Someone must have lost his mind
Lest you think that the election of Barack Obama - half-White and half-African man - has solved all the racial dilemnas in the history of America, I introduce you to, Republican Chip Saltsman. He has managed to turn the amazing and progressive and healing 2008 Election into a side show. From TheHill.com:
RNC candidate Chip Saltsman’s Christmas greeting to committee members includes a music CD with lyrics from a song called “Barack the Magic Negro,” first played on Rush Limbaugh’s popular radio show.Saltsman, a personal friend of conservative satirist Paul Shanklin, sent a 41-track CD along with a note to national committee members.
Oh no, it gets even better:
The CD, called “We Hate the USA,” lampoons liberals with such songs as “John Edwards’ Poverty Tour,” “Wright place, wrong pastor,” “Love Client #9,” “Ivory and Ebony” and “The Star Spanglish banner.”Several of the track titles, including “Barack the Magic Negro,” are written in bold font.
I know what a Magic Negro is but do you? Let Wikipedia help me explain:
The magical negro (sometimes called the mystical negro or magic negro) is a supporting, often mystical stock character in fiction who, by use of special insight or powers, helps the white protagonist get out of trouble. The word negro, now considered by many as archaic and offensive, is used intentionally to suggest that the archetype is a racist throwback, an update of the "Sambo" and "savage other" stereotypes.
Do think Republicans think we are never going to find this stuff out? I mean really, a CD? At least be a man about it and put it on ITunes so we can all download it! I HAVE to see if their version of Ebony and Ivory can rival the artistic stylings of Stevie Wonder.
Read the rest of the article here.
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December 26, 2008 |
Karol Collymore | Comments (98 so far)
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Posted by: rw | Dec 26, 2008 9:36:18 PM
That is incredibly ugly, and mentally ill. The pathology of our nation's history is our present, it is our today. I am amazed at the brazen exhibition of what he REALLY thinks. I suppose we have to be grateful that these awful people do not have the sense to hide it. For we do at least know who is whom and now must be busy at how to do something about it.
THe current situation reminds me some of what my mother told me about the original institution of EEO. She worked in the logging industry and was put in charge of effectuating EEO policy. There was so little respect for these measures that she, a young secretary/receptionist in her late twenties was put in charge of this important task. She watched her bosses purposely hire black men who were the least qualified to handle the tasks at hand, and who were not managed in such a way as to help them succeed. So when they were fired, the white bosses could point their fingers and say, "See?".. and I won't relate the rest.
Obama is very qualified. But he is saddled with a crushing mess of what increasingly seem to be insoluble proportions. I hope and pray that the cancerous hate-mob of this country do NOT similarly point their fingers at our first President identifiably of mixed heritage that includes "colour" if he cannot magick us out of this mess (to borrow from Karol's interesting piece of information above). And then proceed to ensure that it is a very long time before we have a fair shot at a woman or anyone but a dominant mainstream person being elected again. Remember that having a Catholic in the White House was a big deal the first time. Catholic and young.
Let us find a way as an electorate to ensure that this is the same kind of broken barrier. Permanently so.
Posted by: Crevek | Dec 26, 2008 9:50:11 PM
Oh lordy! White man used his right to free speech and said AN n word. I know I'm not being nice or overly tolerant of your opinion that bans whites and republicans from saying anything about race, sorry. Let the healing begin, stop being offended by words and phrases from the past.
Posted by: Steven Maurer | Dec 26, 2008 11:44:04 PM
Oh lordy! A right wing asshole used his right to free speech, revealing all to clearly the entire contents of his shriveled soul, and some moron troll equates criticism of him with government censorship.
Let me make that clear, Crevek: the right to Free Speech does not include having your massive ego and microscopic intellect protected from brusing. People can criticize, mock, disparage, reference fact, or otherwise engage in all sort of activities illuminating just how poor an excuse of a human being you are without ever involving the government. In fact, their ability to do so is called Free Speech - something you don't believe in, since you clearly want to shut everyone else up.
Go away, troll.
Posted by: Law-n-Order D | Dec 27, 2008 12:11:34 AM
Free Speech or not, people in the puplic eye especially those who represent a major political party need to set an example of proper behavior. It would be one thing to be distasteful to a private group of friends, in a public event- inappropriate to say the least.
Posted by: Chris Lowe | Dec 27, 2008 12:15:35 AM
Thanks Steve. The answer to objectionable free speech isn't censorship but more speech, as the saying goes.
Dontcha love right-wing victim politics?
Zarathustra, I understand what you're saying, but here's the thing: If Barack Obama had been a little different and ended up being a lawyer busted for coke possession or ended up where Rod Blagojovich or Dan Rostenkowski or Blagojovich's Irish-surnamed-that-forget Republican predecessor ended up, would he be identified as "half-white"? No. He'd be black. So I can understand it if people who've seen the fairly extensive white ancestry in their population (some, many African-Americans) denied in the service of discrimination, and denied in creating racial stereotypes about alleged racial characteristics and differences, get a bit tetchy when that ancestry suddenly gets played up and made something close to all-important by some white folks when a black man (not just a black man, but a black man all the same) is elected president.
Read around that kind of commentary. A lot of it takes a form that boils down to "he's not black, he's both, so he's not black." Think about that. If he's both, how does that make him not black?
The other route is "mixed," which of course implies the existence of "pure" races.
If he's both, he's black.
