An African American defends Rand Paul on Civil Rights Act position

[low preference guy]

This is a comment someone made at Rachel Maddow's blog. What other arguments can be used to defend Rand?

Rachel,

I am a 45 year old Black American male who loves your show but I strongly disagree with you about your position on Rand Paul. Just so you know I voted for Obama and Kerry because I was horrified by both Bush and Palin respectively. Here's where I disagree with you.

1. If someone in the Klan owns a restaurant and doesn't want to serve me, why on earth would I want to support him by giving him my money? I don't want my money going to buy little Klan baby clothes. I'd rather the privately owned establishments wear their racism on their sleeves so I know who to support. If they want to lose my money, and the money of all other minorities and people with brains and a conscience, then fine. Racism is bad business.

2. There's two facts none of us can get around. Churches are still the most segregated places in America every Sunday morning. Its called freedom of religion. There are still restaurants where you can't go in D.C. and I can't go in Georgia. That's called tribalism. Integration cannot be forced privately, only publicly. Tribalism cannot be defeated by legislation. Freedom of speech and of religion means also freedom of @!$%#s. I prefer them with their hoods off.

3. I respectfully say that I think you're wrong to imply that Rand Paul is a racist for believing that

Woolworth's should be allowed to be segregated. I will go on the record right now and state that I believe that Woolworth's and any other privately owned business should be allowed to be segregated. We Black's have a choice now that we didn't back before the Civil Rights Act. Why would I want to support cracker ass Woolworth's if that's who owns the store? I'll take my money elswhere. If you had your way, I wouldn't know one from the other. I hope we can one day agree to let Woolworth's be free to take off its Klan Hood so you and I both know where to spend our money. Its not like and oil company. We all "have to" buy gasoline for now. We blacks have a choice which lunch counter we want to sit at in 2010. Rand Paul stated that when violence occurred it was wrong. He said it was morally reprehensible and he would never support it? He shouldn't be smeared as a racist.

I love you to pieces and as a person of color I identify with your pain, but I'm glad these racists and homophobes want to come out into the open now. I don't think Rand Paul is one of them.

Oteil Burbridge

Bassist Allman Brothers Band

Lawrenceville, Georgia

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_new...-rand-paul-519

[Thargok]

+1776

[Jeremy]

For some reason I missed that first argument he made... very nice. I will have to add that to my arsenal.

[Cowlesy]

Leave it to a member of the Allman Brothers Band....

Still love to get my updates from sweet Lana and Rowlanda

[paulitics]

Cool, the bassist of the allman brothers is one of us. I hope that is legit.

[BamaFanNKy]

Dude! Oteil Burbridge from the Allman Brothers! Change the freakin' title!

[Paulitical Correctness]

+1

One of my fav. songs -

YouTube - Midnight Rider-The Allman Bros. Band

[Knightskye]

Well, apparently, he doesn't know his own age, because he's 42:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oteil_Burbridge

[Cowlesy]

Well, apparently, he doesn't know his own age, because he's 42:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oteil_Burbridge

That or his wiki is wrong.

[Paulitical Correctness]

Well, his official site says

·What's Oteil's birthday?

August 24, 1967 --a Virgo

[Jeremy]

Could've been rounding. Or an impostor.

[Cowlesy]

That's weird, sounded pretty sincere too.

Edit: I've misquoted my age before, so who knows? Once you start clocking the years, addition/subtraction gets difficult.

[Paulitical Correctness]

However, his IMDB page says 1964.

[BamaFanNKy]

That's weird, sounded pretty sincere too.

Edit: I've misquoted my age before, so who knows? Once you start clocking the years, addition/subtraction gets difficult.

No joke. Forgot my age today.

[low preference guy]

As someone in a minority, I don’t want to financially support bigots. If I know someone is a bigot, I won’t support him by eating at his restaurant; I would eat somewhere else. But discrimination laws makes it impossible for me to tell apart whether someone is a bigot or not, so I probably support bigots without even knowing, thanks to the government.

[low preference guy]

Someone please contact him to make sure it's legit, so we can change the title of this thread.

I'm pretty sure it's legit, though. How will make up this stuff so quickly?

[Paulitical Correctness]

How sweet would it be if Mr. Burbridge made an appearance here on RPF to join the discussion.

[BamaFanNKy]

Fwiw. Rand and myself would serve these two ladies at our lunch counter:








I'm sure Maddow would as well.

[paulitics]

Wiki, says he graduated from Sidwell Friends school in 1982, which would make him 15.

[Cowlesy]

However, his IMDB page says 1964.

Zabasearch returns 1964 multiple times too.

How sweet would it be if Mr. Burbridge made an appearance here on RPF to join the discussion.

He should, though from what I can tell, he's really just defending from a philosophical (albeit practical) basis.

The internet is pretty cool this way.

[RSLudlum]

I just emailed Elizabeth Wright asking her to comment on the segment.

Here's her blog: http://issuesviews.blogspot.com/

[cswake]

Whoa... look at this drivel:

This was a major hole in Barry Goldwater's argument in his seminal book, "Conscience of a Conservative" that is the primary source citation by modern-day conservatives making such arguments. Sen. Goldwater failed to consider the rights of those discriminated against and weigh whose rights were superior and worthy of protecting and many conservatives keep right on making that very same mistake.

[Bman]

Well, his official site says

·What's Oteil's birthday?

August 24, 1967 --a Virgo

Could be he's trying to shave off a few years to look more attractive to the ladies. Wouldn't be the first musician I've seen use this ploy for some extra in out action.

[BlackTerrel]

That or his wiki is wrong.

Wiki is never wrong

[Bman]

Whoa... look at this drivel:

That is complete drivel. I think Oteil's letter spells out exactly why. Not only is the business owner losing his right to decide who he does business with. The patron is also losing his ability to decide if he wants to do business with such people.

[Romulus]

Like I said, this attack is only going to fall back on Maddow and the left. It will educate and enlighten.

[Romulus]

http://www.oteilburbridge.com/

[Ninja Homer]

Wow, if that really is Oteil Burbridge, the campaign should get in touch with him to see if he'd do a press release or something. He knows what he's talking about, and it would immediately put an end to this line of attack.

Regardless, Rand needs to tackle this head on, and soon. Explain how he's in favor of private property rights and the free market rather than government intervention. Explain how the free market would take care of the problem better than the government. How long do you think it would be before a restaurant would be out of business if they openly segregated? There was no need for the Civil Rights Act to infringe on private property rights, because the free market would have taken care of it.

[FunkBuddha]

I've heard this same argument from several older black men. They said that prior to '64 they knew who the racists were and they preferred it that way so that they could avoid those establishments.

If you ever get a chance to sit down with an older black man or woman and talk to them about what life was like for them growing up, I highly recommend doing it. It's always been a valuable experience for me.

Also, if you think you know how to play Spades or Dominos and you've never played with a table of black folks, you're not as good as you think you are. Anytime I've ever played with black people its like they are on a whole different level.

[TheeJoeGlass]

Someone please contact him to make sure it's legit, so we can change the title of this thread.

I'm pretty sure it's legit, though. How will make up this stuff so quickly?

I want to know if its fake, why choose that guy? Like he is a well known person? Now I am just curious.