Why We Need to Care about Stupid Racist Crap
It's easy to ignore Rush Limbaugh. After all, everyone knows he's a racist jerk. And everyone knows his listeners are racist jerks, and they're not our people anyway so why do we have to pay attention. Why should we care? If we get mad about something he says, aren't we just giving him the attention he wants?
Most of the time, we can ignore him. But no matter how tempting it may be, we can't ignore "Barack the Magic Negro." Here's why: a web poll by a Sacramento affiliate of CBS news shows that 91% of people don't think the song is racist. And sure, it's just a stupid web poll. Of course, Rush has instructed people to go inflate the poll. But it doesn't matter. In my own circle of highly educated, progressive and mostly white friends, there is not universal agreement on the racist nature of this song. And there is a strong tendency by them to just roll their eyes and ignore it.
I'm saying that as progressives, it's our job to explain why this is racist, and then to call it out. If we don't, we're being passively racist ourselves.
There are a couple of important points here. One, the original L.A. Times article that sent Rush on his rampage was a legitimate -- if sad -- observation about how so many whites may be responding to Obama's candidacy. Two, Sharpton and other Black leaders have raised legitimate concerns about the substance of Obama's campaign from their perspective. Nothing is inherently racist about Rush's opportunistic seizing on either of these points.
But as Dan points out on Kos, when a white DJ creates a baffoonish, stereotype-laden Amos-and-Andy-sounding voice to portray any black man, that is racist and insulting, and it can't be tolerated. The song also references "real black men, like Snoop Dog," which again reinforces unfair stereotypes of black men. But the worst comes at the end of the parody song:
Don't vote the Magic Negro in --'Cause -- 'cause I won't have nothing after all these years of sacrifice
And I won't get justice. This is about justice. This isn't about me, it's about justice.
It's about buffet. I don't have no buffet and there won't be any church contributions,
And there'll be no cash in the collection plate.
There ain't gonna be no cash money, no walkin' around money, no phoning money.
This is what should enrage every progressive in this country. If Black leaders can be ridiculed, and when their fight for justice can be characterized as a ploy for money without consequence, our cause is in serious trouble. We can't just dismiss it.
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)Your Comments
William Craven said:Trackback URL for this entry:
http://www.powerpac.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/129
- New PowerPAC Ad: "What Matters"
- PowerPAC in Politico
- Steve Phillips: Seizing the Time
- Somebody Died for Me
- Faith, Hope and Justice in 2008
- Between the Lines (1)
- California Politics (17)
- Can I Get a Witness? (63)
- National politics (3)
- Orange County (8)
- Racial Justice (16)
- San Bernardino County (8)
- San Diego County (1)
Who would have thought that Susan Sontag's "Notes on Camp" would have been taken so much to heart by the reactionary white corporate power structure? It's a snapshot of where public discourse is at in 2007: We're backed into a corner by both political correctness (or really its backlash, forever killing the straw man 'trying to tell you what to say') and a culture of irony that's given us free license to speak harm without acknowledging any actual intent to harm.
It might be an equally passive aggressive response, but you can't attack it directly as a racist act. Framed explicitly as a 'skit', and on a show where racial provocation is the norm, it's rather shrewdly positioned out in Chris Rock-land. Ironic as that is.
But it is indeed a racist provocation that aims to caricature Obama as nothing other than the color of his skin.
I've already had conversations with people who've said something along the lines of "if he was white and his name was Tom Smith" he wouldn't be a contender. There is a very real danger that people will strain so hard not to vote for Obama just because he's black, that they'll end up not voting for him precisely because he's black. Voters will end up faking themselves out. And reactionary media will work very hard to push this: "they just want you to vote for him because he's black, and because they're so PC. But you're too smart for that, aren't you?"
We (well, those of us who are backing Obama) should confront this by asserting that his story is a compelling reason to support him, and his race is a part of that story.
Curious to hear what others think.