Posted by: Chuck Butcher | Dec 27, 2008 12:26:20 AM
Since I very seldom insult my intellect with Rush I first heard this "Magic" tune on-line. I decided before I played it to make a deliberate effort to not be the humorless lefty. What I had to work with was elementary school playground humor masquerading as wit. It isn't even as though it is so offensive, it's the utter stupidity of it. My first reaction after my failure to laugh was to where the adults were when it was put together and then I remembered the source.
There is a real beauty in the broadcasting of this tripe, you have to hope that Mr Saltsman wins the election. The audience they lost in the last election will not be amused and constant repetitions of this theme in 2010 will blow some of their cover, won't it?
Do think Republicans think we are never going to find this stuff out? I mean really, a CD? At least be a man about it
Honestly Karol, they really do see it as harmless humor...
Posted by: rw | Dec 27, 2008 12:47:17 AM
... another part of my mother's story is that she went on to be an HR director type, and fearlessly, strategically and quietly enforced the highest spirit of the law viz EEO whenever she was in any HR or managerial position. She ensured job adequacy in many ways, and held all to egalitarian opportunity and support. She brooked no bullshit and did not need wimpy pretend-"tolerance" programming to do this work. :)....
While in CA she worked tirelessly with a black special interest group on specific legislation and electoral efforts. I remember her soldierly compose when she shyly, guiltily related to me how the people she worked day and night with leapt up and down and congratulated each other and took to podium... and left her... sidelined.
Her heart was hurting that day.
She could have given in to ego and "entitlement". She surely could have lost her "good politics" that day.
I know her steely, coldly just regard. I've suffered it. Now I saw that she turned this same upon herself at important times... she reminded herself that when people are blocked from exercising power, and from the strong hit of such victories, they will make mistakes as they learn to handle the power. And squared herself to remember what she was there for.
I have thought often of her stories as this election was fought, won. I"m listening with those ears as well as others.
I always remember it. She really meant it 100% what she said: she was willing to set aside any feeling of needing to be included or recognized together at that crucial point and continue holding onto indefatigable devotion to righting an institutionally unjust balance. She continued on.
She gave me a great gift in these stories of her life as a woman born in 1937 to a logging camp family, and becoming who she is and doing what she did when there were no cheering sections nor any particular cachet to doing it.
I am hoping and praying that inclusivity and sensitive, opened awareness of injustice as a LARGE reality, not as fractioned particulates of humanity... are the critical mass the interest groups seek out within themselves. We all have a lot of work to do.
Posted by: rw | Dec 27, 2008 12:58:17 AM
Hey Chris, I hope you could read in my verbiage that I was making the point about "race admixture" that you are making, by saying "IDENTIFIABLY" "mixed" and specifying that the identifiability of so-called "colour"is a matter of import among bigots the world over.
You really should go look at Vlaams Belang's blog. It will send you limping home vomiting and sorrowing.
Posted by: Joanne Rigutto | Dec 27, 2008 4:58:37 AM
Saltzman proves the saying 'You can't fix stupid'.
Posted by: Zarathustra | Dec 27, 2008 6:26:16 AM
Chris, it was a question, not a point, which you answer. Have to say I'm still confused. Your cocaine metaphor is spot on. All the sudden he becomes black. Just like after being elected. Why is one racism and the other pride? I've already conceded that "history" makes all the difference, I'm asking is their any logical difference, becasue I can't think of one.
Vlaams Belang You haven't lived until you've met them in the flesh. They get graffitied a lot with the word "niks" over it, which is great because apart from the obvious message, it points out their utter lack of compassion for anything but what has them in a pout. I don't know if you meant the website, or the actual blog . Hmm, Block Watch. What about a website that posts one-for-one translation, blockheadwatch.org?
Antwerp is very appropriately named. "On a load of it". One other dimension that's hard to capture about them in translation is their dialect. It's the kind of really soft, southern dialect that Am*dammers and North Hollanders find repugnant, Catholic and hick yokel. Very much like Southern English without the Catholic bit. No news commentator in Antwerp sounds like Antwerpse mensen, they speak "Hilversum" Dutch. So you have to imagine talking like a yokel as being an actual plank in Sarah Palin's platform, for example, rather than just alluding to country values. Belgium is a dysfunctional State, though, with a perennially dysfunctional mindset, so I don't know the lessons can be generalized to anything.
It's an interesting coincidence that many Saltzman surnamed individuals are from Western Austria, another hotbed of right-wing politics, and currently one of the most dangerous. Breeding will tell. Or not, if we come back to the thread topic.
Posted by: deborah conner | Dec 27, 2008 7:18:13 AM
what hurts (and the point is) is that they want to hurt. thet're stuck on it. it's so atwater, so rove, these boys begging for attention, so afraid they're really (the most dreaded slur of all) "hicks". You know, I can't wait until one's genotype beomes common knowledge. won't those strutting, all-assuming ultra-whites be shocked at how very much we are all in each other.
Posted by: Ben | Dec 27, 2008 7:22:07 AM
Racism disguised as humor is still racism. This Saltzman reminds me of that racist who named his children "adolf Hitler" and "Aryan nations" because he says he likes the names, but he claims that he himself is not a racist because he says he has black friends. I feel very sorry for the children whom these racist bungholes raise.
