on the right seems more purely racism. What will happen to this country when a black man runs it...fear specifically of the skin color no matter what else. Added to this is often the sense that everyone is going to hell unless they are fundamentalist Christian (the attitude that threatens me personally the most). That combination of a god given (rather than wealth given) sense of racial (as opposed to wealth derived) superiority strikes me as worse...if there can be a better and worse of prejudice.

If I may use an extreme example, let me compare ancient Roman slavery with American slavery. The former was a situation where anyone of any race could be a slave and anyone of any race could earn their way to freedom and become a fully integrated member of society. Freed slaves of any race could be and often were full citizens of Rome. In American slavery the institution was specifically racially defined and even once freed, there was no way a black could be an equal citizen to even the poorest white...arguably even today. Both were brutal, barbaric, disgusting practices. One was purely economic, allowing a way out of the barbaric practice. THe other was racial, never allowing a full escape from the barbarity.

What bothers me more about the right wing version of prejudice in the current era is the anger and violence associated with it. Hate crimes are on the rise in Bush America (not sure the most recent statistics, but overall this is true) and the targets are largely due to right wing prejudices (e.g. anti-black, anti-immigrant, anti-gay...) and are well reflected in the rhetoric of the right wing "pundits" on national television and radio who openly denegrate and threaten those who are non-white, non-protestant, non-right wing, and non-male.

You do not get this combination of rage, threats, violence and prejudice on the left as far as I have seen, or at least rarely. It is an integral part of the Bush/McCain Republican culture, hence the draw of rabid fanatics like Hagee, Robertson, Fallwell, etc.

No one has a corner on the market of prejudice. But somehow I see something particularly disgusting, barbaric and widespread about right wing racism in the Bush era.

That are made on the Staten Island Advance Political Forum. I try not to reply to the stupid remarks made by bigots but it's frustrating that in this day and age people still mark remarks and have prejudices like this.

I know that what you say is the stereotype, and too often true. But there are groups like CBID which do have a noticable minority membership, and let's not forget one of the most successful progressive organizing efforts to date in Brooklyn: Barack Obama's campaign.

I agree with you that there has traditionally been a divide between the white progressives and minority communities. But I see far more bridging of that divide in Brooklyn right now than I have anywhere else. And one can only hope that the candidacy of Obama can bring together those two communities.

Only when minorities make up a significant portion of left-wing groups, especially at the upper levels, will the "left" do anything about racism. Meanwhile, it's much more convenient to use it as a political tool than to solve the problem.

Been saying that for years. Don't have the answers for you, but it's striking how segregated the Progressive community really is. I first noticed this in 2004, canvassing in Ohio, that Democrats are those people who show up in black neighborhoods every four years asking for votes around October.

It has to be done. And I think it is, albeit in excessively small ways.

Progressives had a lot to do with the election of two minority Surrogate judges in Brooklyn (I can hear Gatemouth revving up his anti-progressive rap, but progressives DID play a role). Among the close allies of progressives in Brooklyn are Chris Owens, Tish James, Eric Adams, Velmanette Montogomery. I am carrying petitions predominantly for black politicians. I think that has been the case every time I have carried petitions. Interestingly, progressives in Brooklyn have more contact with black politicians than they currently do with DFNYC, which has never really been able to do well in Brooklyn. I am not really sure what that means, to be honest. Although to give DFNYC credit, more often than not I see its members helping out minority candidates from Chris Owens to Diane Benson (Native American running in Alaska...not a DFNYC candidate but many fundraisers for her were done by DFNYC people).

Beyond even a connection between minority communities and progressives (a necessity) is the broader connection between progressives and all communities (an even bigger necessity). It is a matter of relevance. Are progressives relavent to the communities they purport to represent. If the answer is ever "no" then progressives had better do something about it. Blue Tiger Democrats seem to be defunct now, but they seemed to have the right idea. Democrats Work is another organization where a direct connection to the community is an important part of politics. I see this approach critical to the long term expansion of the progressive movement. Progressive efforts of all kinds, from this website to DFNYC to CBID etc. have to be relavent to the communities they want to work with. Relavence can come in two mutually complementary ways: you gotta look like those you want to represent (meaning community participation) and you gotta be helpful to those you want to represent (meaning the community has to feel you are benefitting them).

Logic does not play as strong role in modern Republican thinking. Otherwise how would you get the idea that cutting school funding is good education policy or neglecting levees is a good idea or invading Iraq somehow has something to do with fighting al-Qaeda.