[Vision2020] [Spam] Re: Obama the 'Magic Negro'

lfalen lfalen at turbonet.com
Wed Mar 21 10:22:20 PDT 2007 

Ken Hamlin, who has a talk radio show out of Denver regularly states on his show "I'm the last Negro in America." I have a lot of respect for Merlie Evers, who for a time was head of the NAACP. Also for Medgar and Charles Evers.
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "keely emerinemix" kjajmix1 at msn.com
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 04:10:33 -0700
To: tonytime at clearwire.net
Subject: [Spam] 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?>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?>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?>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?>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?>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
> 
> 
>

More information about the Vision2020 mailing list