Posted by: Murphy | Dec 27, 2008 8:56:40 AM
This isn’t terribly hard to figure out: there is an intrenched element in American society, represented in the media by Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Larson, O’Reilly, Malkin, etc. and the folks over at World Nut Daily, for whom Barack Obama is an anathema, both for his race and for his politics. These media clowns also recognize that an Obama Administration be very good for their circuses, and so this witless ridicule will get worse -- much worse -- as they fill up their ad space. To quote Big Dan Teague: “It's all about the money boys. That's it! Gol... durned... money!”
Chip Saltsman epitomizes the political branch of the element. He’s playing to the wing-nuts who listen to and take seriously as political commentators those I mention above. He reminds me a bit of the loser who, when he’s not able to get a date to the prom, hangs around outside the gym sitting on the hood of his father’s Pacer swilling near-beer with his other loser friends making fun of all of us going in with our dates.
The good news is that they’re never going away, but the even better news is that they’re also slowly creeping toward self-parody and irrelevancy. Progressives and liberals need to encourage the hard-right to become even more hardened. We need to stand on the platform and loudly cheer on conservatives when they go on their RINO hunts; we need to embolden conservatives in their pogroms.
The more they play at the edges of their sandbox, as “Barack the Magic Negro,” illustrates, the better it is for us. It may cause Neanderthals to feel warm and fuzzy, but its vulgarity exposes a bit too much of the far-right’s lingering resentment that America would actually -- gasp -- elected a Black Man (with an Islamic name no less) as President.
“Oh, Lord, what are we gonna do? I know -- let’s call him a ‘Magic Negro!’”
Posted by: Zarathustra | Dec 27, 2008 9:23:42 AM
It goes to character what you fantasize about, and there are lots of sexual fantasies . Demonizing people is compensation behavior, imo.
Posted by: AimeeG | Dec 27, 2008 9:28:19 AM
There's a new theory that Neanderthals died out because the climate got warmer after the ice age and their ice age adapted cellular physiology couldn't adapt and they overheated. Maybe the current climactic warming will have the same effect on present day Neanderthals! They already sound overheated.
Posted by: Neal Skorpen | Dec 27, 2008 9:36:22 AM
Why is it that the right can never do satire? Does the moral absolutism spoil it? Is there just too much bile? I suppose PJ O'Rourke is decent, but there is just no right counterpart that comes anywhere close to the wit of Doonesbury or John Stewart or Harry Shearer.
Posted by: Buckman Res | Dec 27, 2008 9:45:33 AM
”The word negro, now considered by many as archaic and offensive, is used intentionally to suggest that the archetype is a racist throwback, an update of the "Sambo" and "savage other" stereotypes.”
The word “Negro” was used fifteen times by Dr. King in his “I Have a Dream” speech. You’ll excuse me if I don’t buy into the manufactured indignation taken by those who seek to perpetuate division among people of different ethnic backgrounds over the use of a term
commonly used during the civil rights era.
While it may not be cool or hip today, if it was good enough for Martin it’s good enough for me.
Posted by: Bill R. | Dec 27, 2008 9:57:24 AM
This is the state of the Republican party today. It has no moral standing, but simply seeks power by attempting to dehumanize the opposition, to divide Americans from one another. The Republican trolls who visit here know exactly what this is about and they approve it. They want to dismiss it as about free speech, or political correctness, but it's about ethnic warfare and hate, and the ditto heads want to turn America into a race war by presenting the Caucasian majority as being victims, and themselves as the heroic defender of the white race. It's the last shameless folly of a failed political party.
Posted by: Bill R. | Dec 27, 2008 10:22:31 AM
It is notable that not one Republican party leader has objected to this CD. It is a clear sign that the extremist Southern wing of the Republican party with all of its residue of the White Citizen's Councils and segregationist past is firmly in control of the party. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are their chief propagandists, truly a marginalized party of the extreme right.
Posted by: torridjoe | Dec 27, 2008 10:35:29 AM
If Barack Obama had been a little different and ended up being a lawyer busted for coke possession or ended up where Rod Blagojovich or Dan Rostenkowski or Blagojovich's Irish-surnamed-that-forget Republican predecessor ended up, would he be identified as "half-white"? No. He'd be black.
Didn't Barack himself say something like "Let me answer that question by pointing out when I want to get a cab in New Orleans, I'm definitely black?"
While it may not be cool or hip today, if it was good enough for Martin it’s good enough for me.
In MLK's day beating the living shit out of your wife was essentially all in the family, not a felony. If it was good enough for the men of the 60's, I guess spousal abuse is OK today?
Posted by: Jefffrane | Dec 27, 2008 10:47:21 AM
While it may not be cool or hip today, if it was good enough for Martin it’s good enough for me.
A lot about language has changed in the last 40 years. Ask some of the chicks you know.
Posted by: Bill Bodden | Dec 27, 2008 11:03:03 AM
The offending culprit is Chip Saltsman - not Saltzman; although, they probably have a common genealogy.
Given the source, Saltsman's sophomoric stunt may be more than an expression of racism. Instead, it is very likely the act of a dehumanized person who has no regard for people outside his economic, social and power cabal be they black, white, brown, or whatever color or religion. The CD, called “We Hate the USA,” lampoons liberals with such songs as “John Edwards’ Poverty Tour.” No racism there.
Lest you think that the election of Barack Obama - half-White and half-African man - has solved all the racial dilemnas in the history of America,...
People would have to be very naive to believe the election of Barack Obama would bring an end to racism. However, given the fact that so many people still believe he will bring "change we can believe in to America" it is conceivable that many hold on to that forlorn hope of ending racism. On the other hand, if Obama, as many suspect, proves to be another naked emperor there is a risk he will encourage racism in many quarters.
