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A Further Perspective
The Obama Code
The president’s G’s going missing, only to resurface. So what was he really saying?
“When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were instinctively, to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.” — George Orwell, “Politics and the English language”
Last weekend, President Obama gave a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus. It would have passed largely unnoticed into the giant, gaseous cloud of accumulated Obama speeches that hangs somewhere above Washington had it not been for an Associated Press reporter dutifully doing his job.
Reporter Mark Smith quoted the President this way:
“Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,” he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. “Shake it off. Stop complainin’. Stop grumblin’. Stop cryin’. We are going to press on. We have work to do.”
Though that is precisely what the president said, it differed from the official White House transcript, which included the three missing g’s. Smith, sensing something important not in the president’s words, but in the way he delivered them, thought it important not to change them. For that simple application of journalistic integrity, he was called a racist.
On Chris Hayes’ MSNBC show, author and, unbelievably, professor of journalism Karen Hunter said the AP story was “inherently racist.” She explained, “I teach a journalism class, and I tell my students to fix people’s grammar, because you don’t want them to sound ignorant. For them to do that, it’s code, and I don’t like it.”
At this point it might be worth noting that in 2009 Hunter said, also on MSNBC, that people who show disrespect to the president are racist. For a professor, she certainly has issues with logic. Hunter, it would seem, is an expert at silencing dissent by alleging racism.
Why, though, would accurately quoting the president be racist? Because, Hunter believes, not cleaning up the president’s grammar makes him “sound ignorant.” Yet did the president himself not utter the words that way — on purpose?
Anyone who has watched Obama speeches — which would be anyone who has flipped on an American television set at any random time in the past three years — knows that Obama does not always drop his g’s. He made a conscious decision to do so when speaking before the Congressional Black Caucus. Whatever for?
Like Al Gore and Hillary Clinton before him, Obama went before a large black audience, dropped his normal manner of public speaking, and temporarily adopted the stereotypical cadence and rhythm of a black preacher. It was an embarrassing, transparent pander. He very deliberately attempted to sound less sophisticated — “ignorant,” to use Hunter’s word (not mine).
Now the AP reporter present at the event understood that this was not the president’s customary delivery, which made the delivery noteworthy. So he transcribed it verbatim.
“Normally, I lean toward the clean-it-up school of quote transcribing — for everyone,” Smith told Mediaite. “But in this case, the President appeared to be making such a point of dropping Gs, and doing so in a rhythmic fashion, that for me to insert them would run clearly counter to his meaning. I believe I was respecting his intent in this. Certainly disrespect was the last thing I intended.”
Disrespect wasn’t what Smith intended; but arguably it was what the president intended.
How else to describe the normally precise and famously articulate president trying to connect with a roomful of black lawmakers by speaking as though, again in Hunter’s description, he were “ignorant”?
If Hunter is right that dropping the g’s is “code” for calling someone ignorant, then surely the president, having dropped his g’s to imply commonality with his audience, is guilty of suggesting that the entire Congressional Black Caucus is ignorant.
About the Author
Andrew Cline is editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader. His Twitter ID is @Drewhampshire.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (126) | Leave a comment
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Brian Mc| 9.29.11 @ 6:22AM
Fine work! Another well-formulated 'nail' for the alien's coffin. The man's indirect assumption concerning the CBC gleaned from his verbiage was a perfectly fabricated hammer that drove the nail home.
Alan Brooks| 9.29.11 @ 8:33PM
"to long words and exhausted idioms"
Considering WFB was past master of it, you ought to be pleased, Cline.
Bruce Berger| 9.30.11 @ 9:15PM
Non-sequitur.
Kenny| 9.29.11 @ 6:38AM
Memories -- nothing could match when Comrade Hillary and Algore was talkin' black.
And worse yet, that their audiences did not find such antics insulting is an indictment on them.
Old Soldier| 9.29.11 @ 7:38AM
Hillary's Southern ignoramus act was still the funniest.
loulou| 9.29.11 @ 10:25AM
That was classic.
Her cackling was a funny bit too.
Jack von Bauer| 9.29.11 @ 2:00PM
I comes too far. I ain't no way tired.
Old Soldier| 9.29.11 @ 2:10PM
It would have been complete if she had worn black-face and made her eyes bulge.
Jack von Bauer| 9.29.11 @ 2:50PM
Old -- a while back I produced a little video mocking person of pallor Hillary Clinton and her penchant for adopting an odd accent in front of certain audiences.
Hillary Clinton Talks Jive
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCK7pb.....er&list=UL
Fredx| 10.2.11 @ 9:24AM
I'm no fan of Hillary's, but fair is fair. Surely you could have found enough Hillary clips to make your point without resorting to Barbara Billingsley in "Airplane." That was below the belt and simply unfair with no satirical value.
kate| 9.29.11 @ 2:18PM
The media always, always drops Palin's g's when quoting her. I found it insulting years ago, but have gotten used to it.
