Mississippi governor Haley Barbour said some dismissive, insensitive, historically inaccurate stuff about race relations in the South in the 1960s the other day. His take: things really weren't that bad. And the segregationist Citizen Council movement was just "an organization of town leaders."
Now Barbour has issued a grand apology and made it clear that he abhors segregation and racism, no ifs, ands, or buts. Another thing this makes clear is that his original statement really was a dog whistle: it was meant to send a message about his racial politics that only those who share them could hear. Barbour is a shrewd politician, and he would not have set foot near the racial borderline had he not wanted to plant his flag there. The apology may also be sending a message: by Economist blogger J.F.'s reading of it, he's indicating that he's going to run for president in 2012.
These events and their meaning will be debated by many for a long time, and many will (and already have) declared that Barbour is nothing but a closet racist himself. I understand things a bit differently...
Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/haley-barbour-northern-race-vote?src=rss
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