Posted by: wormy | Dec 27, 2008 11:17:42 AM
just a note, the song title came from a op-ed piece of the same name, written in the LA Times, by a liberal columnist. the entire song is based on that article. also a small note, rush said when he played it the "liberal media" will give him all the credit for it, ignoring the fact a well known conserative political satirist wrote it.
Posted by: Chris Lowe | Dec 27, 2008 12:04:59 PM
Zarathustra, in future I'll try to keep in mind when reading your comments to give weighting to the likelihood that a question isn't just rhetorical. ;-> Should've known it already ...
I have several answers to your further question. One is that maybe we can sort out the formal logic of "reasoning" about race from history in some heuristic sense, but in practice we can't, because the "reasoning" is always driven by emotions that respond to the history. A further question -- NOT aimed at questioning your particular motives, but note that I have to say that, as an example of my proposition -- is, what is the purpose of trying to detach the formal logic from the history? Often enough the aim is to work around to the position that it's really the people who believe in/ are concerned about the persistence of racialized inequality and discrimination who are "the racists."
Engaging with the heuristic distinction now, I see a bit of benefit in clarifying thought about the relationships among logic, history, reasoning and emotion. I guess it also has a bearing on discussions and debates and social-psychological struggles around personal identity as the terms of possible identification shift, as your original comments referring to your own various ancestries suggests.
Second, my examples are about the history part. My argument about the logic, abstracted, is that both means both.
Also, note that it isn't really a balanced equivalence, formally. We can find a people saying a range of things about Barack Obama beginning with "he's black" full stop, to "he's black and also ..." to "he's mixed" to "he's not really black." There are people who want him to identify with his "mixedness" as a way of recognizing their own sense of themselves. There are other people who want to deny his blackness, to de-identify his achievement from other black people, without granting him (from their perspective) whiteness. But no one says "he's white" in a serious way (a few may say so as a sort of ironic insult).
Third, I disagree with your proposition that for African-Americans and other black people now taking pride in Barack Obama's election he "suddenly became black" after the election. One bit of evidence about that is how Hillary Clinton held strong leads among black voters in ex-Confederate states until after Iowa and even then the shift was an erosion process, because those voters didn't believe white Americans would elect a black man. Another is the debates at one stage among some African-Americans about "is he black enough?" (albeit some of that was MSM distortion of other debates about whether he would need to ditch interests of particular concern to black people in order to get elected).
Going back to logic and history, I tend to think of "race" as a historical process, or more properly, as in itself a racialized code-word for the historical process of racialization. By racialization I mean the social-cultural attribution of racial meanings to characteristics (or imputed characteristics) of individuals or communities or populations or peoples. I think that historical processes in culture have a kind of internal logic that relates meanings to time and experience (and projected futurity). It is one of the limits of formal logic, and philosophy based only upon it, that it can't handle meanings emergent from historical logic, or at least not very easily.
Posted by: Chris Lowe | Dec 27, 2008 12:09:28 PM
Rebecca, sorry, wasn't meaning to take any kind of a poke at you, and in thinking about my reply to Zarathustra, I realized that my "he's both" formulation doesn't really get me very far from an underlying linguistic presumption of pure races either. Conversely, clearly there are ways of talking about "mixedness" that actually can be deeply challenging to that presumption and people who use those ways, partly by thinking about "mixing" multiple things & breaking down what gets piled into "race."
Posted by: LT | Dec 27, 2008 12:13:19 PM
There are those of us who want the Republican Party establishment to return to the moderate, pre-Reagan roots so that there can be 2 competing mainstream parties and we can have some really intelligent issue debates.
All you folks who voted for Measure 49--do you know that the orginal SB 100 which created LCDC and legislative planning came from Republican St. Sen. Hector Macpherson and Republican Gov. McCall?
There are Republicans out there with common sense, hard work and good ideas. Pogroms were what the Minnis/Scott crew did to any independent thinking Republican---are there really Democrats who agree with that strategy?
So I only agree with this
"We need to stand on the platform and loudly cheer on conservatives when they go on their RINO hunts; we need to embolden conservatives in their pogroms. "
if we don't truly want Republicans to do pogroms on moderates (definition: "an organized massacre, esp. of Jews.")
but rather stand up for moderate Republicans when they have good ideas and stand up to bullies. Contact their office and thank them for an intelligent vote or a common sense speech or statement.
St. Sen. Frank Morse has served on the Public Comm. on the Legislature and, as I recall, also on the Revenue Restructuring Task Force. There are those of us who grew up in the pre-Reagan Republican Party who see him as the definition of old-style, intelligent Republican.
Lincoln Chaffee has written an excellent book about what it was like to be a moderate Republican after Bush/Cheney were elected and bullied Republicans to toe the party line.
And one more thing. Anyone here a big fan of Kim Thatcher? I hope not.
She defeated moderate Republican Backlund because he voted with Democrats to pass a balanced budget which turned into Measure 30. I know from a conversation with the Democratic nominee that year that when the primary result was first announced that someone at Future Pac promised help but never followed through. And Portlanders wonder why there is distrust among downstate Democrats?
The way to defeat right wing Republicans is to support the people who run against them.
One reason that Democrats lost majorities previously (Oregon House 1990, Congress 1994 especially) was that there was too much internal game playing.
Majorities are won with good candidates, good policy, inspiring the general public to care about elections, volunteer, vote. PERIOD.
