Context, context, context

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Gov. Palin retweeted Thursday:

"HeyTammyBruce Liberals defended Shirley Sharrod, lecturing about importance of hearing statements 'in context' For everyone except Dr Laura of course."

Tammy was spot on about the left's hypocrisy. They only want context for themselves, but deny it for opposing views. One notable exception is liberal Robert Paul Reyes, who posted this excerpt from the transcript of the phone call that got Dr. Laura into such a kettle of boiling oil:

CALLER: How about the n-word? So, the n-word's been thrown around -

SCHLESSINGER: Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic, and all you hear is nig***, nig***, nig***.

CALLER: That isn't -

SCHLESSINGER: I don't get it. If anybody without enough melanin says it, it's a horrible thing; but when black people say it, it's affectionate. It's very confusing. Don't hang up, I want to talk to you some more. Don't go away.

CALLER: I was a little caught back by the n-word that you spewed out, I have to be honest with you."

In his commentary at American Chronicle, Reyes defended Dr. Laura:

Dr. Laura didn't call the caller, who is African-American, or anyone else the n-word.

Dr. Laura is correct when she stated that black guys use it all the time. Of course many African Americans are horrified by the casual use of the word by many young blacks. But it's impossible to be in a group of young black people and not hear the offensive word repeated ad nauseam.

Dr. Laura has no history of being a racist.

Dr. Laura wasn't advocating for the right of white people to use the n-word. She was merely pointing out the double standard: It's OK for blacks to use the horrible word, but not for non-blacks.

Despite her apology, Reyes says that Dr. Laura is "blameless in this incident." Which puts Reyes essentially in agreement with what Sarah Palin wrote in her Facebook post on the matter.

But leftists and their media fellow travelers will grasp at any straw to brand their hated political opponents as raaaacists by twisting their words and taking them out of context.

As for Dr. Laura, she responded graciously to Gov. Palin's support:

On Wednesday, in her Tweet and Facebook, Sarah Palin made strong statements in my support. You may remember that, two years ago, I was less than enthusiastic when she was selected by John McCain to be his running mate, as my concerns were that having responsibilities for small children should preclude such a decision.

In spite of my criticism at that time, Sarah Palin came out in support of my decision to move on...

[...]

I spoke with her yesterday and told her how impressed I was with her character. You don’t see such character much these days. I believe most folks would have had a more negative approach considering I had not been supportive at that time. But, nope, not Sarah. She is gracious and a woman of principles – no petty reaction.

She and I have a lot in common. We both find ourselves on the receiving end of vitriolic partisan attacks. We both made huge changes in our lives to be able to protect the people we love and have a freer context in which to try to help America’s families.

Kudos to Dr. Laura for recognizing Gov. Palin's strength of character, and to Robert Paul Reyes for being one of the few remaining on the left with personal integrity and intellectual honesty.

- JP