Posted on 05/19/2007 5:29:09 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
'Today’ Show to Report on Rush Limbaugh’s ‘Barack the ‘Magic Negro’’ Parody Posted by Noel Sheppard on May 19, 2007 - 19:47.
Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh reported on air and at his website Friday that NBC’s “Today” show is going to do a segment Monday regarding his musical parody “Barack the ‘Magic Negro’” (audio available here, subscription required):
Now, this first aired on March 21st. This is May 18th. By the time they get around to doing their profile, it will be two months old as a story.
Interesting point. After all, Obama himself shrugged this whole thing off as just "entertainment" weeks ago.
Regardless, Rush continued:
In these two months, I have spent countless minutes on this program explaining the genesis of the parody. I have gone line by line translating and explaining it, demonstrating that everything in it is based on fact and words that were uttered by liberals. In this period of time, Barack Obama has laughed it off and called it dumb. In this period of time, Al Sharpton responded. Just this week we had the audio sound bite where Sharpton was asked about it and said (paraphrased), "Limbaugh has the right to do this. He's attacking individuals. He's not going after gender or race entirely. He's attacking an individual," and so forth. It's all based on Sharpton's admitted jealousy of Obama's being lauded and loved and being called "clean and articulate" by Joe Biden.
Clearly, Limbaugh believes that “Today” will misrepresent the genesis of this parody, and accuse him, in this post-Imus era, of being racist. As such, Limbaugh has posted at his website everything one needs to know about this song here.
For example, will Matt or Meredith mention that the whole thing was precipitated by a column in the Los Angeles Times by David Ehrenstein entitled “Obama the ‘Magic Negro’” (emphasis added):
AS EVERY CARBON-BASED life form on this planet surely knows, Barack Obama, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois, is running for president. Since making his announcement, there has been no end of commentary about him in all quarters — musing over his charisma and the prospect he offers of being the first African American to be elected to the White House.
But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro."
The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro .
What’s the likelihood that this article will even be addressed Monday? Next to zero, correct?
Well, as Rush concluded, this is going to be fun.
For those that haven’t heard the song, it comes in minute three of the following audio link (subscription required). The lyrics are as follows:
SHARPTON IMPRESSIONIST PAUL SHANKLIN:
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. paperSaid he makes guilty whites feel good They’ll vote for him, and not for me ‘Cause he’s not from the hood.
See, real black men, like Snoop Dog, Or me, or Farrakhan Have talked the talk, and walked the walk. Not come in late and won!
Refrain: Oh, Barack the Magic Negro, lives in D.C. The L.A. Times, they called him that ‘Cause he’s black, but not authentically.
(repeat Refrain)
Some say Barack’s "articulate" And bright and new and "clean" The media sure loves 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... (music stops, Sharpton rants, music returns)
(background vocalists repeat refrain & finish song)
Didn’t check the Wiki entry, but I thought Spike Lee coined “Magic Negro”.
Was wondering how long the liberal media and the PC crowd would take to go after Rush for this parody. It only took them two months. America’s leftwingers think Limbaugh`s a racist and a bigot. They alwqays gotta make something outta nothing. Won’t be satisfied until all Americans are swimming in their socialist cesspool. LOL
ie: Hit Piece
Rush made pre-mincemeat out of ABC on friday....
Sharpton hasnt complained because he is Hillary’s Boy.
Fair and balanced, I’m sure.
ML/NJ
Wiki is a joke for the most part, that’s wher all these Media idiots ge their “verification”... Anyone can say anything about any subject!
As far as parodies go, it is a great one. And is is creatainly more about Rev. Al than Obama.
Spellcheck is my friend, spellcheck is my friend!
That would be “where” and “get”
( looks embarassed )
Had you all the way, FRiend. Reading is one thing, writing another.
“It only took them two months.”
No kidding. The Left is SO ‘cutting edge.’ They totally know which way the country is headed...60 days AFTER the fact, LOL!
THIS IS AWESOME!!! SEND IT OUT across the Netsphere!
OK, this is a serious suggestion...
Rush should invite Obama on the air. They can agree to disagree about politics and Obama will be able to simultaneously laugh it off, come off as a class act, and drive a major stake into the hildebeast.