Eventually there will be intelligent people who either revive the Republican Party or come along with their own Abe Lincoln and start a new party--Lincoln was the first 3rd party candidate to be elected president. There are voters who care more about policy, common sense, courtesy, what sound to them like good ideas or an inspiring speaker than about party label.
Yes, this idiot was stupid, but I have seen stupid things done by Democrats also. Disrupting an opponent's rally right before the primary did not elect the primary winner in the fall. Demanding unquestioning support of a candidate did not win the general election. Candidates have disagreed with the policy of the party (platform, resolutions passed by the party) and won major elections.
Posted by: rw | Dec 27, 2008 12:40:52 PM
I went back last night and re-read some back issues of the New Yorker... I'm kinda thinking that these intelligent people who just happen to have a bonehead Belief that possesses very specific planks of hatred (faggots, jews, neeeegrows, unwed mothers, whatevers) -- I may be playing UP their strategic mindset, but I"m wondering if they might just be playing that Race Kazoo as loud and long as they can to counter Obama's real story which is about personal journey, discovery of one's personal identity inclusive of and beyond mere race? They want to keep our minds off his politics, his comprehension of a broad landscape of self and also suffering and dreaming...
Posted by: rw | Dec 27, 2008 12:47:34 PM
Bodden, very good point. Buber, Trans. Analysis, etc. And those who work with (sorry, mostly men, by the numbers) batterers, it's rather Why You Beat Your Woman 101 - before you can dehumanize another, you must, yourself, be dehumanized. You are only able respect others in proportion to the respect you have within yourself.
The politics of dehumanization is now wreaking a manifest desecration of our environment in a way that is permanent, fatal, and must be addressed not just scientifically, but in spiritual terms.
THe politics of dehumanization. Rove.
Posted by: John Calhoun | Dec 27, 2008 1:00:04 PM
What most impressed me about Mr. Saltsman is that he was unapologetic when confronted with this. He could have said it was a mistake by a staffer, etc., but he didn't. It didn't seem to occur to him how the bulk of the American public would view his act. He is clearly living in a southern Republican bubble and presumably would lead the Republican party in a divisive direction that will limit their national appeal while doing damage to the country.
I am sorry that the Republican Party has fallen so far because I am a believer in the need for an opposition party that will ensure that whomever is in power will be held accountable. Now that does not seem likely for some time either in the country as a whole and in this state. It is unhealthy for our democracy, but this racist, nativist, divisive theology that is the Republican party today is even more so. The Repbulican Party will not be a constructive force in Oregon or nationally until leaders emerge that can take their party in another direction.
Posted by: joel dan walls | Dec 27, 2008 1:00:34 PM
Why are we reading more silly nonsense about "censorship"? Censorship is something that the State does. If the blogmeister here choose not to print my racist, obscene rant, that is his prerogative, not an abridgment of my "rights".
The GOP idiots distributed this Magic Negro stuff because the GOP is run by unreconstructed Dixiecrats and assorted other bigots whose ideology is McCarthyism. There's nothing else to the GOP than hatred and stirring up resentments. They don't know anything else.
Posted by: Chris Lowe | Dec 27, 2008 2:41:42 PM
wormy has it sort of right.
The original article in the L.A. Times was an op-ed column titled "Obama the 'Magic Negro'" (not "Barack") and the term "magic negro" was in quotes. Published March 19, 2007, i.e. shortly after Barack Obama announced his candidacy, it is by David Ehrenstein, who identifies himself as an African American and who according to the byline "writes about Hollywood and politics." Whether he'd accept Wormy's label of liberal I don't know.
The column is primarily a critique of a desire in white culture, reflected in a type of black film character pioneered by Sidney Poitier, according to Ehrenstein, for a "magic Negro" whose role is to absolve/save whites from guilt and other things. Ehrenstein attributes the phrase to snarky post-modern sociologists, linking to Wikipedia. Wikipedia in turn credits Spike Lee.
Secondarily the column is a critique of Obama, saying that he's "auditioning" for the role. Although less substantial, insofar as it doesn't raise policy issues, Ehrenstein's criticism at the beginning of Obama's campaign is not unlike criticisms made by some left-wing African-Americans like Glen Ford and others at Black Agenda Report and the University of Pennsylvania political scientist Adolph Reed, Jr.
The song lyrics, which wormy correctly notes were penned by Paul Shanklin but often get attributed to Rush Limbaugh, who first played the song on air, no later than April 2007 (the link goes to a somewhat garbled account by John Aravosis of its use by Limbaugh at that time).
The actual song is in the voice of an unnamed black politician, Aravosis speculates plausibly Al Sharpton, and its main target is not really Barack Obama per se so much as a nasty caricature of black politics, using Obama to poke at older targets, and of the "authenticity" debates about Obama early on:
Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times they called him that
cause he's not authentic like me.
Yeah the guy from the L.A. paper
said he made guilty whites feel good
they'll vote for him and not for me
cause hes not from da hood.
See, real black men like snoop dogg
or me or Farrakhan
have talked the talk and walked the walk
not come and laid and won (not sure about this line).
Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times they called him that
cause he's not authentic like me
cause hes black but not authentically.
Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times they called him that
cause he's not authentic like me
cause hes black but not authentically.
Some say Barack's articulate
and bright and new and clean
the media sure love this guy
a white interloper's dream.
But when you vote for president
watch out and don't be fooled
don't vote the magic negro in
cause...
