Obama A Smoking Mammy?

Okay, so you know I erased Fox News from my remote so that I cannot even accidentally surf to that channel. But I still end up seeing some of the madness that goes on there. No they didn't sit up and discuss whether Obama being a smoker would disqualify him from the Presidency.

GIBSON: Malia, I'm glad you brought it up. Let me put something up on the screen, "Obama Behind Closed Doors." You never see him smoke. You never see a pack of cigarettes in his pocket. The question is, would you vote for a smoker as president? John, is that kind of -- is that an impediment?

McWHORTER: I really don't think it is because it depends on the person. And Obama is seen as very, very cool. I think a lot of people find him sexy. And I think even in today's America, there's a sense that there's something vaguely sexy about cigarettes; you've got fire in your hand. So to tell you the truth, I think it will only help.

LAZU: I think Americans -- I think Americans will be happy that his vice doesn't lead him to pages or to choking his mistress. I mean, all humans have vice, and he has one. But what Americans want is they want a change and they want that hope that Obama sparks in people.

GIBSON: You know, the only problem I have with this, John, is if it were that easy a barrier for him to overcome, why is he so determined to make sure nobody ever sees him with a cigarette in his hand?

McWHORTER: Well, to tell you the truth, knowing that he does it and keeping it secret is even better. To actually see the so-called filthy habit would be different. But it's that little thing that he kind of does behind closed doors.

GIBSON: Let me put this up on the screen, Obama's formula for success. He has a moderate image, but he has one of the, if not the, most liberal voting record in the Senate. Malia, is that part of the secret of his success, is actually obscuring his liberal voting record?

LAZU: I don't think that Obama has obscured his liberal voting record. I think Obama has put out two books that lay out who he is and what he stands for. He has been very public about who he is and what he stands for, and the American people like that. And I think that we need to understand that Americans want to hear true talk, and that's what Obama does.

GIBSON: How liberal is he, John?

McWHORTER: Well, frankly, he is a standard-issue leftist that you would expect of somebody with his particular experience, and he doesn't exactly hide it. But it's true, and somehow we like to think that he represents some sort of hope of bringing us all together anyway. And that means that somehow he's going to bring together the Michael Moores and the Grover Norquists and everybody in between. And, again, I think the only reason that looks plausible is because we see something about his being brown that creates that. It's almost like he's mammy. And it kind of worries me.

John McWhorter wishes he could be Obama and I'm just stunned (then again, not really) that he would go on that network full of hacks and bigots and try to tear Barack Obama down and compare him to a mammy. He's just mad that Obama can walk in to a black community (in the US or in Africa) and be treated like a king. Mc Whorter, on the other hand, is reduced to playing circus clown to the white right.

This is a tale of two mulattos. I'm sure both have struggled with their identities. Barack Obama found his, married a black woman, has black children and - at least on the surface - is being courted by both sides. McWhorter, on the other hand, married a white woman and still seems searching for his - with a healthy thirst for the approval of whites and at the expense of blacks.

If Barack Obama is a mammy, what does that make McWhorter? An Uncle Tom personified (and I rarely use that term)! Now go 'head and get the rope for massa, boy, so the lynching of Obama can begin.

(Oh, and another thing: Barack probably would still be ascending even if he weren't black. He's got something called charm and charisma in addition to more than his share of intelligence).

powered by performancing firefox