Ron Paul and Racism: Ron Paul’s Not Racist

In 2007, this blogger made a video question for the CNN YouTube Republican Debates for Ron Paul, and it was based on the work of Alan Bernstein of the Houston Chronicle, where he wrote:

Texas congressional candidate Ron Paul’s 1992 political newsletter highlighted portrayals of blacks as inclined toward crime and lacking sense about top political issues.

Under the headline of “Terrorist Update,” for instance, Paul reported on gang crime in Los Angeles and commented, “If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be.”

Paul, a Republican obstetrician from Surfside, said Wednesday he opposes racism and that his written commentaries about blacks came in the context of “current events and statistical reports of the time.”

And here’s the video question…

and then created a follow-up video, this one:

Because so many Ron Paul supporters were upset with the idea that their candidate could be tarred with the “racist” tag.

Now, in 2011, the issue I said would not go away, is back again, and with people pointing to the same news, again. Congressman Paul did address this issue, and said that the person who wrote the newsletter was fired.

Others point to a video that has Paul mentioning the newsletters, but he says nothing that’s racist. Here’s the video:

And others say that Paul, in this video below, goes on a “racist rant,” but that only shows the trick of today’s society: if you mention “black” or “white” or whatever, you’re called racist by those who are just trying to shut you up. In the video, Congressman Paul tells the truth about how the system’s unfairly slanted against African Americans Here’s the video:

In closing, this blogger’s an Obama supporter, but that does not mean I support the unfair smearing of a candidate. Do I think Paul may have had racist ideas at the time? Yes. Do I think he holds them today? No. This, for me, is a dead issue.

Stay tuned.