The American Spectator

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Larger Than Life

6.24.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 5 of 5)

"Obama the 'Magic Negro'

"The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man."

After Ehrenstein states: "But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination -- the 'Magic Negro,' we do indeed get a brief sociological discourse on the archetypical gasbag who's sole existence is to assuage white 'guilt.' Then there's something about such a man who fulfills the white man's fantasy as a noble, generous, self-sacrificing rescuer of beleaguered Caucasians. In other words, a black man whites can like and feel good about it. Apparently, Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Smith, Don Cheadle and Magic Johnson are guilty of being all too willing to jump into the role."

Oh. Sidney, say it's not true!

Ehrenstein concludes:

"Like a comic-book superhero, Obama is there to help, out of the sheer goodness of a heart we need not know or understand. For as with all Magic Negroes, the less real he seems, the more desirable he becomes. If he were real, white America couldn't project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him."

I don't know about you but it seems to me the Mr. Ehrenstein wasn't saying nice things about Senator Obama.

Perhaps Mr. Roush is reading the article as saying the "magic negro" role is being projected onto Obama by the perfidious whites. I read it as Senator Obama is deliberately shedding the "pissed off African-American" reality of himself to exploit a flight of the imagination born of white guilt. I think the text bears me out.

I write this as one who finds it difficult to listen to Rush Limbaugh. He beats a subject to death. Given his three marriages, he can't possibly understand women as much as he thinks. His advice on childrearing shows he hasn't a clue. He thinks everyone should pay for most medical services out of pocket; but he shows little understanding that a single x-ray can profoundly break a family's budget. I have never met him; but something tells me he can be a jerk. Still, a number of liberals did question Obama's authenticity and his worthiness to be the African-American for the Democrat Party to seriously put forth as the first Black presidential candidate. Limbaugh may deserve to be impaled and put on display outside the Jefferson Memorial; but not on this count.
-- Mike Dooley

WEIRDO
Re: Philip Klein's The Post-Post 9/11 Candidate:

Pretending 9/11 wasn't is fundamental to Obama's campaign. Otherwise, we'd have to recognize that there is a genuine threat, not the "Big Brother" boogeyman, and it demands something of us, specifically courage and sacrifice. Not lots of lots of talk and movies and t-shirts and websites.

Obama is an odd guy; babies born due to botched abortions are on their own, but world-wide terrorists deserve due process. Weird, weird guy.
-- Michael Burke
New York, New York

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