(background singing the first 3 lines, while the singer is saying)
Cause I wont have nothing after all these years of sacrifice and I wont get justice this is about justice this is about justice, buffet, I don't have no buffet there wont be any church contributions there'll be no cash in the collection plate, no cash money, no walkin' around money...
(Aravosis credits the transcript to Chris Maine, the "not sure" comment presumably is his.)
So this has been out there floating around on the right for nearly two years, and Saltsman's resurrection of it now should be seen in that light.
Posted by: Jamais Vu | Dec 27, 2008 5:09:57 PM
"The GOP idiots distributed this Magic Negro stuff because the GOP is run by unreconstructed Dixiecrats and assorted other bigots..."
Yup, yup, and yup. It's good to see the Right airing their dirty laundry (sheets and hoods especially) in public.
I believe there is a principled conservative ideology; which I disagree with but can still respect as thought. Then there's this Republican-identity-as-white-power-identity strain. Did you notice how Palin's creds with this bunch were greatly embellished by husband's past dalliances with a secessionist party? It's a pretty simple code to break, isn't it? Being a Republican and being a night rider wanna-be is the same thing in much of the country. This sophomoric little ditty is sad and stupid, but not surprising.
Much more insidious have been the whispers (also on Rush's show) that the whole sub-prime mortgage disaster and resulting financial meltdown was the result of left-wing plots to provide cheap home loans to minorities (you've heard this one?) According to this line, Jesse Jackson, ACORN, and Barney Frank were actually controlling the whole financial system throughout the Bush presidency and using it to destroy straight, white, Christian America. This nonsense is a lot more dangerous than a juvenile song even racists will publicly disown, but it all comes from the same place--fear and hatred over the loss of white privilege. It's a good thing to see the mask slip now and then to remind us who our opposition really is.
Posted by: Bill Bodden | Dec 27, 2008 5:59:17 PM
What most impressed me about Mr. Saltsman is that he was unapologetic when confronted with this. He could have said it was a mistake by a staffer, etc., but he didn't.
Why were you impressed by Saltsman being unapologetic, John? He is another player, or would-be player, in the Bush-cheney-Limbaugh-O'Reilly-Coulter lunatic asylum where the inmates don't know the difference between right and wrong or humanity and inhumanity.
I am sorry that the Republican Party has fallen so far because I am a believer in the need for an opposition party that will ensure that whomever is in power will be held accountable.
The Gingrich-DeLay wing of the Republican Party has been the only real "opposition" in decades, and that was only for a brief period until they ruled supreme after the moderate Republicans and Democrats surrendered. By the time Bush and Cheney took over there was no opposition from Gore's and the Democratic party's cave in in 2000 until now and none is likely in the foreseeable future. The essence of a duopoly is going along to get along. Real opposition is anathema among the club members. Pretend is okay.
Posted by: Glen HD28 | Dec 27, 2008 5:59:46 PM
My hope is they keep it up, (painful tho it is to those of us with a human soul) and continue to show what small minded 19th century jerks they really are. It's like they are pounding nails into their own coffins, from the inside. Middle-road Repub's will run from this crap like they would from a burning building.
Wait till Olbermann, Maddow, Hartmann & Schultz get back from holiday break, they will really run with this!
Racist Republican "Humor", the gift that keeps on giving.
Posted by: Roy McAvoy | Dec 27, 2008 7:31:27 PM
I consider myself to be somewhat more conservative than liberal, in both thought and lifestyle. I often read and post here in any case, longing for a day when there is more reconciliation and decent productive discussion between liberal and conservative thinkers.
Having said that, I can find no good or innocent intent from the distribution of such a CD. This kind of "humor" is the seed that grows ill will, and hurts other people. I appreciate that a light has been cast by Karol and many others on this offense, and recollect these wise words....
The mind of the bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract.
Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes
good job Karol!
Posted by: Jenni Simonis | Dec 27, 2008 7:46:41 PM
I must say that I get tired of the idea that you have to have certain mannerisms, likes, etc. to be considered .
My husband is half Vietnamese and half American. We don't know what the "American" half is, other than he was an officer in the U.S. military. Both Andy and his sister were adopted by a Caucasian family here in the United States.
Would you consider them white because they were raised by a while family and may be half white? Because they don't practice many of the same traditions and such that Vietnamese do?
The fact is that people look at him as Asian. He's been discriminated against because he's Asian. And he considers himself Asian (as does our daughter).
It doesn't matter what you mannerisms are, what your likes and dislikes are, etc. - it's all about how society perceives you.
Obama is seen by society as black. It doesn't matter how well he speaks, how well he dresses, or any of that. The way society interacts with him has been that of a black man, not a white man.
Posted by: Zarathustra | Dec 27, 2008 8:15:24 PM
The reactions to my question have sorted out what I was trying to express, "He's both; we're all both". I didn't want to discount the "facticity" of the situation, as Chris zeros in on. Your heurmenutic hair-pulling is understandable. It's what you get from a someone that's basically a classic German in hermeneutics, that gets transplanted into Oxford Linguistic Analysis. Heidegger is the bridge, and the source of the schizophrenia, which doesn't show up in theory, but when applied to an actual social situation can be exasperating as you expressed.
Speaking of censorship and Obama nominees... I have not seen word one on any nominee for FCC head. Given his senate history on the subject and his once mentioned desire to reign in right-wing talk radio, and the fact the agency is a dinosaur, I would have thought this would be one of those he would stamp is individuality on early, yet not a word that I've seen.
