George Washington once said, “I was no party man myself, and the first wish of my heart was, if parties did exist, to reconcile them.”
In the late 1700s America was split into political parties so that those with certain morals and beliefs could come together to create the change they wanted to see in our country. Now, to belong to a certain party nobody has to believe every single thing that the party stands for, but typically those with more conservative views are Republicans, and those with more liberal views tend to be Democrats.
With that being said, individuals should not be defined by their political party but by their own individual set of morals and beliefs. Unfortunately, this problem stems from the constant presence of bias in the media today where journalists too often let one party’s views define the thousands of people that belong to it.
In a recent tweet that suggested the majority of Republicans are racist, MSNBC gave viewers good reason to classify them as a liberal network, which has a tendency to be bias when it comes to more conservative issues.
On Jan. 29, MSNBC tweeted about a new version of the controversial 2013 Cheerios commercial starring a biracial couple that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday, according to The Huffington Post. The tweet read, “Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/ biracial family.”
After the tweet, Chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus wrote a letter to the president of the cable’s network, Phil Griffin, threatening that all RNC personnel would be banned from appearing on the channel’s shows if he did not apologize. MSNBC later deleted the offensive tweet and apologized saying, “I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone offended. At MSNBC we believe in passionate, strong debates about the issues and we invite voices from all sides to participate. That will never change.” The person responsible for the tweet was also fired.
As someone who usually votes more conservatively, I was offended, but not at all surprised by MSNBC’s tweet. That particular network is known for having more liberal views, like Fox is known for being more conservative.
A comment left by Rick L. on The Huffington Post referred to the tweet saying, “It absolutely does represent MSNBC’s point of view,” especially since this is the second time this month they have had to apologize for a comment concerning Republican’s views about race. A previous comment joked at the fact that Mitt Romney has an adopted grandson who is black.
Griffin told the Hollywood Reporter that he didn’t want these unfortunate events where the network showed a lack of judgment to define MSNBC. But I’m afraid it’s a little too late for that.
UT sophomore and communications major Alex Medvedev agreed saying, “I think that MSNBC shouldn’t have commented at all because the ad generates comments and controversy in itself. MSNBC opened themselves to criticism they could’ve avoided.”
As Medvedev mentioned, this ad has generated a lot of controversy apart from the MSNBC tweet. When the commercial first aired in May 2013, it received so much backlash after being posted on YouTube that the comment section had to be closed.
Some even wrote on Cheerios’ Facebook page saying that they found the commercial “disgusting,” and others expressed shock that a black father would in fact stay with his family.
Of course those comments are extremely offensive, but the fact that the general public would automatically assume that Republicans are the ones leaving them is offensive as well.
LeftieAllTheWay left a comment on a Huffington Post article referring to the negative YouTube comments saying, “I wonder how many of those hate messages were posted by elephant voters,” (the elephant symbolizing the Republican Party.) In response to that comment, tuliprose said, “I’m gonna guess 99.89%, and then I’m gonna round up….”
Unfortunately, some Republicans have been known to make racist comments in the past and have been accused of disliking President Obama solely because of his skin color.
According to bigstory.ap.org, the Associated Press conducted a poll back in 2012 that showed that 51 percent of Americans still had anti-black attitudes, the majority of which were Republicans. However, not all are guilty of this.
Since when is it okay to stereotype all Republicans as racists? Obviously this world is filled with all kinds of people with different views, and yes some may still have issues when it comes to race, but that doesn’t mean that everyone that feels that way is a Republican.
A Huffington Post article quoted retired Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, a Republican and former chief of staff to Colin Powell, saying, “My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people — not all of them, but most of them — who are still basing their positions on race…My party is full of racists, and the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House has nothing to do with the content of his character…and everything to do with the color of his skin, and that’s despicable.”
I agree. The fact that what he is saying could be true is disgusting. But again, the Republicans that do not have racist views should not be lumped together with those who do as MSNBC did in their tweet. Every individual has their own opinions about race, and the entire Republican party should not be defined by racist individuals.
Caitlin Malone can be reached at caitlin.malone@spartans.ut.edu