Jeffrey Quick's Blog

Spearchucker?!

The usually soporific Sam Fulwood engages in some, uh, colorful writing:

Still, Powell rose higher than almost any black Republican by making the party faithful comfortable with his non-threatening and non-demanding presence on racial issues. Powell flamed out after his ego no longer allowed him to be an unquestioning spearchucker in Mr. Bush's war.

As a white boy in the sticks, I grew up with "spearchucker"...and I don't see any way that it's less offensive coming from a Black-operated keyboard.

Fulwood is right to call the conservative punditocracy on making such a big deal of Blackwell's race; it's conservatives who are supposed to stand for colorblindness and "judging on the content of character." But he repeats the canard about Blackwell suppressing the Black vote (and while he can't present evidence in the print version of the PD, hyperlinks could be available online),as opposed to the Libertarian vote, and is convinced that the Gravy Train is more important to black voters than Blackwell's social positions. That may be so. But I can't imagine that referring to the first Black Secretary of State as a "spearchucker" will help him in persuading the burgeoning Black middle class that could go for a Blackwell.