Racism at Vermont Commons gets more overt

The latest from Mr. Class, Rob Williams, and the “racism, what racism?!?” cabal at Vermont Commons takes either real kahunas or a true disassociation from reality. In mocking Barack Obama, he’s taken to embracing the openly racist imagery of the Tea Party that has been roundly criticized by African Americans and, well… decent people of all political persuasions.

The picture on the left has been in circulation for some time, and it’s now Williams’s fave, as seen here and here, where he celebrates it with the comment “Barack Osama –> ain’t Photoshop great?”

It neatly and tidily combines all the scary non-whiteness into one, nice package with the President’s face. The Root, a WaPo publication focused on African American Issues, describes this particular image in its piece entitled “Evolving Images of Obama and Osama” as an “attempt to mobilize bigotry and fears about terrorism, Islam and bin Laden to delegitimize Obama as an American, a patriot and a president.”

This is the latest from the crowd that’s so above racism, they feel free to dub a hate group figure as their “philosophical guru,”, unapologetically publish League of the South leaders online and in print, has never apologized for publishing the writings of a neo-nazi sympathizer who warned Vermonters of the threat of “multiculturalists, feminists, gays, environmentalists, internationalists, secularists, and Holocaust promoters” (get it?) on the pages of their periodical (but quietly scrubbed it from the website when called on it), monthly post rants by a man who has no problem promoting his cause with leading figures in the racist movement or on talk shows affiliated with neo-confederate racists, who casually and routinely collaborate with racist organizations (including for the purposes of sharing and refining propaganda tactics), and who’ve even had the gall to invite them all up here to dirty up our own Vermont Statehouse. Par for the course.

And don’t look for any help from their enablers. Otherwise progressive folks like Will Lindner and Carl Etnier have no problem being associated – even promoting – this stuff. I guess it’s “none of their damn business” if their names could easily appear alongside the likes of neo-nazi sympathizer Robert Griffin, or that their reputations could be being put in the service of legitimizing calls for segregation in a new “Vermont Republic.”

Nor should we expect any worries from organizations like the Vermont Natural Resources Council, Rural Vermont, or businesses like Northshire Books and Marlboro College who allow their ads to appear alongside these pieces in print. What do environmentalists, farmers and… er… readers (I guess) care about racism after all? And Rob is just sooo sweet! Of course, not that they’re paying for those ads – Williams simply hands them out from “anonymous” donors so that mainstream and legitimate businesses and organizations will attach their names to his operation and shield him from criticism.

Yuck. I feel like I need a shower every time this topic comes up.

19 thoughts on “Racism at Vermont Commons gets more overt

  1. Good catch and thanks for sharing, especially with all the links.  These folks have the moral authority of a shit- covered rock (no offense to rocks intended).

  2. this is certainly the way to go about it!  

    I don’t think this stuff plays very well in Vermont.

  3. There’s a reason I was blackballed by SVR, but Rob and I still had open channels of communication.  Add the Truther BS to his admiration for a blatantly racist picture, and I’m pretty sure we don’t have anything to talk about–I don’t even feel like speaking to him about it.

  4. These people never seem to learn. Can’t wait till Chris Ketcham’s book comes out on them. This so-called “journalist” has been drinking Naylor and Williams’ Kool-aid, from what I’ve gathered of my interactions with him, so it’ll be a doozie, I’m sure.

  5. …myself, I worry more about the Vermont Tea Party.  Now, if you see anything on Vt. Commons, SVR site, etc. that shows there are a bunch of Tea Party people in SVR, or ties between the groups, that’s another story (big story).  I had my own problems with Naylor and Williams over the League Of The </i>South shit.  But, to me, that’s old news now.  

    It is curious also to me that Naylor is now a regular on COUNTERPUNCH.  Right along with Castro, Nader, and some other heavy Leftie hitters.  

    I don’t think this debate will ever go away until SVR delineates Vt. secession as having nothing to do with what happened in 1861.  That 1861 secession was about a state’s right to have an ‘evil’ political, economic and social structure.  Much like states’ rights about segregation in the 1950s-60s.  In fact, it would be in their interest to make much of the fact that THE SOUTH started (Ft. Sumter) the Civil War, giving Lincoln and THE NORTH no choice but to fight or say: “Okay, we surrender, and here’s all those Underground Railroad slaves back that those creepy liberals in Vermont helped escape.”  Also a good story on the St. Albans’ Raid in Oct., ’64 should grace their Fall newsletter.

    I think, per capita-wise, Vermont sent the second highest amount of soldiers to fight the South.  History, folks.  And what about Vermonters who went on Freedom Rides in the early 60s?

    And ya know what.  You can’t have ‘peaceful secession’ and break up the American Empire.  Tea Party people would be the first to sign up for the UNION.

    Overall, this is an issue of Mass Distraction.

  6. the text accompanying forwards the idea that Osama’s been dead since dec 2001.  

  7. I don’t respond to his phone calls or letters of correspondence. I’m in the same boat as Todd, I was cordial with them and due to some radical, yet short-lived beliefs I had, now I’d rather forget that I ever associated with them.

    Eugh, what a mistake that was.

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