Racism Runs Wild at Town Halls

By Countdown

August 12, 2009

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Princeton professor and Nation contributor Melissa Harris-Lacewell talks to Keith Olbermann about the racist undercurrent of the anti-healthcare reform crowds, the "birthers" and "deathers," and the recent trend of hanging public officials in effigy. With the arrest of a man with a loaded gun at a town hall with President Obama in New Hampshire Tuesday, the fear of violence is growing, and Harris-Lacewell agrees with Congressman John Dingell that the tactics being used are similar to those seen in the sixties during the civil rights movement. She points out, though, that despite the threats and intimidation used in the sixties, Congress and the President did pass civil rights legislation, and that the continuing struggle is not a reason to lose hope.

--Sarah Jaffe

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