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Didn't really seem racist to me.
If he had said "You lie, you black ****" then that would be different.

Emperors Faithful wrote:Didn't really seem racist to me.
If he had said "You lie, you black ****" then that would be different.

Racism isn't a simple thing, and context matters a whole lot. When people around here show no respect for the office of president, it's no big deal. But when a senator, who's job is tied up in process and authority, suddenly shows complete disregard for both, it makes some people wonder why.

And the thing is, when Joe Wilson was in state congress he'd championed an effort to get the confederate flag flown over the state house. The flag had originally been raised in the 60s, by an all white senate as a direct response to the growing civil rights movement.

Worse, when a black woman came out and said she was the daughter of Strom Thurmond and Thurmond's black maid, Wilson publically doubted the story and was highly critical of the harm caused to Thurmond's legacy. When the story was later proven, Wilson said the woman still shouldn't have gone public as it hurt Thurmond's legacy. Strom Thurmond's legacy. The guy who ran for president for a third party on a platform of resisting desegregation in the army. The guy who had the longerst filibuster in history, speaking for 40 hours to stop the Civil Rights Bill being passed. Who shifted from the Democrats to the Republicans in the 60s, when the Democrats became the party of civil rights and the Republicans adopted the Southern Strategy. Yeah, Wilson was very worried about a black child ruining that Thurmond's legacy.

So when Wilson suddenly shows no respect for the office of the president, it makes sense to raise an eyebrow and wonder where that really came from.