Since I have chosen to comment on the uproar over the parody song, "Barack the Magic Negro", I read with interest Dr Frances Rice's take on it as well. Here is her article for the National Black Republican Association.
OBAMA THE MAGIC NEGRO
By Frances Rice
If it were not so hypocritical, it would be comical how Democrats and their media allies have created a media firestorm over a parody on racism in the Democratic Party. The Democrats' display of rank hypocrisy on race is a familiar scenario. First, Democrats exhibit vile racism. Then, any Republican who points out the Democrats' display of vile racism is attacked by Democrats as being racist.
The current target of this Democratic Party racial jujitsu is RNC chairman candidate Chip Saltsman. So, what did Saltsman do to warrant being called a racist? Well, he dared to distribute a music CD with a parody about the fact that back Democrat David Ehrenstein called Sen. Barack Obama a "Magic Negro" in an article published by the left-wing, Democrat-controlled "Los Angeles Times." Huh?
None of the people now trashing Saltsman uttered one peep of protest when the article entitled "Obama the Magic Negro" was first published in the "Los Angeles Times" on March 19, 2007 with the subtitle: "The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man." Below is the link to that article.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein19mar19,0,5335087.story?coll=la-opinion-center
Sadly, some high-profile Republicans who should know better have joined the Democrats and the mainstream news media in their Republican bashing frenzy.
Lost in the media uproar is the fact that the parody has been broadcast several times on the radio, and the satirical content understood by the more than 20 million listeners of the popular Rush Limbaugh Show. One is left to wonder if the critics have even listened to the parody.
Where was all this outrage over racism when the Democrats used despicable racial stereotypes (just as Democrats did during the days of slavery and Jim Crow) to slur black professionals, such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele?
Brazenly, on the left-wing Internet website called "The News Blog," Democrats posted a doctored photograph of Steele, depicting him as a "Simple Sambo."
Cartoonist Jeff Danziger depicted Rice as an ignorant, barefoot "mammy," reminiscent of the stereotyped black woman in the movie Gone with the Wind who remarked: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies." Black comedian Harry Belafonte and Rev. Al Sharpton publicly denounced Powell as a "House Negro." NAACP Chairman Julian Bond equated the Republican Party with the Nazi Party and called Rice and Powell "tokens."
The liberal media showed not a hint of concern about racial insensitivity when Obama campaigned for white Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin and against Michael Steele during the 2006 Maryland senate race, not long after Obama issued a letter of support for the re-election of white Democrat and former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd.
Not one word of angst was uttered by the liberal press when a black Democrat pundit on national television called black Democrat Juan Williams a "Happy Negro." What offense did Williams commit that resulted in such a vicious racial slur? He had the temerity to defy the Democratic Party's "thought police" and wrote a book called "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-end Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America." His book exposes how the failed socialist polices of the Democrats who have been running black communities for the past 40 years have turned those communities into economic and social wastelands.
As author Michael Scheuer stated, the Democratic Party is the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism. Visit the website www.NBRA.info on the Internet to see the racist cartoons of Rice and Steele and the details about the Democratic Party's 150-year history of racism.
The time is long overdue for Republicans to stop cowering over the issue of race. Republicans should cease attacking fellow Republicans for telling the truth about Democrats, recapture the Republican Party's rich civil rights legacy, and shed the light of truth on the failed socialism and racism in the Democratic Party - past and present.
Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She can be contacted at www.NBRA.info
Note: Two of the leading RNC chairman candidates are black Republicans Ken Blackwell whose website is http://kenblackwell.com/ and Michael Steele whose website is http://www.steeleforchairman.com/
© National Black Republican Association, 2008. All Rights Reserved.
I read up on the whole thing. Turns out, the phrase "Magic Negro" was one coined by Spike Lee when he was pointing out how African Americans were often portrayed as a modern-day equivalent of the "noble savage" in many of today's movies.
ReplyDeleteSo, I realize that the guy who's doing the song isn't being a racist. However, that's such a loaded word that you'd be foolish to think that it wouldn't create some sort of controversy - deserved or not. Most people aren't going to be interested in the nuances of the parody - they just lash out at the word.
It reminds me of a time when I was watching Blazing Saddles with some friends. Two of them walked out, claiming that it was racist because characters used the n-word. Never mind the fact that the only guy with sense in the movie was a black guy, and all of the racists were portrayed as total morons.
I love Blazing Saddles. And yes the 'N' word is used. Especially by the black sheriff.
ReplyDeleteIt is a parody, satire, comedy. Considering the so-called comedy that some black comedians do, this is mild.
But expect more. Soon it will be illegal to criticize Stinky.
Who is stinky?
ReplyDeleteStinky is the Anointed One. Barack Obama. His initials are BO. BO = Body Odor. Thus the name Stinky.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I read something from the NBRA I'm reminded of this.
ReplyDeleteWhether it was meant to be blatantly racist or not, the GOP certainly isn't going to win over any more minority votes (which they desperately need) when they pull crap like this.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for the NBRA's article defending Katon Dawson's choice to belong to a whites only country club for 12 years.
I think it's perfectly okay for blacks to believe in small government and conservative social values. What gets me is the NBRA's constant insistence on defending every racial blunder that the GOP commits. They need to grow a spine.
Bryan,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I don't know who Katon Dawson is...probably because I am not a Republican.
Yeah, yeah, I know, Gary. You and Bill O'Reilly. You're both "independents" who just so happen to agree with 99% of everything that every Republican says/does and vote Republican 100% of the time. Come on, man!
ReplyDeleteBryan,
ReplyDeleteRead my comments on Larry Craig, David Vitters, Mark Foley and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
They're the 1%. Let me ask you a question: when was the last time you voted for anyone in a general election who wasn't a Republican?
ReplyDeleteI say general election because I know that you've voted for Democrats in their primaries since they allow registered independents to do so while the Republicans do not.
Bryan,
ReplyDeleteShort answer: Never.
Long answer: I voted for Obama in the primary -only time I ever voted for a Democrat because I wanted to vote against Hillary. Maybe I voted for Tom Bradley once for LA Mayor.
Now let me tell you who I have voted against:
George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Gray Davis and Phil Angelides.
And I don't regret any of those votes.