[Vision2020] Obama the 'Magic Negro'

Tony tonytime at clearwire.net
Wed Mar 21 09:23:08 PDT 2007


Ah Keely, just when I had begun to think you had a sense of humor....

Liberals can be so dull.

-Tony
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "keely emerinemix" <kjajmix1 at msn.com>
To: <tonytime at clearwire.net>
Cc: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 7:42 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Obama the 'Magic Negro'


> You haven't my permission, only my disgust.
>
> keely
>
>
> From: "Tony" <tonytime at clearwire.net>
> To: "keely emerinemix" <kjajmix1 at msn.com>
> CC: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Obama the 'Magic Negro'
> Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 07:29:50 -0700
>
> Fair enough Keely.  Language does evolve, for better or worse.  I had not 
> been aware of "negro's" evolution into an epithet, but suppose some view 
> it that way.
>
> Might I, with your permission, employ that explanation in defense of my 
> use of the term, raghead?
>
> Curious,  -Tony
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "keely emerinemix" <kjajmix1 at msn.com>
> To: <tonytime at clearwire.net>
> Cc: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 4:10 AM
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Obama the 'Magic Negro'
>
>
>>Language evolves.  In the 60s, "negro" was OK; it was certainly better 
>>than the other "n" word, and a step up from "colored," which was in use 
>>when the NAACP -- the National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
>>People -- 
>>was formed.
>>
>>And yes, I'm a member.  Second-generation, I might add.
>>
>>The standard for what's OK in referring to people is what the people 
>>themselves wish to be called (within reason, of course).  You surely have 
>>come to see other linguistic shifts over the decades, Tony; I doubt very 
>>much that if you saw a shabby little cottage, you'd refer to it as "a mean 
>>abode."
>>
>>keely
>>
>>
>>From: "Tony" <tonytime at clearwire.net>
>>To: "keely emerinemix" <kjajmix1 at msn.com>
>>CC: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Obama the 'Magic Negro'
>>Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 23:01:55 -0700
>>
>>Keely, Dr. King used the term "negro" in his speeches.  Was his usage of 
>>that term offensive to you?
>>
>>-Tony
>>----- Original Message ----- From: "keely emerinemix" <kjajmix1 at msn.com>
>>To: <heirdoug at netscape.net>; <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>>Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 9:31 AM
>>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Obama the 'Magic Negro'
>>
>>
>>>Oh, goody!  A "female dog" reference.  You and I certainly are on a
>>>collision course to wacky . . .
>>>
>>>Most people realize that "negro" is considered offensive.  And did you 
>>>catch
>>>that its use in the article was an example of irony?
>>>
>>>My point was, and is, that you seem curiously unable to discuss anything
>>>from an original and non-puerile, non-belligerant  point of view.  Just
>>>once, no matter how much I'd disagree with you, why don't you weigh in on
>>>something without lifting from your mentor, Courtney, or degenerating 
>>>into a
>>>pale caricature of your other mentors?
>>>
>>>But that's just me, yapping like a Chihuahua.
>>>
>>>keely
>>>
>>>From: heirdoug at netscape.net
>>>To: kjajmix1 at msn.com, heirdoug at netscape.net, vision2020 at moscow.com
>>>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Obama the 'Magic Negro'
>>>Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:58:37 -0400
>>>
>>>Well actually Keely, I thought that the article was rather interesting. 
>>>It
>>>seemed to have a lot more content and relevance than say the ones that 
>>>are
>>>regularly copied by Tom or Art from the Army times or Wash. Post.
>>>
>>>As to my fascination you surmise from the dirty word section of the
>>>dictionary, I never knew that Negro was classified as one until your 
>>>recent
>>>revelation.
>>>
>>>As to original thoughts... I knew that posting this would get you to bark
>>>and yap like a Chihuahua.
>>>
>>>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: kjajmix1 at msn.com
>>>To: heirdoug at netscape.net; vision2020 at moscow.com
>>>Sent: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 9:34 AM
>>>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Obama the 'Magic Negro'
>>>
>>>
>>>Have you ever in your life had an original thought?
>>>
>>>While the article you lifted from Courtney's blog is interesting insofar 
>>>as
>>>it dissects Hollywood's fascination with what other analyses have 
>>>referred
>>>to as the "Black Savant Companion," I can't imagine why you care. If, 
>>>that
>>>is, I thought for a moment that you grasped the actual content and the
>>>meta-content.
>>>
>>>Is it just that you thought saying "negro" would give you a thrill?
>>>
>>>Most of us grew beyond looking up all the "dirty" words in the dictionary
>>>when we were about 7. The steamliner of your maturity is drifting as far
>>>from the shore as the ship of your common sense and judgment.
>>>
>>>keely
>>>
>>>From: heirdoug at netscape.net
>>>To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>>>Subject: [Vision2020] Obama the 'Magic Negro'
>>>Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 09:52:21 -0400
>>>
>>>The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized,
>>>less-than-real black man.
>>>By David Ehrenstein, L.A.-based DAVID EHRENSTEIN writes about Hollywood 
>>>and
>>>politics.
>>>March 19, 2007
>>>
>>>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 ââ,¬â? 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 ââ,¬â? 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 ââ,¬â? 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 ââ,¬â? 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 ââ,¬â? often several times a day ââ,¬â? 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.
>>>________________________________________________________________________
>>>Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail -- 2 GB of storage and 
>>>industry-leading
>>>spam and email virus protection.
>>>
>>>=======================================================
>>>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>>>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>>>   http://www.fsr.net
>>>   mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>>>=======================================================
>>>
>>>_________________________________________________________________
>>>i'm making a difference. Make every IM count for the cause of your 
>>>choice.
>>>Join Now.
>>>http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwme0080000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://im.live.com/messenger/im/home/?source=hmtagline
>>>
>>>________________________________________________________________________
>>>Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail -- 2 GB of storage and 
>>>industry-leading
>>>spam and email virus protection.
>>>
>>>_________________________________________________________________
>>>Live Search Maps - find all the local information you need, right when 
>>>you
>>>need it. http://maps.live.com/?icid=hmtag2&FORM=MGAC01
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>>=======================================================
>>>List services made available by First Step Internet,
>>>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>>>               http://www.fsr.net
>>>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>>>=======================================================
>>
>>_________________________________________________________________
>>It's tax season, make sure to follow these few simple tips 
>>http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/PreparationTips/PreparationTips.aspx?icid=HMMartagline
>>
>>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Exercise your brain! Try Flexicon. 
> http://games.msn.com/en/flexicon/default.htm?icid=flexicon_hmemailtaglinemarch07
>
> 




More information about the Vision2020 mailing list