I'm glad he waited for clearance. I imagine he got the green light.
A lot of us are itching for a big 'ole fight!
Spike has used it, but he didn't invent it. He did add the rhetorical flourish of "super-duper magical negro," and brought it more widespread attention -- let's face it, how many literary tropes become well-known? I mean, other than the Grateful Dead.
(The band the Grateful Dead chose their name from a literary criticism textbook. As a lit crit term, the "grateful dead" refers to someone who is slain, or found dead, and given a decent burial, a few words and a bit of thought from an altruistic stranger. The stranger is then rewarded by a ghost who guides him to some bit of wisdom or hidden treasure. Kind of like a good Samaritan, but post-mortem.)
Lee popularized the term. LA Times columnist David Ehrenstein first applied it to Obama back in March. Google "magic negro" (with quotes), and the Ehrenstein column is the top hit.
I don't find most of Shanklin's parodies very interesting or funny, but then I don't find about 99% of talk radio very interesting or funny any more. If I read FR before 10 AM, I can pretty well predict what Limbaugh, Hannity and Savage will be talking about for the rest of the day. It's become completely formulaic.
Guys, if you're going to read off talking points from a stack of index cards, just put the index cards online. Then I can blow through them, be done in five minutes, and go on with my life. Even if I loved the sound of Rush Limbaugh's voice, which I don't, it's no match for just reading the screed and listening to Django Reainhardt.
I'm not sure Spike Lee coined anything, 'cept maybe somebody else's car.
If you read the various sources, the "Magic Negro" is a 1950s thing, as you can tell from the "Negro" locution. Until 1965 or so, polite liberals used the word "colored," along with the word "Negro." After that, you had to say "Afro-American." Then "black." Then . . .
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Thanks, much.
Don’t give up on the talk radio format. Not all are Us vs. Them all the time. Many are cultural and thought-inspiring, rather than the daily grind of politics.
Dennis Prager
Dennis Miller
Neal Boortz
It’s one of those phrases where it is perfectly OK for a minority member to use the term, but if a white person uses it, they are considered racist.
another NBC hit job on a conservative.
All-out warfare aginst the right.
Rush better be careful- he might get washed out to sea if the hurricane hits him next.
WHAT? Are you crazy? I LOVED Magic Johnson almost as much as I loved Larry Bird!!
Now that Magic is an old fart, as am I ..
I can finally admit it!
Those 80’s Celtics/Lakers games were the Best Rivalry in history.
That's why we're itching for a fight from someone who can win. I imagine you are too. This could be sweet.
He used it as well, it came from the LA Times article from a black columnist re: Obama, that’s why the parody was done (along with other articles in media asking if he was black enough and Al dissing him for claiming Selma/Obama not really being down for the struggle).
A while back I was on a Chicago blog and checking out a post re: Black Commentary Mag or some black mag, where they accused him of lying three times in each book and the reprint of the old one changed after the Dem Conv. Speech. Two people were on that lived in the area where Obama started out his ‘neighborhood’ work and one complained he had not one black person there (I don’t know for sure), after getting harassed about it, he moved his office to a ‘different neighborhood’, where the wrong people wouldn’t harass him.
Exactly. It was about Rev. Al. I bet all those who’re whining didn’t listen or check their own news from that period. They don’t care, even though they know the slamming Al constantly gave him after Selma.
P.S. the “Magic Negro” term came out of the Supreme Court Decision Brown Vs. The Board of Education. 1954 I learned that in Public School in 1966.
I don’t know how to excerpt so “Wiki” me That!
see rushlimbaugh.com there’s a whole side of that Informative website that is free.
Have good one! I am off to beddy bye...
oh no! that may be construed as rascist too.. should I include bugs or something?
<>
Hugh Hewitt is my current favorite, because he keeps a sense of humor, veers from politics into art and culture every now and then, and as two law professors on every week to debate legal issues — something few talk hosts do. Most of the time, the news doesn’t notice the judicial branch unless there’s a SCOTUS vacancy.
Prager is more reasonable than most. Boortz ... well, I’m from Atlanta, his home base, so I grew up listening to him. I have to give him props for being his own man, in no one’s pocket. But after so many years, the odds aren’t great that I’ll turn on his show and hear him say anything I haven’t heard before.
