Also on a website called Uppity Negro there is this comment:
“Wow, that looks harsh. I should follow the example of my betters, and demonstrate as much respect for the late President Reagan as he showed towards, say, the late Martin Luther King”
http://www.uppity-negro.com/2004/06/west_wing_staffers_call_bush_a.html

You don’t suppose he is talking about class here, do you?

Just think about it, how often do you come across that phrase in everyday conversation? It is used either ironically or sarcastically for racial or class situations (usually by Brits), or meant literally by white supremicists.

I have to admit I haven’t actually had anyone say respect your betters to me.

If I was of a minority class (middle aged white guy of scottish descent apparently doesnt qualify me) and someone said that to me in a post where people were complaining about latent rascism I would track them down and beat them. I have been called dumbass a number of times for questioning some people I wear it as a badge of honor.

And even better, this:

I spend a bit of time reading the back and forth on the posts yesterday and I think you’re missing the point. The people reading racisim into the whole incident were the people involved. In fact, the whole incident is about race (and hooters but thats a different post) .We’re just enjoying their hypocricy.

This whole kerfuffle started over the Clinton blogger lunch and the lack of diversity (save for one set of spectacular hooters) amongst the invited guests. When the POC (their term) started to complain, they were slapped down by amongst others, T-rex. If you read some of the comments from the first post Ace quoted, you will see T-rex is from Athens, GA. Sorry, if you are brought up in Athens GA, you should know better than to scold a black woman and tell her not to challenge her betters lest you be seen as racially insensitive. See petard, hoist.

If you are going to spend your life in permanent victim status and as a sanctimonious prick and constantly be on the hunt for racially insensitive language from your opponents, no matter how small the incident, it helps to not be a colossal hypocryite.

But Trex grew up in Georgia, where attitudes regarding class and race are joined at the navel.

To wit, here are two illuminating comments from the rightwing blog, Ace of Spades:

I have to admit I haven’t actually had anyone say respect your betters to me.

If I was of a minority class (middle aged white guy of scottish descent apparently doesnt qualify me) and someone said that to me in a post where people were complaining about latent rascism I would track them down and beat them. I have been called dumbass a number of times for questioning some people I wear it as a badge of honor.

And even better, this:

I spend a bit of time reading the back and forth on the posts yesterday and I think you’re missing the point. The people reading racisim into the whole incident were the people involved. In fact, the whole incident is about race (and hooters but thats a different post) .We’re just enjoying their hypocricy.

This whole kerfuffle started over the Clinton blogger lunch and the lack of diversity (save for one set of spectacular hooters) amongst the invited guests. When the POC (their term) started to complain, they were slapped down by amongst others, T-rex. If you read some of the comments from the first post Ace quoted, you will see T-rex is from Athens, GA. Sorry, if you are brought up in Athens GA, you should know better than to scold a black woman and tell her not to challenge her betters lest you be seen as racially insensitive. See petard, hoist.

If you are going to spend your life in permanent victim status and as a sanctimonious prick and constantly be on the hunt for racially insensitive language from your opponents, no matter how small the incident, it helps to not be a colossal hypocryite.

Now, it should be made clear that most of the commenters over there were loath to call TRex a racist (as the then they would have to start looking at themselves) but even the wingnuts could see the irony of Trex’s attack on Liza. And the hypocrisy.

But calling these special rulers of the nation together, and requiring their counsel in this weighty affair, they all concluded that (damn ‘em) it might be their own cases; and that Caesar ought to be made an example to all the negroes, to fright ‘em from daring to threaten their betters, their lords and masters: and at this rate no man was safe from his own slaves; and concluded, nemine contradicente, that Caesar should be hanged.

[Aphra Behn, Ooroonoko (1688) – my emphasis]

donna You say the phrase “your betters” goes back to slavery. What do you mean by that? I’m sure “your betters” was used with slaves, but so was every nasty insult and putdown in the English language. Are you suggesting that “your betters” was an especially common phrase used towards slaves? If so I’d like to know what is your basis for that statement.

I admit ignorace of the question, but I did a Google search for slavery and the phrase “your betters”. (This Crooked Timber post was the first hit.) None of the top hits, until I got tired of reading, described that phrase used specifically to refer to a black slave in the United States.

The context does matter, If you told me I was stupid and we are talking economics/politics in general/gardening and I genuinely made a stupid mistake, I might be annoyed, but I wouldn’t consider you racist. When we are talking racial politics and you dismiss me as being too stupid to answer, it’s racism.

Someone at Steve Gilliard’s blog suggested that the value of FDL is inversely proportionate to the prominence of TRex’s posts. I’d throw in another variable: the moderation has gone from pruning trolls to memory-holing criticism. In short, this sad little episode has made it pretty clear that commenters at FDL have two options: suck up or ship out. Clay Shirky’s A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy comes to mind.

Any criticism directed at a black blogger doesn’t have to be turned into a racial thing, but it’s just head-whackingly stupid to go blathering about “your betters” and then be surprised when someone sees it as a racial slur. We just don’t live in the post-racial utopia where this wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, happen.

So, Liza got it absolutely right. Jane Hamsher can be an idiot. So, kudos to Liza for showing enough restraint and not coming right out and calling Jane Hamsher what she really is: a “well-meaning” liberal white racist in denial about her racism.

The bullying by Trex (probably cleared by and certainly abetted and lauded by Hamsher) is just stripped the veneer of tolerance off the table. Which is not surprising if you consider the way any commenter who has the gall to even midly criticize a post or even take a stance contrary to that which is bouncing around in the walls of the echo chamber over there. Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith do not tolerate dissent (a form of difference) of any kind.

Full disclosure: I have never personally tangled with Jane Hamsher or anyone else at FDL. But I have seen what I describe, many many times, as have plenty of others.

I guess this is meant as a response to my point in comment 30. But clearly you are using the term “context” differently from the way I used the term, therefore you are not refuting my point at all, so nyaah. [nick s correct me if I spelled nyaah incorrectly, I don’t feel like looking it up.]

I think there is a little bit of a slippery slope here where any critisism directed at a black blogger can be turned into a racial thing. (e.g. “I thought TRex beat Liza in that debate” – Hey, you can’t talk about “beating” a black woman.) Obviously if TRex had said “go back to the ghetto” or something, that would be bad, but “betters” to me sounds at least arguably race-neutral, especially in the context of a dispute between Liza and more widely-read bloggers (and in the context of the generally nasty tone of the TRex post).

Belle – Yes you were jumping on TRex. I suppose different people have different definitions of what constitutes “jumping on” someone, but I can’t think of a reasonable definition that would exclude the post you wrote. How would your post be any different if you were jumping on him?

I realize that it’s a minor issue [look nick s, I used “it’s” correctly], but why deny jumping on him when you clearly did that?

Clinton got lots of brownie points because of Harlem’s “cultural significance”. Relevant.

Hamsher sent not one but two flunkies over to set Liza straight, but did not deign to show up herself.

“Your betters” sounds bad in context. The context here was an ongoing feud between a black woman and a white woman.

On her own blog, which is quite amusing and interesting, Liza actually did admit that she had shot her mouth off, but by that time it had escalated. I don’t think that at this point anyone is claiming that she was faultless. The FDL response was just over the top and escalating.

My initial impulse, expressed at Gilliard’s, was to hope that everything could be smoothed over, but especially because of Tbogg, my memories of my own run-in with Hamsher and her crowd have now come into play.