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The Spectacle Blog

Carter Called Obama "This Black Boy"

By Jeffrey Lord on 9.22.09 @ 10:55AM

Well, Maureen Dowd will be furious when she hears this one. It is Ms. Dowd, as noted in my column nearby, who said she heard Congressman Joe Wilson really yell "You Lie...Boy!" in a racially derogatory fashion even though she admits he only said the first two words. Her point, of course, is that to refer to the President as a "boy" is a racial insult.

In case Ms. Dowd -- or White Mo as we fondly refer to her in these quarters based on her proclivity for judging people by skin color -- saw the video linked here she might, well, never write about it! After all, you don't want to see Jimmy Carter actually call Mr. Obama "this black boy" and get written up as an actual news event in the New York Times, do you. As the rest of us learned long ago, all the news really isn't fit to print.

Gene Koprowski, president of the Illinois Assembly, pointed us to this video, courtesy of Frances Rice, in which the illustrious Jimmy Carter during last year's Democratic Convention refers to Barack Obama as "this black boy"... Rice, by the way, is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She can be contacted at: www.NBRA.Info

We all remember the media horror that ensued over this, right?

Serious hat tip to both Rice and Koprowski.

View all comments (34) | Leave a comment

Richard Baker| 9.22.09 @ 11:21AM

Next thing you know, Carter will tell one and all that he loves Nigras.

Alan B rooks| 9.22.09 @ 11:34AM

Carter:
"My ancestors hired plenty of coloreds back in the day.''

Alan Brooks| 9.22.09 @ 11:35AM

Carter:
"Colored people have always been the hardest working grunts in Georgia, on or off the plantations."

S.L. Toddard| 9.22.09 @ 11:35AM

"Congressman Joe Wilson really yell "You Lie...Boy!"

Even if that were what he said, it's not clear that it's "racist". Southerners often use "boy" as a term of endearment.

Alan Brooks| 9.22.09 @ 11:47AM

and pimps use 'ho' as a term of endearment as well.

"Ho, bring your own towel next time.
Ahm runnin' out of 'em."

Angel| 9.22.09 @ 2:08PM

If 'black boy' is a term of endearment, as you state, let's see you walk up to a young African American child and address him as such. Good luck with that, clueless honky!

Those good black folks would run you off like a scurvy dog. Ha!

andrew young| 9.22.09 @ 11:46AM

Jimmy Carter is a mean-spirited, vengeful, and incompetent man who was raised in an America's system of racial apartheid. Nonetheless, in this 2009 video, Carter is clearly referring to Barack Obama as a child who grew into a man who became president. He is not referring to the adult Obama as "boy." -- You have to be fair to your enemies, even someone like Jimmy Carter.

saville| 9.22.09 @ 11:49AM

Well the way I read Carter's statement was that when he used the word "boy" he meant the "young person, Obama". In other words, he was saying this kid, (boy) Obama grew up under thus and such circumstances etc.

JLG| 9.22.09 @ 12:02PM

Of course you read Carter's statement in a non-racist way. In the dubious minds of liberals it is only conservatives that are 'racist'. Does that fit your playbook? How do you know what Carter meant?

John Franks| 9.22.09 @ 12:02PM

Carter was referring to Obama when he actually WAS a boy (during boyhood), not referring to the man as "boy." He said (approximately), "...this black boy who grew up to be...". There's nothing wrong with that. The word "boy" as a racial insult stems from referring to grown black men as "boy", as when calling a porter or servant. Referring to someone's past boyhood, or referring to an actual boy, with the word "boy" is hardly racist. Please someone consider the context - and... grow up.

S.L. Toddard| 9.22.09 @ 12:12PM

Oh Lord. And I mean that literally - Oh, Mr. Lord, that's a cheap, cynical way to score a political point. Has it been so long since the Right held any moral high ground that they have forgotten what an advantageous position it is?

Also, Mr. Lord, if you are ever elevated to the peerage and become Lord Lord, I think you should go by the much cooler "Lord2 (squared)".

Anyway, you should retract this whole silly accusation. To describe a black boy as a "black boy" is not "racist" or anything else. The left wing PC mind police need to be eradicated, not emulated.

Nobama| 9.22.09 @ 2:12PM

Baloney. Carter is a home-grown, old fashioned bigot from Georgia.

Always has been. Nice try, though.

saville| 9.22.09 @ 12:10PM

Well Mr. JLG, I happen to be a Conservative who did not vote for Obama and never would because his policies are anethema to me. I dislike Pelosi's action/policies as well as Reid's. I think the bulk of Republicans in Congress are NOT conservative and whenever they ask me for money, I reply that when they start to vote like Conservatives, then they'll get my money. Though I did contribute to McCain's campaign as well as vote for him.

I will also say that I view some Republican's newfound "conservatism" with a wary eye - I see it as more shifting with the political winds than being their bedrock principles.

Having said that, it's simply the case that you are misinterpreting Carter, this time. I don't think much of Jimmah either. But in this case he meant - and his text clearly indicate - he was speaking about when Obama was a boy.

Paul| 9.22.09 @ 12:11PM

I have to admit saville is right. Carter may be racist (he's certainly anti-semetic), but this clip doesn't prove anything. Carter was obviously referring to Obama as a child. He even hesitated before he said it, showing he was conscious of how the word might sound. Still an awful president though (in and out of office).

Dulci| 9.22.09 @ 12:13PM

Yes, Carter was referring to a young Comrade O - but the point is - if a Republican had said this - there would be a firestorm of bile directed at said Republican and he'd be branded as a racist evermore.

Carter, who actually IS a racist - gets a bye.

