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Behind Cain’s Humor, a Question of Seriousness [NYT: Cain a "minstrel"]
The New York Times ^ | 19 Oct 2011 | Susan Saulny

Posted on 10/20/2011 11:21:24 AM PDT by Meet the New Boss

It is safe to say that no other Republican on the campaign trail this year — or ever — has begun a speech with the phrase “Awww, shucky ducky!” the way Herman Cain did this year to the utter delight of his audience, which responded with wild applause.

snip

And while his casual style of racially inflected humor works to ingratiate him with mostly white audiences at campaign rallies, it has angered some black critics, who believe he uses age-old stereotypes.

He has no qualms, for instance, about playing off black clichés: should he become president, his Secret Service codename should be “Cornbread,” he wrote in his memoir, “This is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House.” Mr. Cain’s traveling aide, Nathan Naidu, already refers to him as Cornbread on the internal campaign schedule. (Why? Mr. Cain says he just loves cornbread.)

Those kinds of comments have drawn criticism from the likes of academics like Cornel West and entertainers like Harry Belafonte, who called Mr. Cain “a bad apple.”

Of particular concern, some say, is how he seems to make a parody of black vernacular and culture.

“It makes the hair on my neck stand up,” said Ulli K. Ryder, a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. “The larger issue that a lot of people have, and I certainly have, is that he uses a certain kind of minstrelsy to play to white audiences. Referencing negative stereotypes in order to get heard to a white audience in the 21st century is really a problem.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cain; hermancain; racism; racistnytimes; stereotypes
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The New York Slimes: "Cain is a minstrel who likes cornbread! Waaah! Waaah!"

(but he is sure making those liberal heads explode...)

1 posted on 10/20/2011 11:21:28 AM PDT by Meet the New Boss
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To: Meet the New Boss

I think we can safely say the NY Slimes is racist.


2 posted on 10/20/2011 11:23:22 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
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To: Meet the New Boss

WOW! I mean, just wow. This is like something out of the 1920s.

How is it that conservatives are called racist while leftist rags can outright use race as an active subject of discussion without so much as batting an eye among the public.


3 posted on 10/20/2011 11:24:27 AM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: Meet the New Boss

Cain is a good man who is having fun with like minded people, making fun of no one. Compare that to Hillary when she goes into her black mode, or even Obama who is no stranger to bouts of black inflections.

Cain is going to give the NYT fits when he is president.


4 posted on 10/20/2011 11:26:46 AM PDT by pallis
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To: Meet the New Boss

Were they this critical with Hilary and Bill’s caterin’ to their audiences?

Herman Cain is a breath of fresh air - blowing bias out the window and fanning fires of friendship between people who are tired of being pitted one against the other.

Keep up with the wedgies you morons!!!!!


5 posted on 10/20/2011 11:27:24 AM PDT by sodpoodle (Cain - touching the better angels of our nature.)
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To: Meet the New Boss

I don’t really think it’s minstrelsy. I think that’s how Cain really is.

Its funny though, that Cain embodies almost NONE of the stereotypes thrown at blacks (uneducated, poor, violent, thuggish, etc), those stereotypes only tend to be true among liberal blacks...and liberal whites...and liberals in general...yet they are throwing this at him.


6 posted on 10/20/2011 11:29:46 AM PDT by RockinRight (My train of thought has derailed.)
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To: Meet the New Boss

The NYT slugs know that Cain is “not like them”, and we all know how very sophisticated those bottom-O-the-barrel SAT journalism majors are.

You know the kind, the ones that embraced socialism, even though it’s never worked.

The ones that believe in global warming, even though none could pass a first year calculus course.

The ones that believe that cancers are all caused by modern chemicals - even though that disease has been around for millenia.

The ones that printed lies about “no mass starvation” in Soviet Russia.

The ones who chose to ignore a certain blue dress.

Yup, the NYT....real mental giants.

Not.


7 posted on 10/20/2011 11:30:21 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: Meet the New Boss

They used a pretty flimsy example. Liking cornbread isn’t a black thing, it’s a southern thang........


