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Title: Obama the 'Magic Negro'
Source:
LAT
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Published: Mar 19, 2007
Author: DAVID EHRENSTEIN
Post Date: 2007-03-22 23:40:08 by Tauzero
Keywords: Kumbaya
Views: 304
Comments: 29
Obama the 'Magic Negro' The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man. AS EVERY CARBON-BASED life form on this planet surely knows, Barack Obama, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois, is running for president. Since making his announcement, there has been no end of commentary about him in all quarters — musing over his charisma and the prospect he offers of being the first African American to be elected to the White House. 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." The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro . He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest. As might be expected, this figure is chiefly cinematic — embodied by such noted performers as Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Smith and, most recently, Don Cheadle. And that's not to mention a certain basketball player whose very nickname is "Magic." Poitier really poured on the "magic" in "Lilies of the Field" (for which he won a best actor Oscar) and "To Sir, With Love" (which, along with "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," made him a No. 1 box-office attraction). In these films, Poitier triumphs through yeoman service to his white benefactors. "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" is particularly striking in this regard, as it posits miscegenation without evoking sex. (Talk about magic!) The same can't quite be said of Freeman in "Driving Miss Daisy," "Seven" and the seemingly endless series of films in which he plays ersatz paterfamilias to a white woman bedeviled by a serial killer. But at least he survives, unlike Crothers in "The Shining," in which psychic premonitions inspire him to rescue a white family he barely knows and get killed for his trouble. This heart-tug trope is parodied in Gus Van Sant's "Elephant." The film's sole black student at a Columbine-like high school arrives in the midst of a slaughter, helps a girl escape and is immediately gunned down. See what helping the white man gets you? And what does the white man get out of the bargain? That's a question asked by John Guare in "Six Degrees of Separation," his brilliant retelling of the true saga of David Hampton — a young, personable gay con man who in the 1980s passed himself off as the son of none other than the real Sidney Poitier. Though he started small, using the ruse to get into Studio 54, Hampton discovered that countless gullible, well-heeled New Yorkers, vulnerable to the Magic Negro myth, were only too eager to believe in his baroque fantasy. (One of the few who wasn't fooled was Andy Warhol, who was astonished his underlings believed Hampton's whoppers. Clearly Warhol had no need for the accouterment of interracial "goodwill.") But the same can't be said of most white Americans, whose desire for a noble, healing Negro hasn't faded. That's where Obama comes in: as Poitier's "real" fake son. The senator's famously stem-winding stump speeches have been drawing huge crowds to hear him talk of uniting rather than dividing. A praiseworthy goal. Consequently, even the mild criticisms thrown his way have been waved away, "magically." He used to smoke, but now he doesn't; he racked up a bunch of delinquent parking tickets, but he paid them all back with an apology. And hey, is looking good in a bathing suit a bad thing? The only mud that momentarily stuck was criticism (white and black alike) concerning Obama's alleged "inauthenticty," as compared to such sterling examples of "genuine" blackness as Al Sharpton and Snoop Dogg. Speaking as an African American whose last name has led to his racial "credentials" being challenged — often several times a day — I know how pesky this sort of thing can be. Obama's fame right now has little to do with his political record or what he's written in his two (count 'em) books, or even what he's actually said in those stem-winders. It's the way he's said it that counts the most. It's his manner, which, as presidential hopeful Sen. Joe Biden ham-fistedly reminded us, is "articulate." His tone is always genial, his voice warm and unthreatening, and he hasn't called his opponents names (despite being baited by the media). 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.
Poster Comment: Of course he's right.
By David Ehrenstein, L.A.-based DAVID EHRENSTEIN writes about Hollywood and politics.
March 19, 2007
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#1. To: Tauzero (#0)
the title made me laugh out loud.
how shallow are most people for falling for this silliness.
yeah, as if that is a valid reason to vite for someone for potus...the sheople will again screw us over. "Magic Negro" BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!! [More like magic MSM promotors.]
"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may know peace." -Thomas Paine In a CorporoFascist capitalist society, there is no money in peace, freedom, or a healthy population, and therefore, no incentive to achieve these. I've been calling Obama a Magic Negro right from the beginning, although technically he's a Magic Mulatto. Colin Powell is also a Magic Negro. Both he and Obama are non-threatening on the surface but that surface was nothing to do with what's inside, unfortunately. Personally, I have no use for Magic Negroes. Or non-magic ones, either, for that matter.
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
I don't have thoughts one way or the other on negros magic or otherwise. What I have a problem with is people such as the writer of this article who view white people in such a contemptuous, vicious way and promote this stereotype by continuously fanning the flames of resentment, envy and hatred for them.
how shallow are most people for falling for this silliness The MSM campaign to put Black Obama in the White House is truly remarkable. He could be the product of the Zionist/NWO monsters that govern the world from behind the scenes, serving as a kind of Lenin, ushering the sheep into utopia. Will American sheep, in an orgy of national masochism orchestrated by the Electric Jew, select Black Obama as their lord and master?
Life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think.
I don't like his lips. I'm wondering if most women would like to have those brown-blue lips touching their skin.
Antiparty - find out why, think about 'how'
Obama has a past that he's doing his best to keep it off the front pages of the nation's tabloids. It includes training in a Muslim private school (this will put Jews in a quandary. They'd love to vote for a dark, but the Muslim thing is troublesome), drug taking, etc. The WSJ has a lead story today about a childhood friend who just called him while he was on the campaign trail. This friend was just released from LA prison for the 3rd time. I understand Obama told him not to speak with reporters. Fat chance the media won’t run with this - Hillary will make sure of it.