Nick| 9.22.09 @ 12:18PM

Mr. Lord can speak for himself, but I believe his point is more about what a moron the "Painted Lady" Dowd is, rather than if Peanut-Brain was making a racist statement last year.

Jeffrey Lord| 9.22.09 @ 12:18PM

The point here is that had, say, Joe Wilson said this the move would be on to throw him out of the House. Do we remember that Trent Lott was drummed out of the Senate leadership because he joked at a birthday party for the ancient Strom Thurmond that Strom should have been president? One can even see Carter visibly hesitate as soon as the phrase "black boy" is out of his mouth.

There is a double standard here the size of the Grand Canyon. That would be the point.

Barbarian Heretic| 9.22.09 @ 1:49PM

Indeed. And just imagine the furor had Wilson referred to Obama as a "clean, articulate black boy"... the mind reels.

Nick| 9.22.09 @ 12:20PM

I stand corrected!

margie| 9.22.09 @ 6:43PM

Nick,
Actually, I think you were still right..

He was doing what the illustrious el Rushbo does sometimes... "Illustrating absurdity with absurdity." or somethin' like that!

Tex Geoas| 9.22.09 @ 12:22PM

Carter actually SAID 'boy' but it didn't mean something racist. Joe Wilson NEVER said 'boy' and Dowd made it racist. Wow... now I'm beginning to understand the liberal mind. Kinda. Sorta.

Tex Geoas| 9.22.09 @ 12:26PM

Those of us who know better, can see Carter trying to gulp back the (racial) word "boy" as it came out of his mouth in a MIXED GROUP. Watch it again! Watch it again!

Elsando| 9.22.09 @ 12:37PM

I think what Wilson might have said was "You lie, boy-howdy".

Oldefarte| 9.22.09 @ 12:39PM

TYPICAL, and NOT SURPRISING, of PEANUT JIMMY FROM PLAINS!!!!

Chuck| 9.22.09 @ 1:00PM

Pointing out that Obama was a boy in the period that Carter called him a boy misses the point entirely. He is not criticizing Carter for using the word 'boy' to talk about Obama. The point is that the liberal bias hears - and criticizes - Wilson for using the word when he in fact didn't use it at all or even imply it, but ignores Carter's actual use of the word. It is their hypocritical double standard that is the point. Had Wilson used the word 'boy' to refer to Obama in the same context as Carter, White Mo would have lost her nut.

Saville| 9.22.09 @ 1:00PM

Mr. Lord - I agree with you about the double standard - and this isn't even the best example. I refer to Mr. Byrd's use of the N word. Nary a ripple.

Though I recently read that ambulances are racing to his home - I wish him well.

JP| 9.22.09 @ 1:16PM

So, White Mo can imagine Rep Wilson utter, "You lie, boy!" and get away with it; but, when Mr Lord actually finds a Democrat who uttered it that evil word (boy), the utterance must and can be rationalized.

Yeah, right.

Ray| 9.22.09 @ 1:17PM

Liberals will say that conservatives are taking Mistuh Carter's (what he was called by his servants) words out of context, and thus say that his words were not racist, while they simultaneously hold to the belief that Joe Wilson is a racist, even though Joe Wilson did not say "You lie, boy," but just said "You lie" to Obama.

One need only go to Google News to see a plethora of news articles and columns on how liberals think that the Obama Joker posters are racist, that the word "Socialism" on the Obama Joker posters is racist, that opposition to Obama's policies is somehow based upon racism, and that the Tea Party people and the 9/12 marchers are racists, too. In grand paranoid fashion, liberals see a racist under every rock and love to enagge in race baiting for political advantage, but, alas, the race card is losing its power - to the eternal dismay of libberhoids.

Liberals think that they get to decide who is and isn't saying racist words or is and isn't acting in a racist manner. And they - miraculously - give a pass to themselves and their ilk, but not to conservatives. Who da thunk it?

Obama can engage in racial stereotyping and call his white grandmother a "typical white person," and that's ok with liberals. The same with Carter saying "this black boy."

Educator| 9.22.09 @ 2:00PM

After 40 years in public education, I can assure you that one should NEVER address or reference a young African American male as "boy". If you do, you are in peril of being labeled a rascist, even if the child in question is a kindergartner. Such is the sad PC environment that exists today.

Timothy L. Pennell| 9.22.09 @ 2:14PM

Of course he calls them 'BOY'. He's from the SOUTH. Everybody down there hates Negroes. Don't they? That's all ya ever hear, from the Democrats. When they had the South firmly in their back pocket, none of that 'colored' stuff mattered a hill a beans. Bull Connor? George Wallace? They were just 'throwbacks' to an earlier place and time.
NOW, with the SOUTH pretty much a Republican stronghold, EVERYBODY down there, is a RED NECKED CRACKER, who never saw a COLORED that he didn't want to throw a rope around. And this is coming from a guy that still calls Established, Successful Black Men, 'BOY'. And he don't think nothing of it.
I wonder. Using his logic, are we supposed to extrapolate from his unbelievable hatred of THE JEWS, that all them cousin lovin, moonshine drinkin, 3rd grade educated, inbreds down there, hate the JEWS too? Or is it just him? What a piece of GARBAGE.

David| 9.22.09 @ 2:35PM

The best cover for a racist, sexist, antisemite is a "I vote for Democrats" button. You can say anything you want and it will be spun harmless. You have to have really thick skin to be a conservative -- you will be immediately labeled a hate mongering shill for big business.

Nick| 9.22.09 @ 3:07PM

David,

That's the biggest problem with the GOP leadership. They not only care what these idiots say about them, some of them actually care what they think about them.

If you, and the people you care about, know you're not a racist, why do you care what Tom Freidman, David Broder, or Sally Quinn think of you?