The Bruce| 9.30.11 @ 9:53PM
Hillary Clinton, quoting -- "I ain't no ways tirrrred."
oldfart| 9.29.11 @ 6:47AM
It's only racist if a person with a light skin colour talks that way. The Pretender in Chief is the perfect example of the con-man while the groundlings go 'oh - ah, oh - ah'.
beebop| 9.29.11 @ 6:17PM
He's the unsuccessful Putney Swope of his time.
MainelyDoc| 9.29.11 @ 6:52AM
Well, he was showing his ability to talk like a black person when he needed to. Senator Harry Reid, D-NV described that ability as an asset of the President. Hillary did the same thing when she recited the poem.
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Timothy L. Pennell| 9.29.11 @ 7:16AM
If saying his FULL NAME is Racist? Then, what isn't?
If anyone's Racist, it's the Half Breed on the stage.
"Stop Complainin" - 17% Unemployment for Blacks. "Stop Cryin" - 46% Unemployment for Black Youth. "Stop Grumblin" - Poverty, Homelessness, No HOPE, No CHANGE.
"I'm not Complaining" - He and Michelle have spent $10 MILLION on Vacations.
"I'm not giving up" - 70 Rounds of Golf. Michelle wears $600 Sneakers, and carries a $3,000 Handbag, and has all those Diamond Bracelets.
"We're all in this together!"
"Now, take off those Slippers, and put on your Marching Shoes.
Me? I'm gonna get in my Limousine. I gots me a Tee Time, yo."
Mike D.| 9.29.11 @ 7:37AM
The assembled black anti-american caucus are probably the biggest collection of mindwipes and plantation massahs per square foot in the US. As long as its a black, or in this case semi-black person feeding them, they will eat dogshit and happily scarf it up.
Mimi| 9.29.11 @ 8:15AM
It's not that he drops his "G'S"...It is What he says!
He was demeaning, cruel,stupid,and heartless...Pathetic...He's surrounded by suffering people....The "O" at his worse yet!
Teaghan| 9.29.11 @ 8:26AM
No Mimi, it IS about dropping the Gs. And they way he was shuckin' back and forth like he was down on the street corner in the 'hood. He's a disgusting panderer. He doesn't think the CBC will "get it" if he speaks in his normal cadence. THAT alone is the insult, not what he said. He is the biggest racist of them all. Along with that other one, Eric Holder.
Claypoole| 9.29.11 @ 8:38AM
I especially liked BO's use of "y'all." Is that a common contraction in Hawaii and Indonesia?
Timothy L. Pennell| 9.29.11 @ 9:12AM
Actually, I believe that it's part of the Muslim Call to Prayer.
Margie| 9.29.11 @ 2:46PM
HA HAHA!!
Janelle| 9.29.11 @ 6:09PM
thank you, Tim!
Robbie| 9.29.11 @ 10:33PM
That's really good!
Jon| 9.29.11 @ 7:32AM
I have experienced this phenomenon myself. Sales people will come to my office, judge by my dress (I dress in workman's clothes) and assume I am not educated. They then proceed to use vulger language to try to get "street cred" with me, assuming I talk that way. I always send them packing no matter what they are selling. Prejudice? No. Just ignorance.
Seapuss| 9.29.11 @ 7:35AM
I wish he'd drop all those whistling "S's" at the end of his words.
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.29.11 @ 7:36AM
Heh, we Texans of all stripes drop a lot of gs. We drop a lot of "ofs" as well. "Well I gotta' go now. Be seein' you.
We do it for fun, especially out of State.
Clint| 9.29.11 @ 7:36AM
Ol' Man Obama Goes Native,
"Ol' man river, dat ol' man river
He mus' know sumpin', but don't say nuthin'
He jes' keeps rollin'
He keeps on rollin' along"
Mike D.| 9.29.11 @ 7:45AM
Obysmal is using the new mark V teleprompter with accent control. You program the speech into in english, hit the "jive" button on the accent control panel and wallah, instant street lingo. Talk about patronizing and condecending, and this group of cretins stands there and eats it.
Dan Hirsch| 9.29.11 @ 9:58AM
Mike D.
Did you know that the Mark V plays Disney tunes when it is in "Standby" or "Pre-Warm Up Speaker" modes?
HeeHaw
DTOM
Mike D.| 9.29.11 @ 10:14AM
I think it also plays that circus music instead of the Presidential tune just before the ringmaster enters onstage.
Margie| 9.29.11 @ 2:47PM
But wait! Whatever happened to Ebonics?!
Drunken Sailor| 9.29.11 @ 3:15PM
They changed the name.
