“Socialist” a Code Word for Black?

The award for Dumbest Column of 2008 goes to Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist. Diuguid argues that on the campaign trail in recent days the word socialist has been used a code word for black.

Two of the examples Diuguid provides are particularly laughable because they refer to actual Communists. Here are the relevant passages of this dim bulb’s mercifully brief column:

W.E.B. Du Bois, who in 1909 helped found the NAACP which is still the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization; Paul Robeson, a famous singer, actor and political activist who in the 1930s became involved in national and international movements for better labor relations, peace and racial justice;

W.E.B. DuBois was a Communist Party USA member who received the Lenin Peace Prize. Paul Robeson, also a member of the Communist Party USA, was an America-hating Stalinist. Communist East Germany even issued a postage stamp to honor Comrade Robeson.