Posted by: t.a. barnhart | Dec 28, 2008 1:05:12 AM
Zara, i'm reading Jonathon Alter's "The Defining Moment" about FDR & the Hundred Days. what comes across about his paralysis is not that he did not make an issue of it: he made everything of it. had he not been stricken, he might still have become president but he would have lacked so much that made him the right person for that era. his polio changed his life, his attitudes, his needs; it brought him in touch with "common" people and led him to try and help them any way he could.
so while he may not have dragged his paralysis out like a bloody shirt, without it, he would not have been the FDR so many revere today. you can do with your analogies what you will from there!
Posted by: willliambanzai7 | Dec 28, 2008 5:07:23 AM
BUSH THE FECKLESS CONMAN BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE GOP
(to the melody of Barack the Magic Negro or Puff the Magic Dragon)
WilliamBanzai7
Bush, the feckless conman brought to you by the GOP
Frolicked with the hypocrites of the grand old party of larceny and dishonesty,
Little Dicky Cheney loved that rascal Bush,
And brought him water boards, illegal wire taps and other fancy stuff. oh
Bush, the feckless conman brought to you by the GOP
Frolicked with the hypocrites of the grand old party of larceny and dishonesty
Bush, the feckless conman brought to you by the GOP
Frolicked with the hypocrites of the grand old party of larceny and dishonesty
Together they would travel on a Presidential yacht filled with felons, child molesters, liars and corrupt political appointees.
Dickie kept a lookout while Dubya huffed and puffed and failed his own country,
Hastert, Delay, Foley, Craig, Vitter, Gonzalez, Libby, Stevens, Brownie, Rummy the list's too long to explain,
Somali pirate ships should all lower their flags to honor the Republican ship of shame. oh!
Bush, the feckless conman brought to you by the GOP
Frolicked with the hypocrites of the grand old party of larceny and dishonesty
Bush, the feckless conman brought to you by the GOP
Frolicked with the hypocrites of the grand old party of larceny and dishonesty
A dragon lives forever but not so the two faced, lying and corrupt
West wings and campaign finance rings make way for boy toys behind bars.
One grey night it happened, Barack came knocking on the White House door
And Bush that cagey conman, ceased his feckless roar.
His head was hunched in sorrow, the neocons cried in pain,
Dickie could no longer play along the Camp David lane.
Outside the oval office, Dubya could not be brave,
So Bush that feckless conman sadly slipped into his Crawford cave. oh!
Bush, the feckless conman brought to you by the GOP
Frolicked with the hypocrites of the grand old party of larceny and dishonesty
Bush, the feckless conman brought to you by the GOP
Frolicked with the hypocrites of the grand old party of larceny and dishonesty
Posted by: Promise King | Dec 28, 2008 6:26:13 AM
Wow! what a debate. I am far away, enconced in West-Africa shores amidst drum-beats of distant sounds from the atlantic ocean, but yet the lure to join this debate is ever so powerful.
There's the concept that white people could lead the charge against racial inequalities and advocate for racial justice in public policies and in our politics. That concept is called the Oregon League of Minority Voters. I invite you to be a part of our "UniteOregon2009"
RW- It's white people like your mom who made the Obama's dream possible. Our society owe a great deal gratitude to those whites who have in thier actions and pronoucements truly advocates for racial justice. The battle is too much for some of us - black and brown. White progressives -we need more of your voices now. More than ever we need your support to reach out.
Thank you for keeping this debate alife.
Promise King
Posted by: dartagnan | Dec 28, 2008 7:55:18 AM
The Republican "base" has drifted so far out of the mainstream of American opinion that they don't even understand that this stuff is offensive not only to blacks but to the great majority of whites. The United States has become two nations -- America, where the normal, rational, decent people live, and what I call AMURKA, where the Rush Limbaughs, Sean Hannitys, Ann Coulters, Bill O'Reillys, Sarah Palins and their fans live. The two nations occupy roughly the same chunk of geography but otherwise have almost nothing in common.
Posted by: dartagnan | Dec 28, 2008 8:06:23 AM
"The word “Negro” was used fifteen times by Dr. King in his “I Have a Dream” speech."
That speech was 40 years ago. I know Republicans are stuck in 1968 (or maybe 1908) but the rest of us have moved on.
There was a time when the polite term for black people was "colored." But times and customs change and the terms "colored" and "Negro" are now considered offensive by most black people.
Then combine the phrase "Magic Negro" with the use of a crude "black" accent and images of criminals and rioters and you have a video that is rankly racist.
Posted by: Zarathustra | Dec 28, 2008 8:34:40 AM
so while he may not have dragged his paralysis out like a bloody shirt, without it, he would not have been the FDR so many revere today. you can do with your analogies what you will from there!
I was speaking only of the public face. I agree 100% it made FDR the effective change agent and as empathic as he was. I've been thinking a lot about FDR's first 100 days too, with concern that this won't be it. I was trying to speak directly about this situation, deliberately so. Sorry if that came off as a cheap analogy. Pretty sad on my part trying to summarize what's been said, agreeing, and it sounds like a snarky point!
Posted by: Sam Donaldson | Dec 28, 2008 9:51:32 AM
When it comes to Bush, of course no "comedy" is off limits. You can literally do whatever you want to a Bush, label it comedy and it's OK. The progressive Left will Love it, and have no problem with it regardless of how distasteful it is.
Now with Obama, it will be very interesting to see what SNL and the likes come up with. Making fun of Knee Grows is just not PC - and off limits for alot of people.