Black English Vernacular (BEV)
Margie| 9.29.11 @ 3:47PM
Oh, how fitting... and propah. LOL.
irish19| 9.29.11 @ 6:18PM
Tell me you're kidding. Please.
Occam's Tool| 9.29.11 @ 8:25PM
Irish, from Wikipedia (beloved of Liberals):
"African American Vernacular English (AAVE)—also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular (BEV), or Black Vernacular English (BVE)—is an African American variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of American English. Non-linguists sometimes call it Ebonics (a term that also has other meanings or strong connotations) or jive or jive-talk."
Margie| 9.29.11 @ 10:31PM
Oh no! I thought he was making that up. LOL!
Con Chef (NB) | 9.29.11 @ 2:28PM
"Excuse me, stewardess. I speak jive."
PH| 9.29.11 @ 2:56PM
That was priceless!
One of my favorite movies.
irish19| 9.29.11 @ 6:19PM
Now don't be too hard on the beaver.
Occam's Tool| 9.29.11 @ 8:26PM
Like Ward was. Every night.
sotto voce| 10.1.11 @ 2:53PM
"New mark V teleprompter with accent control", that's clever and funny. But FYI, it's "voila" (French interjection loosely meaning "attention"), not wallah (Hindi & Urdu noun meaning "one who is in charge").
Louis Jenkins| 9.29.11 @ 10:05AM
Lift that bar
tote that bale
You git a little drunk
And you wind in jail
Appleby| 9.30.11 @ 7:28AM
Tote that barge
Lift that bale
Get a little drunk and you land in jail.
[Showboat - Paul Robeson - noted communist by the way, but a wonderful singer.]
PAUL| 9.29.11 @ 7:37AM
The President of the United States setting a great example for black youth with the shucking and jiving! You do not have to speak correct English kids, be like the President Yo! A new low for the Muslim Socialist.
Melvin| 9.29.11 @ 7:49AM
Maybe we should have majored in Ebonics.
USSAlabama| 9.29.11 @ 8:03AM
It reminded me of an even more terrible attempt at sounding like the perceived people you are with --
Hillary Clinton speaking at a church in Selma, Alabama.
To a born and raised Southerner nothing, NOTHING could sound worse or so contrived that someone trying to imitate the drawl.
Dan Hirsch| 9.29.11 @ 9:59AM
Makes 'er a damn yankee, don't it...
DTOM
Don L| 9.29.11 @ 8:16AM
What's next, to attract the (I'm one of you) vote -stimulus funds to McDonald's and Kentucky fried, chitlins and black-eyed peas in place of Kobe beef?
Any means to an end, even if the target doesn't mind being abused. How sad that this stuff works.
Don L| 9.29.11 @ 8:17AM
To paraphrase Joe Biden: "he don't talk clean no mo!"
Mike D.| 9.29.11 @ 8:35AM
Biden, the master of plaguerism himself. Affectionally known as "joey the Parrot"
Hollywood Hick| 9.29.11 @ 8:50AM
"Oh Racism, where is thy sting?" said the democrat who suddenly realized the word had been so overused it had lost all it's power. "Now what?" "Quick, someone suggest we cancel elections!"
Mike D.| 9.29.11 @ 8:58AM
I knew that "cancel the elections" thing was coming sooner or later. It isn't going to be the last time we hear it either. These people KNOW the jig is up, and they are going down and down hard.
When the enemies boarding party has landed on deck of your ship and you know defeat is imminent, you set the scuttling charges and blow the whole thing up taking everybody down with them. Its the Saddam Hussein strategy, light up the oilfields and burn everything.
Mimi| 9.29.11 @ 9:59AM
CANCEL ELECTIONS to avoid the day of reckoning...To stay for 2 years in the comfort zone.
Again thank God for the CONSTITUTION!
Dan Hirsch| 9.29.11 @ 10:01AM
And those sworn to uphold it!!
DTOM
Mike D.| 9.29.11 @ 11:02AM
That NC gov. screwed this up royally. This was a card(suspend elections call) that was going to be tactically played in a precise time and place under precise circumstances by the central command.
She's getting an internal beatdown from her own side on this one.
Teaghan| 9.29.11 @ 12:16PM
I hope the folks of NC are smart enough to remove this progressive fool next time around or perhaps they could start a recall/removal petition. Like, NOW?
David W| 9.29.11 @ 8:52AM
At least he didn't walk up to the lectern with his hat on backwards and start saying, "yo yo yo".
jma| 9.29.11 @ 10:49AM
David W - so funny yet so sad.
Mike Hawk| 9.29.11 @ 2:58PM
He also had his pants up so his shorts didn't show.
irish19| 9.29.11 @ 6:21PM
The hat would need to be on sideways.
DaveS| 9.29.11 @ 8:54AM
He failed the CBC? How? he did exactly what he told Joe the Plumber he was going to do: spread the wealth around.