Jews and their pets - click me
lol
i didn't know all that!
they will if "magic" is the selection of the PTB.
By keeping an eye on the federal media, we'll eventually know who the Knessett has selected. Right now, my money is on a Hillary/Obama ticket.
Supporters of Bush and the Iraq war for Israel and oil are traitors to America and they hate American troops.
This is a legitimate concern because the teevees are saying that he is 'handsome'. If he goes campaigning, he will be expected to kiss, if not eligible women at least some babies. I am quite confident that my 3.75 yr. old girl would be traumatized for life if someone with lips like that successfully kissed her.
Antiparty - find out why, think about 'how'
Ancient Egyptians were pretty heavy into makeup.
Letting loose with a scream in the dead of night; as he's breaking new ground; trying his best to unlock all the secrets but; he's not sure what he's found
What I have a problem with is people such as the writer of this article who view white people in such a contemptuous, vicious way and promote this stereotype by continuously fanning the flames of resentment, envy and hatred for them. Well, in fairness to the writer of this article, he is equally contemptuous and vicious toward blacks, as well as the democratic process, the stupidity of Americans (excluding himself, presumably) and every one else. This article is drivel. Pure-dee, unadulterated bullshit. I was repelled by the title and repelled by the stupid pseudo-psychiatrical-pop- culture contents. What a piece of crap.
It is not a Justice System. It is just a system.
The white man's cup is a bitter cup.
Letting loose with a scream in the dead of night; as he's breaking new ground; trying his best to unlock all the secrets but; he's not sure what he's found
That's good! Learnin' is churnin'.
Letting loose with a scream in the dead of night; as he's breaking new ground; trying his best to unlock all the secrets but; he's not sure what he's found
Are you saying that he is using blue lipstick? How would you call those arms? Chopstick arms? Some handsome...
Antiparty - find out why, think about 'how'
Embalm him, Jim. All hail Obamkhanaten!
Letting loose with a scream in the dead of night; as he's breaking new ground; trying his best to unlock all the secrets but; he's not sure what he's found
He seems to be a Maasai. Maasai are all pretty.
Antiparty - find out why, think about 'how'
I have yet to meet any sane individual to suffers from white guilt over slavery or segregation bump. The only "magic" negro was Magic Johnson, imo.
Well burst my PC bubble.
Letting loose with a scream in the dead of night; as he's breaking new ground; trying his best to unlock all the secrets but; he's not sure what he's found
Excellent point. These things are indeed decided by them beforehand.
He has a spider instead of a hand.
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
Would you go as far as calling him a Massai-American?
Antiparty - find out why, think about 'how'
Sure, but then I guess I should call myself a Celto-Germanic American. Ugh, enough with the hyphens.
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
1. I am the only magic negra and dat is because we invented algebras and built the pyramids. You owes us for all you know now. B. If he is half ww.www..whitey..and half black, then why he calls himsef black man? D. Why you fokes talkin' 'bout his lips. He got whitey lips. He is da' new slave houseboy for da' massa, jus like Condomleeza. But dat OK since he part whiteey. 3. I is all black and proud of it. Shalom.~
you be my mos' favorite magic negra, BS.
You may have that franchise. Just don't get any ideas about monotheism.
Oh I wonder wonder ooom-bah-doo-ahh-oop who wrote the book of love.
Obama the 'Magic Negro'
#2. To: Tauzero (#0)
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.
#3. To: Tauzeroc christine (#0)
musing over his charisma and the prospect he offers of being the first African American to be elected to the White House.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
- - IndieTX
#4. To: Tauzero (#0)
#5. To: YertleTurtle, christine (#4)
#6. To: christine, Tauzero (#2)
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.
#7. To: Tauzero (#0)
#8. To: Tauzero (#0)
The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist,"
#9. To: a vast rightwing conspirator (#7)
I'm wondering if most women would like to have those brown-blue lips touching their skin.
#10. To: Jethro Tull (#8)
#11. To: Zoroaster (#6)
Will American sheep, in an orgy of national masochism orchestrated by the Electric Jew, select Black Obama as their lord and master?
#12. To: christine (#11)
#13. To: christine (#9)
#14. To: a vast rightwing conspirator (#7)
I'm wondering if most women would like to have those brown-blue lips touching their skin.
#15. To: Diana (#5)
I don't have thoughts one way or the other on negros magic or otherwise.
#16. To: Diana (#5)
view white people in such a contemptuous, vicious way
#17. To: bluedogtxn (#15)
I was repelled by the title
#18. To: Tauzero (#14)
(Edited)
#19. To: a vast rightwing conspirator (#18)
#20. To: Tauzero (#19)
#21. To: Tauzero (#0)
#22. To: a vast rightwing conspirator (#20)
He seems to be a Maasai.
#23. To: wbales (#12)
By keeping an eye on the federal media, we'll eventually know who the Knessett has selected.
#24. To: a vast rightwing conspirator (#18)
Chopstick arms?
#25. To: YertleTurtle (#24)
#26. To: a vast rightwing conspirator (#25)
Would you go as far as calling him a Massai-American?
#27. To: Tauzero, christine (#0)
I worship Israel. Kill all Arabs and let Allah sort 'em out. We are the chosen ones. Shalom.
My Rabbi is my dentist.
Gots to keep da' money in da' family.
#28. To: BlackSands (#27)
1, B, D, 3
#29. To: BlackSands (#27)
1. I am the only magic negra and dat is because we invented algebras and built the pyramids.
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