Filed under: News, Profiles, Politics, President Obama
It appears that Glenn Beck enjoys the idea of comparing black people to monkeys. Beck's latest rant featured him comparing President Barack Obama's America to "the damn 'Planet of the Apes.'" Beck made these comments in response to the president's statements against the AFL-CIO.Beck seems to feel that the support of strong union pensions in the presence of a high-unemployment rate doesn't make any sense. His alleged confusion about Obama's actions forms the basis of Beck's comparison to 'Planet of the Apes,' where a man is pushed in to another segment of time/space to find that apes run the world and humans are their pets.
"Special interest! What planet have I landed on? Did I slip through a worm hole in the middle of the night and this looks like America? It's like the damn 'Planet of the Apes.' Nothing makes sense! The guy who's helped destroy all these pensions, Andy Stern, he is now on the financial oversight committee. Is this who we want to take advice from?
"The unions who have collapsed all of the businesses, who have collapsed all of their pensions, they are bankrupting everything they touch and we go to them and we say, yes, tell me, what should we do? It's like any marital tips from Tiger Woods."
I was once tempted to take Glenn Beck seriously, but now I just see him as a cute little monkey himself who seems to live off of attention. Making one outrageous statement after another is his way of keeping his ratings high, so that Fox will pay him more money. Perhaps his scheme is working, since I am writing about him right now.
While Beck's outrageous words (it was no accident that he compared Obama to an ape, which is highly offensive to black people) may gain him attention right now, he must also realize that he loses credibility with each ridiculous statement. I personally find myself less and less shocked by anything he says, and I hardly consider him to be a serious political figure.
Additionally, his ironic comparison of Obama's America to "Planet of the Apes" is interesting in that it seems to imply that he feels our nation has (as in the movie) shifted roles, where the apes are running the world and the humans are being subjected to their abuses.
Beck reflects the sentiments of many white Americans, who believe that a nation being run by black people is going to turn into a zoo.
With regard to the meat of Beck's disagreement with Obama's support of the AFL-CIO, his reaction is natural. Republicans tend to be pro-business, typically at the expense of working Americans.
Labor unions reduce corporate profits by demanding that rank and file Americans get their share of company revenue. Such a fight is important in light of the fact that undermining labor unions, business de-regulation and irresponsible globalization is part of the reason that the wage of the American worker has remained stagnant for the last decade.
The bottom line is this: Obama is right to support labor unions, since they need additional help. Beck is right to get angry over Obama's support for workers, since Beck's constituents have little incentive to back the idea of wage increases for working Americans (some say that this is why the Republicans have always turned a blind eye to cheap labor via illegal immigration).
What always confuses me, however, is how the Republican Party is able to recruit working class people who vote for interests that directly conflict with their own. While Beck and other Republicans reel in the poor on issues like guns, gay marriage and affirmative action, they are ultimately focused solely on keeping their pockets full at our expense. That's why they will never appreciate labor unions.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.