Bailout Watch 193: Warren Brown Plays the Race Card
Washington Post automotive reviewer and Detroit apologist Warren Brown is black. While I couldn’t care less about Warren’s skin color, his latest appeal on behalf of his benefactors’ bailout billions is beyond the pale. It focuses exclusively on his ethnicity, suggesting that The Big 2.8 deserve federal money because they’ve put Warren’s “people” on the “road to success.” “I am a black child of the Deep South who watched legions of neighbors and relatives flee economic apartheid in pursuit of opportunity in the automobile factories of Michigan and Ohio and in the steel plants of Pennsylvania and Indiana… The American Three — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler — largely have been responsible for the development of a black middle class in this country. Many children of factory workers followed their parents onto automobile assembly lines. But many others went to colleges and universities, medical and technical schools, thanks to good UAW salaries and educational benefits.” His point being? “People make mistakes. But redemption is found in the good that they do, and the domestic automobile industry has done a lot of tangible good for this nation.” And now, the close: a suggestion that not bailing out Detroit would lead to class warfare (implied: a return to racism). “An America that manufactures nothing, or an America that owns nothing it manufactures, is an America with a frightfully vulnerable middle class — an America that threatens to become a society starkly divided between haves and have-nots, a throwback to the Deep South of my segregated youth. That is not the America I want.”
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RF: I can't help wondering whether it might not be better just to ignore Warren Brown (who is of course proof that undeserved affirmative action lives at the Washington Post). Bozoer Rebbe: if the cars were good, Wandering Jews would certainly put a smile on my face! Nonetheless, in general, I'm one liberal who is absolutely sick of identity politics. I hope Obama can make it totally obsolete.
dkulmacz: You are indeed a breath of fresh air. I live in Oshawa the motor city of Canada. For years a certain neighbor has been telling me that he buys what he wants to buy.He laughs at my CAW supplied licence plate frame{buy domestic} Today I'm out washing my car.Neighbor says "Mikey our property value has plummeted"Yeah I,m painfully aware dude.Oh by the way is your BMW still in the shop?Its ok cause you can drive your wifes KIA.I mean really, its not like she needs it,she was layed of a month ago.
Mr. Rebbe, your numbers are WAAAAY off: From Businessweek, 10/26/08- "Just 42% of U.S. consumers who bought a new car or truck during the past three months chose one made by Detroit companies, down from 47% a year ago -- a rapid decline that might have been aggravated not just by the suffering economy but also by the lower income levels of U.S.-brand customers." http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/news/article.asp?docKey=600-200810260901KRTRIB__BUSNEWS_58955-2NPFRR1UPV19HFEHIEGKG40FBI¶ms=timestamp%7C%7C10/26/2008%209:01%20AM%20ET%7C%7Cheadline%7C%7CCredit%20crunch%20hits%20buyers%20of%20Detroit%203%3A%20Retail%20market%20share%20is%20down%20%5BDetroit%20Free%20Press%5D%7C%7CdocSource%7C%7CKnight%20Ridder/Tribune%7C%7Cprovider%7C%7CACQUIREMEDIA%7C%7Crealtedsyms%7C%7C%7CUS%3BGM%7CUS%3BF%7CUS%3BTM%7CUS%3BHMC%7CUS%3BNSANY
Mr. Rebbe, your numbers are WAAAAY off the mark: From Businessweek, 10/26/08- "Just 42% of U.S. consumers who bought a new car or truck during the past three months chose one made by Detroit companies, down from 47% a year ago -- a rapid decline that might have been aggravated not just by the suffering economy but also by the lower income levels of U.S.-brand customers." Ah, but don't let facts get in the way of a good hyperbole.