Is it Racist?

Barak Obama has been characterized in a recent L.A. Times Editorial as the "Magical Negro" of the 2008 Election.

Maybe you're not familiar with the term "Magical Negro"

Here is some background from our friends at the wiki-wikipedia...

The magical negro is typically "in some way outwardly or inwardly disabled, either by discrimination, disability or social constraint," often a janitor or prisoner. He has no past; he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist. He is the black stereotype, "prone to criminality and laziness." To counterbalance this, he has some sort of magical power, "rather vaguely defined but not the sort of thing one typically encounters." They are patient and wise, often dispensing various words of wisdom, and are "closer to the earth."

The magical negro is simply a plot device to help the protagonist get out of trouble, typically through helping the white character recognize his own faults and overcome them. In this way, the magical negro is similar to the Deus ex machina; a simple way for the protagonist to overcome an obstacle almost entirely through outside help. Although he has magical powers, his "magic is ostensibly directed toward helping and enlightening a white male character." It is this feature of the magical negro that is most troubling. Although the character seems to be showing African-Americans in a positive light, he is still ultimately subordinate to whites. He is also regarded as an exception, allowing white America to "like individual black people but not black culture."

To save the white protagonist, however, he would do anything, including sacrificing himself, as Sidney Poitier did in The Defiant Ones, the prototypical magical negro movie.

So, now you have some background. This isn't my term. I'm not the one that applied it to Barak Obama, but I am going to talk about it.

David Ehrenstein wrote in the LA Times today:

[The Magical Negro]'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.

He then launched into a detailed recounting of famous movie characters that fit his mold.

Then he goes this direction, in his explanation of Obama's persona:

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 "inauthenticity," 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.

Wow.

I mean, he made some valid points.

Its an interesting take.

Its L.A., so the presumption is not racism.

Unless the guy happens to be a member of the LAPD.

At least he is an African-American though, that has to provide some shelter for him...right?

At least it was not published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by a Caucasian-American right?

Then, the exact same words would have been horrifically racist, unacceptable, and condemnable.

So, what do you think?

On that note, what do you think generally about Obama's candidacy?

I think he is a good...no...great VP candidate in 2008.

And an even better Presidential candidate in 2016 after spending 8 years in the Richardson White House.

For your viewing pleasure, I present Richardson for President.com.

Stay Tuned...