Nothing behind the curtain Dorothy..run along now
Posted on 12/31/2008 10:01:03 PM PST by Kaslin
This is how the whole thing started.
David Ehrenstein, a writer who happens to be black and liberal, wrote an opinion piece in March 2007 in the Los Angeles Times called "Obama the 'Magic Negro.'"
He argued that whites, according to sociologists, stereotype blacks as "dangerous." But whites consider Obama accessible, likeable and "benign." This, according to Ehrenstein, explains Obama's "crossover" appeal.
The article insults a) Obama, by virtually ignoring his effectiveness as a candidate, b) whites, by accusing them of voting for Obama merely to assuage their own guilt, and c) Sidney Poitier, the brilliant, groundbreaking actor, for ascribing his success to whites who find him safe and non-threatening.
The article produced virtually no outcry.
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh then aired a song parody --set to the music of "Puff the Magic Dragon" -- called "Barack the Magic Negro." Referring to the L.A. Times article, an Al Sharpton-like "singer" called Obama inauthentically black. Why, complained the singer, should white folks vote for Obama rather than a true black man "from the hood" like -- me.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
Nothing behind the curtain Dorothy..run along now
Actually I’ve read the term in more than one article, and always in reference to Hollywood movies.
Which is ironic, because the ones he’s (correctly) accusing of racism and race condescension are themselves leftists who are forever accusing the rest of us of being racists.
The truth is that Hollywood doesn’t know America very well. And it is Democrats and the left that are race obsessed. In modern America if you are race obsessed, you are probably a Democrat.
Normal people care about character and philosophy, a lot more than what you look like or where your grandparents are from. Hollywood and journalism majors can’t process that, they can’t figure it out. It doesn’t compute for them.
I fail to see why this has suddenly become an “issue”. Rush has been playing the song for months.
Please Larry - the GOP does not have a sterling record on race either. This article is whiny and begs for an apology - weak.
And Rush is also laughing his sizable butt off — all the way to the bank.
bookmark
So someone high up in the party has become associated with the song instead of just Rush.
Ohhhhh, he lives in a pineapple under the sea...
If an oath doesn’t mean anything, Beatle Bailey is outa here.
Here’s the mantra: Martin Luther King was a Republican.
There is a youtube video of Rush defending this parody that was posted almost 7 months ago. Then there is another youtube video that was posted on October 09, 2007 that has this song. Who knows how long Rush has been playing this. All this sudden outrage is a bit much. But I guess we couldn’t expect anything less from the MSM.
I guess they’re trying to cast Obama as a victim of racism. That is so absurd. Negro is not a racial epithet and Obama isn’t even very negroid anyway.
I guess it’s because Africa is so successful.
I was shocked that Newt came out condemning use of the word, “Negro.”
Oh well, I’ve been tired of him for sometime now.
After the parodies and vitriolic attacks we have seen these past 8 years against Bush, with little or no outrage from Republican leadership, screw them all!
The left set the tone and it’s time they received what they dished out.
As another famous Democrat once said, “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
I’ve had it...it’s all stacked against us. Every day there was some offensive something beings said, written, spoken, filmed, etc. against George W. Bush...much harsher and crueler than this. They are winning...
I do like Larry Elder. He tries to be true to principle and speak the truth. One thing is that I’d rather have somebody from the “hood” as president than what we have now. At least we would know where we stand.
The term was coined by novelist and Washington Post movie critic Stephen Hunter in the 1990s. Hunter used the term to describe the kindly yet mysterious black characters who appear in otherwise all-white movies and are somehow all-knowing in the ways of the universe and may or may not have unspecified magical powers.
The “magic negro” is entirely a reflection and visible manifestations of white writers’ anxiety about race.
The list of classic “magic negroes” includes Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile, Cuba Gooding in What Dreams May Come, Will Smith in The Legend of Bagger Vance, and Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan on Star Trek.
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