More Non-Racism II

Speaking of Jonah Goldberg's piece in the LA Times, what do you make of this?

Perhaps it's because Barack Obama has never run a competitive race against a Republican. After all, Obama won his U.S. Senate seat in Illinois by running against Alan Keyes, a fire-and-brimstone, right-wing black carpetbagger from Maryland (or perhaps Mars) who had no real ties to Illinois.

Can you spot the unnecessary modifier in that paragraph? And the modifier which should be in there but isn't?

The first one is "black" of course. What difference does Keye's race make? (Read the whole thing for context, if you like.) The other is "Republican" as in "Alan Keyes, a fire-and-brimstone, right-wing black REPUBLICAN carpetbagger from Maryland." Because he is a registered Republican, you know. Somehow Goldberg tries to steer you away from that factoid, almost literally saying he's not. Interesting way to throw Keyes under the bus! That'll teach him to be so uppity.

"Uppity" as you know, is often used to refer to someone of any race, not just teh blacks.