Liberal outrage over a ditty that parodied Barack Obama's identity as a black American ignores the fact that it all began with a Los Angeles Times column by a black liberal columnist who questioned Obama's status as an authentic African-American.
Liberals were not alone in expressing anger. The chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) Robert M. Duncan, obviously unaware of the parody’s origin, jumped the gun saying he was “shocked and appalled” at the judgment of one of his potential successors, according to the Associated Press. Duncan castigated former Tennessee GOP leader Chip Saltsman for sending RNC committee members a Christmas CD featuring a 2007 song called “Barack the Magic Negro.” But David Ehrenstein, a black liberal writer and no friend of Obama's, is the one who first wrote of Obama as a "Magic Negro," in a March 2007 Times column in which he argued that white liberals were portraying Obama as a stereotype. He likened Obama to “warm and unthreatening” black figures such as actors Sidney Poitier and Morgan Freeman. Ehrenstein insisted that Obama's role as a candidate was "to assuage white 'guilt' over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history". "As everyone knows, whites feel no guilt about America's racist history whatsoever," Ehrenstein wrote, according to the Washington Post. "All they care about is the appearance of politesse — the slimy veneer of 'good manners.'" "Obama's fame," wrote Ehrenstein, is about "his manner, which, as presidential hopeful Sen. Joe Biden ham-fistedly reminded us, is 'articulate.' His tone is always genial, his voice warm and unthreatening, and he hasn't called his opponents names (despite being baited by the media). "Like a comic-book superhero, Obama is there to help, out of the sheer goodness of a heart we need not know or understand. For as with all Magic Negroes, the less real he seems, the more desirable he becomes. If he were real, white America couldn't project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him." The song, "Barack the Magic Negro," sung by satirist Paul Shanklin, who wrote the parody, was a direct result of Ehrenstein's column. That's where the "Magic Negro" term originated http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obama_parody_la_times/2008/12/29/165983.html --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
