comment #1

Todd says ...

"don't tell me that words don't matter"
... Barak Obama

comment #2

Wrecktum says ...

I would say that the typical white person is suspicious and uncertain about black people. Is that an unusual opinion to have?

comment #3

The Hoyk says ...

To quote my old friend and colleague (and fellow Caucasian), comedian Robert Holmes, there's a reason why white guys don't have fun handshakes or hug at first introductions or call each other "brother.": Because we don't trust each other either - we know exactly how treacherous we are.

Essentially, "Don't trust Whitey" is a safe philosophy regardless of your ethnic background.

comment #4

Craptastic says ...

It's true! We're so lame!

comment #5

a1 says ...

It seems there's a simple enough explanation for this. Why is it that the court jester was the only one allowed to mock the king, even to speak uncomfortable thoughts and ideas about the kingdom?

*Because he was no threat to the king!* If the king thought for a second that the jester could end up running things, that jester would be guillotine food. A white audience can be as magnanimous and accommodating as they want to Chris Rock, because he has no power over them. But a black man getting control of the Social Security funds of millions of racist grandmothers? You can see why white people would consider that a national emergency.

comment #6

scooterzz says ...

say no more......

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

comment #7

Josh Massey says ...

I'm thinking there is a slight difference between making a broad generalization in a comic setting and calling out your still-living grandmother as a bigot in a political speech. Just maybe.

comment #8

Gus Petch says ...

Exactly, Josh. I wonder if the throw-Grandma-under-the-bus paragraph from the speech will wind up being more damaging to Obama in the end than the Wright association. I know not everyone reacted this way to that bit, but the second I heard it, I was hard-pressed to think of anything lower than smearing your own grandmother to score political points.

comment #9

Wrecktum says ...

He's spoken in very personal terms about his grandmother (and father and mother and other family members) for years. Read either of his books, especially his first one, for examples.

comment #10

le corbeau says ...

"To quote my old friend and colleague (and fellow Caucasian), comedian Robert Holmes, there's a reason why white guys don't have fun handshakes or hug at first introductions or call each other "brother.": Because we don't trust each other either - we know exactly how treacherous we are."

No, because it would be totally gay. In fact, we've pretty much always thought that all black men are on the down low, just because of that.

comment #11

scooterzz says ...

mgmax-- oh, no you din't.....

comment #12

gansibele says ...

Mgmax, LOL.

So Obama is a comedian now? That explains a lot. BTW, how many white comedians you have seen that dare make fun of black people in the same manner? I've seen only one or two and always marveled at the size of their balls.

comment #13

austin111 says ...

I grew up in the South when integration was just a dream some black folks somewhere had. My parents weren't involved with the Ku Klux Klan or anything, but words like "nigger", "niggertown", etc., weren't alien to them, either. This was during the 50's and 60's. What's so hard to swallow about what Obama said about his grandmother? I think it's evident that he still loves her and I think he knows that these words were often used out of habit without the realization that they could really hurt people. I've heard people who probably wouldn't physically harm anyone use these horrible words -- although never to anyone's face. That would be beyond impolite. Still, I wouldn't characterize his comments as anything other than a sad acknowledgement that people frequently don't realize the extent of their own prejudice because it has become a bad habit passed down from generation to generation. Black people have often been the butt of bad jokes, and white comedians have probably heard most of them, but they have to know that these jokes come from a horrifically sad and painful place and thus it would be a form of suicide to tell them in public. But it's different for white people to be the butt of jokes told by black people --- there's almost a sense of justice when that happens, like the white master getting his comeupance somehow--it's always funnier to see the high and mighty brought low than the opposite.

comment #14

Gus Petch says ...

I've heard people who probably wouldn't physically harm anyone use these horrible words -- although never to anyone's face. That would be beyond impolite.

Well, that's one difference right there. Obama is accusing his grandmother of exhibiting her "cringeworthy" racism right to the face of a black man -- her own grandson, to boot.

But, and this gets to Wrecktum's point, I suspect Obama's grandmother is actually not the bigot Obama tried to paint her as in his speech. Everything we know about her from Obama's writings and elsewhere indicates that she is a decent, tolerant person -- not deserving of being publicly insulted by the grandson she helped raise, and certainly not deserving of having her views compared to the intolerant views of Reverend Wright.

comment #15

a1 says ...

Oh for Obama's sake, Gus......how could you get so close to the point and still miss it?

Do you think Obama was lying about his grandmother saying those things? Do you think he just made it up out of thin air? If not, then how can you say Obama's lying when he praises her as a decent person the other 99% of the time he's mentioned her, yet the one time he mentioned the backwards racial attitudes she spoke, you become 100% certain Obama just thinks of her as an intolerant bigot?

Maybe, just maybe, you might consider that Obama loves and respects his grandmother, *despite* the racial attitudes she had said. That you can love, care for, and even greatly respect people without having to pretend they're flawless porcelain fantasies ready to be broken by the slightest criticism or comment. That a person can have value, decency, and worth even though they hold idiotic, divisive views like Jeremiah Wright does. And that this country will never get past its racial tensions until people stop frantically waving their resentments and fears like alarm bells to ward off any frank and honest conversation about those attitudes.

comment #16

The Hoyk says ...

"To quote my old friend and colleague (and fellow Caucasian), comedian Robert Holmes, there's a reason why white guys don't have fun handshakes or hug at first introductions or call each other "brother.": Because we don't trust each other either - we know exactly how treacherous we are."

No, because it would be totally gay. In fact, we've pretty much always thought that all black men are on the down low, just because of that.

Okay, Mgmax, that was funny. You don't get the SuperChief, but you're still the winner of the Rocky Mountains, a 17-jewel half-Nelson, and the LaBrea tarpits.

So did you know my cousin-in-law Nina or not?

comment #17

Gus Petch says ...

I don't disagree with much of what you said, a1. Yes, he loves her, respects her, etc. despite her flaws. But he isn't above fingering her as a racist to try to gain political advantage.

Surely you can see how that might rub someone who doesn't use the phrase "for Obama's sake" the wrong way.

comment #18

Rich S. says ...

Hoyk, you just got my post of the week for quoting The Ducksters.

comment #19

EDouglas says ...

"It's true! We're so lame!"

Not me, and just to prove it, I'm going to... in the words of one of the country's great African-American leaders... get jiggy with it!

comment #20

Bocephus says ...

Both my white grandmas are racist. Grandma racism is cute, it's usually quaint, completely inaccurate, and innocent.

My father is an ugly racist. I wasn't allowed to watch MTV because they played that "nigger Michael Jackson" all the time. There's a certain moment that I'll never forget, to which I attribute my intense hatred of bigots: I was just sitting down to watch Perfect Strangers. My dad storms into the room, shuts off the TV, and tells me that I'm not allowed to watch any more shows that use nigger music as the theme song.

It was then, at the tender age of 6, I realized that all racists were clueless, willfully stupid cretins. Fuck Barack's grannie.