Obama is the new Messiah for the Left - and you just don't make fun of The Messiah, let alone Knee Grows.
I suspect we will be treated to re-cycled Bush jokes for the next 4 to 8 years. Or Maybe Sandra Bernhard can do more Sarah Palin gang rape jokes...
Posted by: Bill Bodden | Dec 28, 2008 10:41:14 AM
The irony of this debate about racially-based satire directed at Obama is that Obama has seen fit to identify with one of the most racist regimes on the planet - the right-wing government of Israel. He and his designated secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, groveled at the AIPAC conference in June assuring supporters of the Likud, Kadima and other right-wing parties that it would be sordid business as usual if either was elected president. Obama's choice for VP was Joe Biden who proudly claimed to be a Zionist to boast his pro-Israeli government credentials while selling what was left of his soul to secure campaign donations from the Israeli Lobby. They and practically everyone else in Congress endorsed the traditional Israeli over-reaction in Southern Lebanon in 2006 and stood mute while the Israeli air force committed war crimes against Lebanese civilians. I'm not aware of any comment from Obama on the current barbarous attacks on Gaza but anticipate some mealy-mouthed, pro-Israeli government statement to emerge shortly. The aircraft, bombs, missiles, rockets, guns and bullets used in these crimes against humanity were made in America, one of the few products for which the United States seems to maintain a level of superiority in production.
Robert Fisk has a very interesting article on Obama and "progress" in the Middle East on CommonDreams.
Posted by: Bill Bodden | Dec 28, 2008 10:50:53 AM
When it comes to Bush, of course no "comedy" is off limits.
How right you are, Sam. He was the "comedian" at the White House correspondents' dinner in 2004 who made one of the most tasteless jokes ever - pretending to look for and not finding those weapons of mass destruction that were used to lie our way to war on Iraq. A war that has cost hundreds of thousands of people their lives.
Posted by: Harry Kershner | Dec 28, 2008 2:23:42 PM
It's hard to maintain your "anti-racist" credentials and still back candidates who support Israeli crimes, so it's understandable that few of you (Bill B. an exception) want to talk about anti-Arab racism.
US Middle East policy is racist and anti-Semitic in the broadest possible sense: we support slaughter and torture of Arabs, and we blame the Jews for it (i.e., How many of you believe that you can't say anything about it or the Jews will destroy your party?).
When you refuse to support candidates who embrace extreme forms of zionism, I'll believe that you are serious about confronting your racism. For now, I can only see you as hypocrites.
Posted by: Gus Frederick | Dec 28, 2008 2:45:33 PM
Available on Amazon with his other CDs:
http://tinyurl.com/7kkq7g
Must be new or not that popular as there are only five reviews. Two give it 5 stars, (best), three gave 1 star, (worst). No middle of the road with this puppy!
As an Leftie with a sense of humor, I always enjoy good parody. I've never heard of this guy before, but I'd like to give it a listen. For equal time, I'd suggest "The Foremen," (unfortuently out of print, but available used). My cousins in Maryland turned me on them. "My Conservative Girlfriend" from their "Folk Heroes" album reminds me of Ann Coulter.
Then of course, over the holidays, I revisited the classics by listening to the National Lampoon "Missing White House Tapes" album, which included many future SNL alum. The "Swearing Out" ceremony by Billy Graham alone is worth the price of admission, not to mention the "Impeachment Day Parade Highlights" and "1600 Pennsyvania Avenue," (instead of 'Sesame Street').
One of my favorite gags involving the "PC" approach regarding the dealing with objectionable material has got to be Stan Freberg's classic "Elderly Man River" with Daws Butler playing a representative from the "Citizen's Radio Committee" who interupts Stan as he and the orchestra attempt to perform a rendition of the Paul Robeson hit "Old Man River."
Bottom line is that there are more and better leftie saterists than righties ones! And of course depending upon which side of the aisle, different subjets that are kapu.
Gus Frederick
Silverton, OR
Posted by: Bill Bodden | Dec 28, 2008 2:48:41 PM
Harry: You must remember that this is really, if unofficially so, a web site for "Democrats" to gather around the water cooler. Not one for democrats or progressives as the mission blurb claims.
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Posted by: Zarathustra | Dec 26, 2008 8:47:08 PM
I'm still curious about response to something I said on the Cesar Chavez topic, and since I probably qualify as someone that has lost his mind, I'll ask it again...
Lot's of blacks are chuffed by Obama's election, but, for years, the logic that said, "white woman, white man, white child; white woman, black man, black child; black woman, black man, black child" was considered an example of the culture's racism. I'm 1/2 German and 1/4 English and 1/4 Irish and call myself whatever, usually depending on the occasion and my mood. I agree, it would be insulting to hear, "No, you're a mick, I don't care if you're 1/2 German or not". So, by that logic Obama is white. He's also black. If you want to go to "ethnicity", I can't see that he's black at all. I live more "black" than he does. By that standard Bill Clinton already was the first black President. Name one thing about Obama's tastes or habits that is black, whatever that means, anyway.
Put another way, FDR chose to make a non-issue of his handicap. I've always thought that "isms" were undo "consciousness of"; racism being undo consciousness of race. I guess a part of me feels that it's indulging the cultural history of racism to make a point about his race, instead of his age, for example. It feels like it's dignifying the view that says race matters. Of course, that's the rub, from a historic point of view, it does matter. That was a question.