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Monday, June 02, 2008

Obama, Manliness, and the Notion of Black Privilege

From Villanous Company:
What Barack Obama appears not to have noticed (at least judging by his public statements) is that if a preacher makes political statements in church about race that, had they been made by a white person about a black person, would be considered by any reasonably objective person to be racist, you have a veritable trifecta of newsworthiness. Where he repeatedly keeps missing the clue bus is here: American society has changed to the point where pretty much every white person I know would not feel comfortable staying in the room, were a white preacher to make comparable statements about blacks. People would deal with it in their own way.

There might be complaints. There might be calls for his resignation. Some might just leave the church quietly after the service. What I cannot under any circumstances imagine is a white audience hooting and hollering in open approval of such "destructive and divisive" rhetoric because it was rooted in the "white church" tradition. I cannot imagine the media giving a white politician a pass if he either defended or refused to denounce such words.

I cannot imagine the media maintaining that it was acceptable to passively listen to such rhetoric without objecting because it "did not reflect his beliefs".

Barack Obama is the quintessential yuppie fop who always claims to be acting from the highest motives and how dare you question is integrity! How dare you notice that his congregation is whooping and hollering and applauding racist comments? It’s a “black thing” and you wouldn’t understand, you typical white person. In fact you’re a racist for even noticing.

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