The biggest racists are not white folks.
Teaghan| 9.29.11 @ 12:17PM
"The biggest racists are not white folks."
BINGO!
Skippy| 9.30.11 @ 5:10PM
The ancestral home of racism in America is the DNC.
John| 9.29.11 @ 9:05AM
It is not uncommon for phonies to "get down" and relate to the common people by adopting their lingo. In an MTV interview, John Kerry claimed to be “fascinated by rap and hip-hop,” claiming that “there’s a lot of poetry in it.” “I think you’d better listen to it pretty carefully, ‘cause it’s important.” The media routinely change what politicians say. When Obama said, “And I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise of privacy in that region.” The NYT saw fit to correct his statement by reporting, “President Obama vowed Monday to ‘halt the rise of piracy’ off the coast of Africa following the dramatic rescue of an American merchant captain.” I challenge the left to provide an example of Reagan talking in a strange accent or the media editing his remarks.
Crawler| 9.29.11 @ 9:42AM
I think Obama acted "stupidly"...
Dan Hirsch| 9.29.11 @ 10:02AM
Crawler,
That was no act...
DTOM
Louis Jenkins| 9.29.11 @ 10:14AM
"I want me one of dem huntin' licenses."
The president must return to his roots. Now where ever they may be remains clouded in obscurity. Less be honest, Obama is falling back to his core group of people, and he has to slack off on the lingo. Dropping the gs is just a small sample. Obama can move about in different social and economic groups, speak their language, and don their outfits. Remember when he was all decked out in robes for an Islamofest in Africa? And then remember the beer summits? He is truly a remarkable man who can dress the way they do in Rome so to speak. We don't really have an idea of where he is from, what degrees or laurels he received in grade school or college, what country he was born in, and we really don't even know who his daddy is. An amazing shyster.
irish19| 9.29.11 @ 6:23PM
The man who never was.
buckeyeman| 9.29.11 @ 10:14AM
I wonder which dialect the imposer will affect when he speaks to the Congressional White Caucus (CWC).
Mike D.| 9.29.11 @ 10:17AM
I think it will start off with something like "Sieg Hiel" and proceed from there, because we are nothing but a gang of racists and nazis to him anyway.
loulou| 9.29.11 @ 10:26AM
Sometimes he drops his G's and sometimes he whistles his S's.
Is he an idiot or what?!
loulou| 9.29.11 @ 10:27AM
Sometimes he drops his G's and sometimes he whistles his S's.
Is he an idiot or what?!
Mike Hawk| 9.29.11 @ 11:27AM
Did the WH host a Sader last night??.... I didn't think so.
irish19| 9.29.11 @ 6:24PM
Seder is for Passover. Not sure if there is a comparable term for Rosh Hashanah (sp?). Perhaps a Jewish reader could help.
Occam's Tool| 9.29.11 @ 8:00PM
No. There isn't. Mike, you're one of the good guys, along with Irish.
But you are on track with the Jewish stuff with this speech, though. The ful ltext of the "should bankers pay the same taxes as janitors" was should bankers pay the same taxes as Jews...uh, I mean Janitors. I crap you not, look it up.
The man is an asshole. Pure and simple. I thought Carter was an ineffectual puss and voted against him with my first ever vote---well, this time I'm going to do it again, twice, against Barack.
JeffT| 9.29.11 @ 11:28AM
Check out the videos of Obama speaking to his buddies in the SEIU, the ACORN folks, the teachers unions, etc. He is at his most vulgar, with his street idioms and pronunciations. And the anger is palpable. That is the REAL Obama, not the packaged, fake Greek column, sonorous one we were shown by his media sycophants.
Walter | 9.29.11 @ 11:59AM
That a well did writing peece.
Paevo| 9.29.11 @ 12:10PM
A forked tongue is the cause for the whistled "s" sound... O is a reptilian in a suit...
Margie| 9.29.11 @ 3:51PM
Oh, no! Not reptilians!
Dem' things be scary. George Noory will tell you sooo.
irish19| 9.29.11 @ 6:25PM
Who is George Noory?
Margie| 9.29.11 @ 6:52PM
He's the guy who took over for Art Bell.
It's the radio program that I put on if I am experiencing insomnia. It lulls me to sleep.
They have a cult of people who talk about these aliens from outer space that walk like humans but are a mix of reptiles and humans. Or something like that.
They also believe in "Shadow People."
Come to think of it, that'd describe Obama, too.
A Shadow President.
Here today~ Gone in 2012.
irish19| 9.29.11 @ 7:39PM
/cue Twilight Zone music.
Thanks.