8 posted on 10/20/2011 11:34:20 AM PDT by PoplarBluffian
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To: Meet the New Boss

As Palin they are afraid of them.


9 posted on 10/20/2011 11:35:19 AM PDT by boomop1
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To: Meet the New Boss
Minstrel huh? NYT keeping it classy as always. I await Whoopi and Danson to educate us on what racism racism is shortly ...


10 posted on 10/20/2011 11:36:31 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: Meet the New Boss

uhhh does anybody remember when McCain put out a video comparing Obama to Paris Hilton? And the MSM said it was RACIST?


11 posted on 10/20/2011 11:36:55 AM PDT by exist
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To: Meet the New Boss

I love his demeanor, they cannot take it away, try as they might. This is a man who is very comfortable in his own skin. And like he said, America needs to get back a sense of humor (something sorely missing these last three years)


12 posted on 10/20/2011 11:38:01 AM PDT by SueRae (I can see November 2012 from my HOUSE!!!!!!!!)
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To: Meet the New Boss

Just the Slimes doing what it does best, sliming someone who is conservative.


13 posted on 10/20/2011 11:42:50 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Meet the New Boss; All

Understand something, folks...

Cain, like Sarah before him, is an existential threat to the Democrat Party’s very existence.

Without the slave black vote, Democrats become a smear in the pages of history, and they know it.

Now that Cain has become a real threat to Obama, the power base of the Race Hustlers, and the Dems inner-city vote, HE MUST BE DESTROYED.

The gays running the New York Times know this, too.

Get ready for Cain to be Palin’d, and you won’t be hearing a SINGLE cry of RACISM! from any of the usual suspects, either. After all, he is just an escaped slave from the Democrat Plantation.


14 posted on 10/20/2011 11:45:33 AM PDT by tcrlaf (Election 2012: THE RAPTURE OF THE DEMOCRATS)
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To: Meet the New Boss
Cornbread and “shucky ducky” are racial?

Who knew?

These guys, regarding race, remind me of a Jr High kid that sees sexual inuendo in everything he sees.

Sometimes a cucumber is just something you like on your salad and sometimes cornbread is just something you love at Crackerbarrel with your chili. And sometimes a cigar is just a cigar...

15 posted on 10/20/2011 11:46:15 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: Meet the New Boss

They cite two leftist kooks, and identify them only as an “academic” and “entertainer”.

Considering Harry Belafonte is a communist agitator and is acting as one when he criticizes Cain, isn’t it racist of the NYT to refer to him as a mere “entertainer”, kind of like a “minstrel”?


16 posted on 10/20/2011 11:48:20 AM PDT by Williams (Honey Badger Don't Care)
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To: cuban leaf

“Sometimes a cucumber is just something you like on your salad ....”

Cucumber is a racial reference? Or is that one sexist? I’ve never known that one.

I do believe the Italian word for a cucumber is used as an insult, but not a racial insult.


17 posted on 10/20/2011 11:50:43 AM PDT by Williams (Honey Badger Don't Care)
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To: Meet the New Boss

Potato soup and cornbread, love it.


18 posted on 10/20/2011 11:52:39 AM PDT by org.whodat (Just another heartless American, hated by Perry and his fellow demorats.)
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To: Meet the New Boss

So the worst thing they can say about the man is he has a sense of humor? And I object to them saying Cornbread is a black thing. I’m Latina and I love cornbread.


19 posted on 10/20/2011 11:53:57 AM PDT by TN4Bush
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To: cuban leaf

Great analogies.

IMHO Herman Cain is using his CEO experience to put people at ease. The best motivational speakers use humor to reach out and connect with their audiences.

Nothing more off-putting than the superior ‘nose in the air’ attitude that BO, Al Gore and John Kerry are known for. Talking down to the American people ain’t workin’ no mo.


20 posted on 10/20/2011 11:54:55 AM PDT by sodpoodle (Cain - touching the better angels of our nature.)
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