"Long-legged mac daddy." (a "mac" is a pimp.)
If you have never heard of Harlem preacher James David Manning, you have really missed a treat. During the last presidential campaign, Manning raised a lot of eyebrows when he referred to Barack Obama as a "long-legged pimp with a white mama." Now this video is going viral as Manning warns his listeners that "white people are going to rise up." (and he's going to join them.)
This is hysterical. Enjoy.
11 comments:
I can't help inquiring whether you endorse racism when it happens to come out of the mouth of someone whose denunciations you find tactically useful. Do you have a white mama?
Gary, from now on please refer to me as The Reverend Lance Johnson. I figure all you need is that title and you can say whatever stupid crap you want and people will listen. Either that, or become a pundit or radio personality.
Siarlys,
Yes I did have a white mama. As for the racism business, I don't know if I can call Manning a racist for insulting Obama the way he does. After all, it's one black man insulting another black man. I posted it for one simple reason; I think Manning's speeches are hysterically funny.
Rev. Manning has done more in the Black community to help young men and women stay out of gangs, off of drugs, stay in school than Jackson, Sharpton and Farahkan combined.
His church runs a daycare center, an senior center, after school programs, etc. All on donations, no government money.
Findalis,
Good for him. On a serious note, my only criticism here is that Manning ridicules Obama's mixed parentage, which Siarlys would apparently considers racist. Hard to argue that. Do I consider Obama a pimp? Absolutely not.
Not only is it racist to ridicule Barack Obama's mixed parentage, it is racist to refrain from commenting on it on the grounds that it is "one black man insulting another black man." Your sense of "hysterically funny" is not far removed from minstrel shows and a circle of white men betting on two black men getting into a knife fight, except of course this is just words, and the president has more dignity than to take up this pathetic cudgel.
Also, I'm sure there is a white mama somewhere in Manning's family tree -- let's be real, most of us are mixed. If the one-drop rule were strictly applied, a majority of Americans are "black." I once heard a young lady in a laundromat tell another, concerning a mutual friend "his grandmother is white." Umm, so doesn't that make him one quarter "white" himself?
Doing more than Sharpton, Jackson, and Farakhan to help young people stay off drugs is a VERY low standard! (Seriously, no individual has solved the problem, many individuals, of many persuasions, have helped some individuals improve their lives. Its not a medal to validate anyone's politics._
Siarlys,
I think I conceded an important point on the racism of referring to Obama's white mother, but that form of racism is on Manning himself. I think your reference to a minstrel is a stretch. If Manning comes across as a minstrel to you that is between you and Manning. To go back to your first comment, I did not choose to post Manning because it was "useful". I agree with his criticism of Obama's policies, but I don't agree with his personal attack on Obama. As for Manning's ancestors, I could care less.
And I am sorry, I don't think there are any racial connotations, here, but I have found Manning's rants to be hysterically funny.
I agree... primarily it is hysterical. Next, it is truly pathetic. You think he TRIES to talk like that? If so, what does he really think of his audience. If not, what kind of people join his flock?
I wish I could do an imitation of him.
Miggie speaks truth -- but then, I wonder once again what exactly we are expected to laugh at? I know plenty of people with dark complexions who would also laugh at how ridiculous this man is. If you can join in laughing at him in the same spirit, that's cool.
Gary, either you consider race to be fundamental to individual identity, or you recognize it to be irrelevant garbage. Don't try to dance on both sides of that line. You offered this man's speech as worthy of attention, if not consideration. African American leaders offering a right-wing counter-point have often made strident appeals to racial pride and identity. Look up, for example, Rev. Joseph Jackson's denunciation of Rev. Martin Luther King and the entire strategy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It is also commonplace for men (most of them are men, and often the kind who expect women to be submissive) pushing this sort of political analysis to denounce their rivals as being somehow "white" or in bed with "the white man." God forbid we should all really integrate ourselves as one people. In other contexts, you rightly denounce such language and attitudes as distasteful, if not categorically wrong.
Siarlys,
My opinion is that we should exercizing what ML King stroad for. We don't care about what race a person is. I grew up in the 50s and 60s , so I have witnessed this in my life. At 64, I am burned out on all this racial identity stuff in all groups including whites. We need to all start acting like Americans and not part of a bunch of tribes. I think we should start considering our ID as nationality and not race. (And I am a very international guy. I have lived in 3 other countries a total of 11 years. multi-cultural is my middle name, but note that i don't capitalize it-if you get my point.
Of course, manning is wrong to refer to Obama's mixed heritage as he does. He is wrong as a minister to call Obama a pimp or a mac. But it is out there and I'm sorry; I think Manning's manner of speaking and the vivid languiage he uses is funny. That's why I put it up. I don't see that I am dancing on both sides of an issue-What two sides?
I find the comments on both sides of your arguments a little strained. It appears the racial card is still highly volatile and continues to polarise individuals and groups. I am in South Africa and am 60 yrs old. I have lived through apartheid (separate development, for those who fail to understand its roots.) and the wars inside and to the north of our country. A mans skin colour should be his/her pride! When the majority of a particular skin colour behave in a sub-civilised manner as they do here in Africa, they invite negative attention.
When others comment on this negative behaviour, it is not racism, it is statements of fact.
So to those who so vehemently defend a skin colour, and I must admit, white folk on the whole seem not to be so sensitive about being ridiculed for being white or causing world wars etc. But dark people are paranoid about defending their skin colour. I ask why? If black skinned people were confident of their equality, then there would be little reason to rabidly call racism with such deep feelings of anger (and possible shame?) The truth hurts and no more so here in South Africa where a huge proportion of the black populatoin are sickenly corrupt and violent and racist.
The battle of the races will, it seems, never end.
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