Occam's Tool| 9.29.11 @ 8:07PM
Margie, dear---may I VERY strongly suggest that you download Riff-Trax shorts? They're 99 cents or so apiece (they also Riff major movies), the humor tends to be of the Zooms over children's heads variety (usually) while hitting adults square, they tend to be mildly Conservative, not Liberal or Libertarian, and they're by the guys who did MST3k. I have no financial interest in this; I just want them to do very well.
Rifftrax.com.
But my wife and I run our I-pod at night with our downloads and fall asleep to them (watch them a few times awake to catch the visuals, and then you will have the soundtrack keyed in your head).
Comedy is necessary because life tends to be Tragic, in the ancient Greek sense. G-d Bless, Margie.
Margie| 9.29.11 @ 10:36PM
Aww, thanks for that, O.T.
I saw you mentioned this the other day, so I looked it up online and watched one of them. It was about a vampire teen couple.
LOL.
Uli Kunkel| 9.29.11 @ 12:12PM
Could anyone at this point, expect anything less from a "community organizer" and his invested sycophants??? America voted for an incompetent charlatan-fraud to assuage their racial guilt!!! Just think about it, if the Rev. Al Sharpton been elected, not much would have been different, all the ubiquitous class warfare, based on racial politics!!!
Obuckethead is given the (MSM Bro Pass) he can say anything, while doppin' his "Gs" and it's excused and YOU be the racist -- ya jive honky!!!
Demand the immediate resignation of Barack Obonehead!!!
ncatty| 9.29.11 @ 12:19PM
AP version of Big Sam at Tara: "I say old fellow, I am the person designated to suspend work for the day."
Nick| 9.29.11 @ 12:41PM
I really wish that all "reporters" covered stories about politics in this manner - KUDOS to you and Mark Smith. No quibbling over whether or not someone will be offended, just spot-on facts. Thanks.
proreason| 9.29.11 @ 1:00PM
"But it is perfectly obvious that the president does so whenever he wants to hide his real intentions behind a cloud of euphemisms and misleading rhetoric, which is often."
Not often, always.
Every word the guy says is a lie, either directly, as a setup for a future lie, to support another lie or to twist a prior lie. His life and persona is entirely built around his skill as a liar. There is nothing else there.
He was trained to be a front-man for an evil ideology. His sole function as president is to obscure what is going on behind the scenes.
Every word he says is a lie.
Pecos Pete| 9.29.11 @ 2:31PM
PRO: You are right. correct, bang on.
Pat| 9.29.11 @ 1:01PM
If you grew up speaking ghetto as a second language, you quickly come to realize that Americans who speak only white suburban “don’t know sh*t”, as it would be correctly phased in ghetto, about black Americans. Here’s a translation of what the President actually said: “Look, I’m black and you’re black, I’m one of you. Support me and I’ll steer piles of federal money your way and your supporters back home will be grateful”.
Now, some might say wait a minute that’s not what Obama said, how does that translation come even close to his actual words? Simple, if you’re fluent in ghetto. Black political rhetoric has certain rhythms, a definite cadence and a decided preference for emotional exhortations over specific promises.
Notice the stop crying, stop grumbling, start marching nonsense phrases? What exactly do those words mean? Crying and grumbling about what? Marching where? It’s the familiar Martin Luther King style rhetoric heavy on emotional content and deliberately couched in vague references as a basic code for: “I’ll take care of you if you’ll take care of me”.
Read any large daily, like the Detroit Free Press, which services a black urban market and you’ll hear the exact same style of rhetoric when it comes to editorially demanding that Washington deal generously with residents of the ghetto. Southern politicians load their the speeches with plenty of “y’alls” and Jewish politicians aren’t adverse to throwing in some Yiddish words when addressing their “homeys”. Sure, it’s exclusionary but we all know that “diversity” doesn’t actually work in this country - we’re a severely divided nation who should print the following motto on its currency in Latin: “Out of one, many”.
irish19| 9.29.11 @ 6:28PM
"Jewish politicians aren’t adverse to throwing in some Yiddish words when addressing their “homeys""
Yarmulkes don't have brims. How can they be worn backwards or sideways to identify the "keeping it real (stupid) homeys"?
Occam's Tool| 9.29.11 @ 8:18PM
Irish, my dear man, you need to check out George Segal's rap goup:
.
"When the Bling-Bling Comes From Fortunoff
By BRIAN WISE
Published: January 22, 2006
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. .EVEN though Tor Hyams and David Scharff, two cousins from Larchmont who live in Los Angeles, have extensive experience in the music industry, little of their past seemed to point the way to their latest project. They are founders of Chutzpah, a Jewish rap group that suggests a cross between Eminem and Woody Allen.
Mr. Hyams, 36, and Mr. Scharff, 44, who are songwriters, film composers and producers of recording projects ranging from the blues to classical music, have enlisted the actor George Segal, 71, as Dr. Dreck, the group's patriarch who claims to be one of the founding fathers of hip-hop.
