Regarding "Code Words" in Letter to President Obama

I came across an interesting article that talked about the racial connotations particular words have. The link below is not of that specific article, but a response from republicans regarding the accusation by Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. that they used "code words" in a letter to President Obama that had underlying racial meaning.  Clyburn claims the use of the word "incompetent" to describe Susan Rice, the African American, US ambassador to the United Nations, was a way of racializing a particular decision she made. Clyburn, an African American himself who grew up in the South went on to say that such words historically have been used negatively towards minorities. This article allowed me to connect with the ideas presented in Bonilla-Silva's "Racism without Racists" and Douglas Bayton's "Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History." Like the many people Bonilla-Silva interviewed who claimed not to be racist, the republicans that responded to Clyburn's accusation also claim that they did imply any racial deficiencies by describing Rice they way they did. Of the over 90 republicans who signed the letter, some of which were from southern states, could have edited the letter because they probably understood the sensitivity of using such a word, but they didn't. The way in which Clyburn presents his argument makes it seem that the republicans were suggesting that Rice is ill-equipped for a position in the President's cabinet because of her race. Her being of African American heritage, as Bayton claimed, is like a disability that will prevent her from successfully fulfilling a role. People may claim that Clyburn is taking the word out of context and even playing the infamous black card, but within the context of our course, it's quite possible that this is a form of color blind racism and an attack on African Americans being incompetent due to their race. This just goes to show that that even though reform and law have eliminated civil injustices, eliminating the ideology of the white establishment is far from a democratic process.

http://thehill.com/video/campaign/269041-house-republican-says-rep-clyburn-absolutely-false-about-gop-letter-on-amb-rice