First, let's explain: black leftist blogger Steve Gilliard takes a picture of Michael Steele and doctors it by blackening his face and putting red lips on him in order to make him look like a minstrel. The name of his blog post title was "Simple Sambo wants to move to the big house". The picture was named "Mantan" on his URL.
Robert George, who's often featured on the black news website "Booker Rising", was tipped off about the piece by a reader of his. He rebuked Gilliard on his website, and then tipped Andrew Sullivan on it. Sullivan, who has a huge readership, made a small post about it on his website.
Between Sullivan and George, Gilliard's post reached the campaign of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine. The Kaine campaign had purchased an ad on Gilliard's website, and when they saw that, they sent this to Gilliard:
Ha.Mr. Gilliard:
Please remove all advertising for Kaine for Governor from News Blog (http://stevegilliard.blogspot
.com/ ) immediately.
If you have any questions, please contact me at 202-465-4238 or at john@kaine2005.org.
John Rohrbach
Internet Director
Kaine for Governor
Needless to say, Gilliard's pissed. He called Kaine a coward, said George has a yellow streak down his back, and referred to Sullivan as a racist. He was also salty because the Kaine campaign never asked for an explanation (as if one was needed for that picture), but you can easily see the contact's name, phone number, and email address. He could have explained it as soon as he got the email.
Now Gilliard says this was due to the fact that Steele, Maryland's current lieutenant governor, blew off the news that Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich had a fundraiser at an all-white country club. The story broke back in July, over three months ago, and Gilliard didn't mention a word about it in his blog post. Steele later apologized for being "flippant", and called on the club to include blacks. And according to the Boston Globe, a few Democrats have fundraisers at that club as well, including a member of the Baltimore City Council.
This kind of bottomfeeding is normal for black leftists like Gilliard, however. A black person can't be a conservative or a Republican simply due to rational thought; they must either sell out to the white man's dollar, want to be white, or cater to whites themselves. They will be automatically branded a house nigger, or in this case, a minstrel.
As Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, and Clarence Thomas have learned, chicken manure like this don't need excuses or incidents to hurl insults. Thus, if you give them an inch, they'll take a mile. Of course, Gilliard doesn't see the big deal, thinking because he is black, it's alright to call another black a Sambo. But it's incidents like these that will keep leftist bloggers on the back burner of the political spectrum, and Gilliard's antics don't help black bloggers, either.
This kind of reproach for black conservatives is obviously encouraging white leftists as well. Gilliard asks, "What white progressive or liberal would feel free enough to make fun of a black man by putting him in blackface?" Hey Gilliard; meet Ted Rall. He didn't put Rice in blackface, per se, but he did everything but that. Here are some other examples.
As for Steele's comments, he had nothing to apologize about. Why should I be concerned - or want to be inclusive - in a private group where I nor any other black person isn't wanted? I wouldn't have anything to do with that club either. Now Steele should have had some reservations for Ehrich's fundraiser, but as news reports have shown, it isn't just Republicans visiting that club, and it's probably a normal thing for both Dems and Reps to attend fundraisers there. No matter what, there was no justification whatsoever for Gillard to resort to those tactics to insult Steele.
Malkin also picked up on the story, and had some choice words. Its time for conservatives - especially minority ones - to stand up and expose these fools as the idiots they are.