Mr. Hyams plays Master Tav, the lead rapper, and Mr. Scharff plays Jewdah, the group's Jewish Rastafarian toaster and philosopher.
Also part of the lineup is Jerran Friedman, a Los Angeles actor, as MC Meshugenah, an unhinged character whose wardrobe includes Adidas sneakers and a straitjacket.
Chutzpah's CD of the same name was released in November along with a DVD called ''Chutzpah, This Is?'' It's billed as a ''hip-hop-u-mentary'' loosely based on the 1984 rock parody film ''This Is Spinal Tap,'' and features celebrity endorsements by Gary Oldman, Sharon Osbourne and Debi Mazar (from ''Entourage'' on HBO).
The group's first single, ''Chanukah's Da Bomb,'' features a music video with enormous menorahs, grinding dancers and lots of bling, and parodies Jewish and hip-hop cultures. It appeared on MTV's Web site last month.
''This just started as a joke,'' Mr. Hyams said of the group, which was formed last year. ''We thought, 'Wow, what a great Hanukkah gift this would make for our families.' ''
Then one day, Mr. Hyams was meeting with some record company executives, representing a client, and no one could agree on the budget. He made an offhand comment: ''To lighten up the room, I said: 'You know what? I can do this record somewhere else. We don't have to have this tension. Why don't you guys just sign my Jewish rap group?' ''
Later that afternoon he received an e-mail message from an executive who had been at the meeting, saying if Mr. Hyams wasn't kidding, he wanted to recommend him for a new Jewish record label. Before long, Chutzpah was making an album for Jewish Music Group Records.
Songs on it include ''The Shtetl,'' a parody of ''In the Ghetto'' by Eric B. and Rakim; ''The Curse of the Blessing,'' about the heritage of Jewish pessimism; and ''Tsoris,'' a rap about nagging Jewish mothers.
In December, Chutzpah gave a performance to a sold-out audience at the Bendheim Performing Arts Center in Scarsdale, not far from Mamaroneck High School, where Mr. Hyams and Mr. Scharff were once students.
Many of the rappers' friends and relatives were in the audience, and there were a few onstage cameos (Mr. Hyams's aunt performed a dance-along for ''Shiksa Goddess''). The group will perform on Thursday at Makor, a Manhattan nightclub.
''These guys are funny,'' said Brad Garfield, the artistic director at Bendheim. ''I'm impressed with their talent and their lyrical abilities.''
He added that to reach a wider audience they should broaden their humor. ''The next album will be key to see where they go,'' he said.
Mr. Hyams said he is influenced by rap performers of the early 1990's, including Dr. Dre, LL Cool J and Will Smith. ''I know it's not cool to say that, but this guy's a good rapper,'' he said, referring to Mr. Smith. ''But he makes hip-hop fun.
What they are trying to say with the album, he said, is whether it's Jews, Muslims, Protestants or Hindus, ''we believe in one tribe, one world, kind of like Bob Marley.''
Chutzpah also follows in a tradition of Jewish rappers like 2 Live Jews and 50 Shekel (who parodies 50 Cent) and present-day artists including Hip Hop Hoodios, a Latino-Jewish music collective, and Matisyahu, a Hasidic-reggae rapper.
Mr. Scharff emphasized that Chutzpah was not just a novelty act that was rolled out for Hanukkah. The group is working on a Passover song, due out in late March. It is also starting a monthly residency at the Knitting Factory in Los Angeles, a branch of the Manhattan club.
''Somebody said to us, 'Are you worried that you're just perpetuating stereotypes?' '' Mr. Hyams said. ''I said, 'No, in fact I'm really excited that we're just perpetuating Jewish stereotypes because if nothing else, they're funny.' If we can't be united by humor, then we don't stand a chance of ever getting along.''
Photos: Chutzpah produces smiles at the Bendheim Performing Arts Center in Scarsdale: from left, Jerran Friedman, Tor Hyams and David Scharff. (Photographs by Susan Farley for The New York Times) "
How do I know this stuff? I have no friggin' idea.
I have no financial interest in what I'm going to tell you: the album is occasionally piss in your pants funny.
Uli Kunkel| 9.29.11 @ 1:28PM
Isn't there an implied threat to burn cities if things don't go as the poverty pymps (CBC) demand???!!!
Trish| 9.29.11 @ 8:05PM
Ya think??
Riff Raff| 9.29.11 @ 1:33PM
Out of respeck to the Bozo-in-Chief, ah think we should all start writin' posts here, like the Prezdent was a speakin'. All in the name of respeck and akrecy.
And no, I am not a racist. I am an elitist, intellectual snob who looks down on our "president" as a person of lesser intelligence.
Occam's Tool| 9.29.11 @ 8:22PM
Riff Raff: Well fortunately, for our President, "Time is Fleeting. Madness takes it's Toll."