Dennis Miller isn’t carried in Atlanta, as far as I’ve managed to find. Miller is a smart, funny guy, and he has about enough material for a really sharp hour-long stand-up show every six months — but his talk-show outings, from Fox to HBO to MSNBC, have been pretty weak. Especially on MSNBC, when he decided to have a chimp sidekick and not to have a studio audience, but encourage the floor crew to laugh loudly, like Tom Snyder. You kinda have to wonder what he was smoking.
I haven’t caught his radio show, but with the right co-host and good guests and callers, it might work.
I also don't know how to excerpt something that isn't there. The word "magic" does not appear in the Brown opinion. Where you got the idea that the Supreme Court coined the term, I have no earthly idea.
Hewitt is one of my favorites, too, but suffers from being in the bag for Romney far too early in the cycle.
He does, indeed, have the best regular guests, from the sublime Steyn and Gaffney to the insufferable Campbell and Chemerinsky.
American politics isn’t martinis at Harvard.
As I said, I don’t know how to excerpt.
I have a life that does not allow me time to learn new things.. yet.
Since you refuse to go to the Rush source that I quoted, figure it out for yourself.
I went to the per curiam (unanimous) opinion in Brown v. Board of Education. The phrase does not appear therein.
I’ve figured it out. I’ve figured out that you’re making stuff up.
Well, he's got a book to sell. I'm not sure if he's in the bag for Romney because he wrote the book, or vise versa, but it's definitely irksome. Hewitt is at his best when there's not an active election campaign, and he can focus on the stuff that other folks don't.
He’s still great, and runs a great show, regardless.
I could do without “movie hour” on Fridays, but that’s his thing.
Have a great weekend. I think I might be about to be banned.
Even Al Step-n-fetch said it was no big deal.
Pray for W and Our Troops
The liberals are searching for anyway they can to “imus-cize” Rush.
I never meant to imply that the Supreme Court coined the term, but that the term was a result of the Brown Case, somewhere in the transcripts. I am too tired to reply anymore and you still did not take advantage of the verbiage on Rush’s site.
Good night. Go argue with yourself.
Actually, I think the proper spelling is “ware” and “git”.
My point is that you are mistaken in that belief. A lot of commentators use phrases like "In the wake of the Brown decision" or "In the post-Brown era" or similar wordings.
The literary trope of the "magical negro" came about amid changing public attitudes about race -- which Brown both shaped and reflected. The trope and the court case were not causally connected. They were both effects of the same cause, a shift in white people's attitudes toward black people.
and you still did not take advantage of the verbiage on Rush’s site.
"Take advantage of the verbiage?" What the hell does that mean? If you meant "read the words," that I did -- I skimmed it and searched the site, and found nothing on point. It seemed to me that rather than spending hours trying to dig out what Rush said the Court said, it would be more productive to spend minutes actually reading what the Court said.
Silly me. I mean, all I have is a political science degree. How could I expect to understand such complicated arguments without a radio host to interpret them for me?
My biggest gripe with the movie segments is that Emmett of the Unblinking Eye is slow to post his top-ten lists. If I catch part of the middle, I’d like to be able to find the whole list online sooner.
You were correct regarding the origin of the term “Magic Negro”. I was confusing the original LA Times story by Ehrenstein (sp?) and an article that I had read in NRO.
I have no problem admitting when I am wrong.
The rest of your post was snarky and frankly your credentials don’t move me.
they may not, but you can be sure that Rush will.
Obama The 'Magic Negro'-Senator Lends Himself to America's Idealized, Less Than Real Black Man
Astonishing what misconceptions have come from this parody.
It is like a tar-baby waiting for some MSM dimwit to punch.
I have read a few MSM commentators who admit there is too much truth and too much humor in this — way too dangerous to touch.
You offered no cite and no link. You instead berated me for not going to the Rush Limbaugh site, which I had done, to find the cite, which wasn't there. I think you had a little snark coming.
And I don't expect you to be moved or impressed by a BA. I wasn't leaning on my credentials. My point was that I am capable of reading a court decision by training and experience, and I don't need a radio host to read it for me.
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