(I hope you are a Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan. The balding, deranged butler character, played by the screenwriter of the movie, is called Riff-Raff. I'm aware of the common meaning.)
Boar Hunter| 9.29.11 @ 1:54PM
I think many here missed the point of Obama's speech.
Obama was not pandering to the CBC, he was putting them in their place. The one activity Obama's "Community Organizer" resume trained him for was the adept manipulation of the Black community.
For year after year since his election, Barak and Michelle have flaunted a life style so opulent as to boggle the mind. It is no exaggeration to say that as an individual Michelle has spent more on a single vacation than most of Maxine Waters constituents will make during their entire lifetime.
After electing Obama, the Black socio-economic fabric has not suffered such extreme levels of poverty and unemployment since the Great Depression and what is Obama's response?
"Take off your bedroom slippers" is not a phrase meant to pander to anyone. That phrase was as close to collectively calling the CBC the "N" word as anyone is ever likely to hear.
Obama is an expert in the language of the race baiter and he deftly uses his race to trump those who legitimately question his policies. Ironically, the same useful idiots who elected him solely because he was Black are now discovering how valid Obama considers their plea's of, "Where's ours?"
There was once a 12 year old boy who was offered $10 to mow his neighbors lawn. While on his way to pick up his mower, he met his friend who begged him to abandon the venture and come play with him. As they played, the boy's friend found a $100 dollar bill. The boy promised a fair share of unearned candy and toys if only his companion would walk by his side for the 5 mile trip into town. It is ten miles later before the boy discovered that his friends promises are useless and his own opportunities are lost as well.
To quote Phoebe from friends, Obama just let the CBC know in no uncertain terms that, "If this was prison, you'd be my bitches." I thought Obama's speech was friggin hilarious. It seemed to me that someones, "Chicken's have come home to roost."
KellyHopkinsville| 9.29.11 @ 1:55PM
Something that really bothers me about political discourse in this country: not just barefaced denial of reality, but inversion of reality. That is to say: not only is the "president" NOT pandering, but accurate reporting of what he said and how he said it is racist and therefore bad (even criminal).
My dentist says my back teeth are crumbling because I grit my teeth too much. I guess I better stop listening to the news.
Occam's Tool| 9.29.11 @ 8:23PM
My dentist says the same damn thing.
Robert| 9.29.11 @ 1:57PM
Ann Coulter was right on....brotha!
sean| 9.29.11 @ 2:56PM
Obama's father was from Kenya. If he wanted to go back to his "natural" accent, it would sound more British than southern. Obama is a southern as haggis and about as tasty.
irish19| 9.29.11 @ 6:30PM
Why do you think haggis is served with copious amounts of Scotch?
deserttrek| 9.29.11 @ 3:06PM
call me naive but "cleaning up grammar" Iknew so called journalists were dishonest but that is beyond the pale of logic. of course not bothering to pring thr truthin the first place, means why not clean it up.
distgusting and another reason to be waring of all pring media including the author if this piece if he engages in such editing.
J Michael| 9.29.11 @ 3:48PM
Oh my, when the mask comes off, it comes off!
When I heard the playback of Obummo's 'preachin', I almost doubled up in laughter. I couldn't help but recall the scene in Airplane where Barbara Billingsley (That's Beaver Cleaver's mom for those of you in Rio Linda) came up to the Stew and the black guys and said 'pardon me miss, but I speak "jive". She was more authentic than he was.
Jimbob| 9.29.11 @ 3:59PM
CBC are not ignorant - they are, to Obama, "useful idiots"
Appleby| 9.30.11 @ 3:14PM
What's the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (the "Mother Corp") have to do with this discussion?
Oldefarte| 9.29.11 @ 4:04PM
I request that everyone Google-search Jeremiah Wright's GD, America congregational sermon, which has the same intnetions as this CBC one. We're all damned, due to our combined stupidity on 11/4/08. As Wright would say, THE CHICKENS ARE NOW COMING HOME TO ROOST!!!!!!!!
MikeN| 9.29.11 @ 5:37PM
Does Hunter have an opinion on ABC's showing the teleprompter as John McCain was giving his speech?
The Bruce| 9.30.11 @ 10:19PM
I'll give ABC a pass on this, as I was watching a press conference last year live on ABC, and they switched the camera angle to show the president reading a prompter while answering a journalist's question. It was priceless.
ec| 9.29.11 @ 6:19PM
Daylight come and me wanna go
Day me say day me say day Me say day me say day o
Daylight come and me wanna gohome
work all night and a drink a rum
(daylight come and me wanna go home)
Stack banana till the mornin come
(daylight come and me wanna go home)
Come mister tally man tally me bananas
(daylight come and me wanna go home)
Trish| 9.29.11 @ 6:53PM
This is a brilliant analysis of the bombast that we have been continually treated to by despot jr. He is simply annoying. Now that the veneer is peeling off, he is coming off clownlike in his rage. The shouting, pursing of the lips, narrowing of the eyes, and flailing arms is almost laughable. He reminds me of the wizard of Oz. Poor guy, he actually believed his own messiah propaganda.
Occam's Tool| 9.29.11 @ 8:23PM
Trish, again you soar.
Trish| 9.29.11 @ 9:27PM
Now thats authentic rhetoric I readily receive. Thanks Occam.
siftin' sand| 9.29.11 @ 10:34PM
The following is not a criticism of regional dialect - I survived John Kennedy's Bahston accent - - Ahsk not what you can do..." Do I have to drawer you a picture? And LBJ' s "Amurrraca". I had some aunts who didn't know any better than to talk like Paula Deen. Two had been shipped off to Vassar and didn't get cured. One of them had a strange affliction that transcended education. She referred to a Siamese cat as a Simonized cat.
Belafonte actually sang it "and me wan' go home."
Ol'Man River was "tote that barge, lift that bale, ya git a little drunk and ya land in jail...." The most comical rendition of this I ever saw was Frank Sinatra in a white tuxedo coming down white Busby Berkeley ramp, wailing about totin' that barge, liftin' that bale and' ah gits weary, sick o' tryin' - tired a' livin' but skeered o' dyin' " - - also skeered of gittin' mah white suit soiled just singin' these words.
Does anyone remember Belafonte's "Stone Cold Dead in the Market" I picture Michelle O., acting that one out about 3 a.m. on November 13, 2012.
" He's stone cold dead in de market - (repeat until you are tired - this is calypso) She hit him in de head wid de fryin' pan, she hit in de head wid de fryin' pan, she hit in de head wid de fryin' pan - - and if she kill him, he had it comin'."
Have you never noticed Obama's favorite pronunciation of, "You know"? It comes out, "Y'ow" That's how you git down wid de struggle,when tawkin' to dem ACORN folks.
We will know when the Resident has gone completely through the Looking Glass - -when he says "Joe Biden just axed me the other day can we be posponin' the eleckshun." Gotta get that 58% approval back up to 93.
Al Sharpton's "corpse man" moment was "ettakwet" for etiquette. The difference is Al does not claim to be educated. MSNBC should do phonetic teleprompting for Al.
I wonder if there is some vocal cord impairment that prevents the simple pronunciation of ASK or is it seen as AKS on the printed page and therefore forevermore pronounced AXE?
My aunt had a colorful maid, who always asked, when they were going out, "Shall I lynch the dogs, Miz Bess?" Our dear Edna called a razor a "rah-zoo". But they were genuine and loving and honest. And a hundred times more intelligent in their time, without education than Obama could ever aspire to.
Buck Ofama| 9.30.11 @ 2:00AM
>Anyone who has watched Obama speeches -- which would be anyone who has flipped on an American television set at any random time in the past three years ...
NOT ME. I never watch or listen to that g0ddamned c0cksucker.
Mike| 9.30.11 @ 2:37AM
It's only racist if a person with a light skin colour talks that way. The Pretender in Chief is the perfect example of the con-man while the groundlings go 'oh - ah, oh - ah'.
http://www.honey-gifts.com
http://www.jerseys-hats-store.com
Mike| 9.30.11 @ 2:38AM
I wish he'd drop all those whistling "S's" at the end of his words.
http://www.bestbootsforsale.com
http://www.discountsunglassesforsale.com
Mike| 9.30.11 @ 2:40AM
My dentist says my back teeth are crumbling because I grit my teeth too much. I guess I better stop listening to the news.
http://www.ainibag.com
http://www.wholesalehatsshop.com
The Bruce| 9.30.11 @ 10:01PM
You mean all that movement back and forth behind the podium was shucking an jiving? Hell, I thought he had to go to the bathroom... or that someone was inside the podium.
I'm sure many an Obama worshiper would be happy to wipe his or her chin and walk away. Figuratively speaking, many of them already are.
Tina B| 10.1.11 @ 9:19AM
Oh, yuck!
Kilby| 10.1.11 @ 1:57PM
Did you notice that he wanted them to don their MARCHING boots? Not their work boots? In other words, go out and march for Obama and demand stuff! Once a community organizer, always a community organizer.
VotersofNY| 10.1.11 @ 6:50PM
We all know what a fake he is. It depends on where he is. When he's in front of a black crowd, he uses his ghetto talk otherwise he talks like an educated person. Hillary does the same. If she's down south, she get s southern drawl. If she's in Boston, she gets the Boston accent and so on. Just a bunch of fakes, all of them.
Rick| 10.1.11 @ 9:25PM
Your a rasist and a bigget! Nobody ever accused Bush of failing the CBC and hes' a rasist! Your a bigget!