Really, the whole story should make any mature adult wonder, “Seriously, are these people in a position of power?”
Apparently, Chip Saltsman, RNC member hoping to gain RNC chairmanship, actually thought, hey, sending out an offensive CD is a good idea! If I recall correctly, this past election, demonstrated clearly, that the Republican Party, in order to thrive, must deviate from old habits and start enticing a more diverse population to join their party. Ahh, hint Chris, THIS, is NOT the way to draw a more diverse membership.
Even the current RNC Chairman, Robert Duncan was “shocked and appalled” that one of his possible successors had sent out a CD this Christmas with the 2007 parody ” Barack the Magic Negro”. It’s one thing when Rush Limbaugh does it, but when such insensitivity is codified by the RNC, not good, not good P.R. at all.
(CNN) — A candidate for the Republican National Committee chairmanship said Friday the CD he sent committee members for Christmas — which included a song titled “Barack the Magic Negro” — was clearly intended as a joke.
“I think most people recognize political satire when they see it,” Tennessee Republican Chip Saltsman told CNN. “I think RNC members understand that.”
The song, set to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon,” was first played on conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh’s radio show in 2007.
Its title was drawn from a Los Angeles Times column that suggested President-elect Barack Obama appealed to those who feel guilty about the nation’s history of mistreatment of African-Americans. Saltsman said the song, penned by his longtime friend Paul Shanklin, should be easily recognized as satire directed at the Times.
The CD sent to RNC members, first reported by The Hill on Friday, is titled “We Hate the USA” and also includes songs referencing former presidential candidate John Edwards and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, among other targets.
According to The Hill, other song titles, some of which were in bold font, were: “John Edwards’ Poverty Tour,” “Wright place, wrong pastor,” “Love Client #9,” “Ivory and Ebony” and “The Star Spanglish Banner.”
Saltsman was national campaign manager for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s presidential bid in 2007 and 2008. Before that, he held a variety of posts, including a number of positions under former Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee.
You know, I can understand 2 friends exchanging tastless jokes. This is private and hopefully people do not use their office email and their computer is never seized.
I cannot understand anyone, in a post Watergate, post Anita Hill political environment, thinking that these kinds of tasteless parodies are appropriate. They should be thinking POLITICAL SUICIDE ALERT POLITICAL SUICIDE ALERT. NOW HEAR THIS!
What a moron.
We all need to re-learn how to laugh at ourselves and how to simply be respectful when we disagree. This ditty seems more to suppport Obama against the Al Sharptons of the black US community. I would characterize Sharpton and Obama differently. Obama doesn’t need the Sharptons of the world to be a sucess. That’s how I interpret the lyrics.
PAUL SHANKLIN (Al Sharpton impersonator):
Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times, they called him that
‘Cause he’s not authentic like me.
Yeah, the guy from the L.A. paper
Said he makes guilty whites feel good
They’ll vote for him, and not for me
‘Cause he’s not from the hood.
See, real black men, like Snoop Dog,
Or me, or Farrakhan
Have talked the talk, and walked the walk.
Not come in late and won!
[refrain] Oh, Barack the Magic Negro, lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times, they called him that
‘Cause he’s black, but not authentically.
Oh, Barack the Magic Negro, lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times, they called him that
‘Cause he’s black, but not authentically.
Some say Barack’s “articulate”
And bright and new and “clean.”
The media sure loves this guy,
A white interloper’s dream!
But, when you vote for president,
Watch out, and don’t be fooled!
Don’t vote the Magic Negro in –
‘Cause — ’cause I won’t have nothing after all these years of sacrifice
And I won’t get justice. This is about justice. This isn’t about me, it’s about justice.
It’s about buffet. I don’t have no buffet and there won’t be any church contributions,
What a dumbo. Meant as a joke? He’s made himself the laughing stock of the the Republican Party. He might as well kiss his career goodbye.
Juturna,
I love the way white people think they can tell people of color how they should react to bigotry.
Who is this ‘we’ that you’re talking about? Are you sure it’s not a figment of your imagination? When did this ‘we’ come into being?
Because my ‘we’ doesn’t really include you when it comes to issues of racial oppression.
And relearning to laugh at ourselves? Relearn?!? Since when did this comity and equality between whites and people of color exist so that we have to relearn it? How can you relearn something that wasn’t learned to begin with?
Support?!?
When white people use the word ‘negro’ it’s almost up there with the word n****r. Which means that white people don’t have the permission to use this word anymore. The permission was revoked decades ago. This word has been claimed by black people. It belongs to them now.
It’s hardly even remotely plausible that Ken Doll Chip Saltsman didn’t realize the overtones and connotations this word carries when white people use it. When Ken Doll Chip Saltsman gets together with his other Ken Doll friends for a day of golfing on the green, and they start to complain about the negros after hurricane Katrina, it’s pretty clear what they’re really saying.
And what’s positive about supporting an Obama who betrayed his spiritual mentor when the going got tough? A Barack Obama who bent over backwards to never say anything that would make white people squirm in their seats no matter how true it was?
Reverend Wright was a warrior for the truth. The brass ring of the presidency meant nothing to him next to bearing honest witness to his truth. To reveal the light, as the light has been revealed to him. And when he said goddamn America, he was goddamn right.
Well Mackie, I’ve not yet shot anyone made jokes about drinking or even gone after law enforcement for formalizing the term Paddy Wagon.
I’ve endured crap from numbers too many to count about Priests and being Catholic. I’ve have non-Catholic posters here tell me what is the most (sotto voice) “agonizing to Catholics” and what was said to them 40 years ago.
Negro means black in Spanish. You eradicate the word from their language or is it okay if they are brown to use it?
Get over yourself.
It was funny.
PS I think Obama went to the church his wife picked. I don’t think he gives a bean for religion.
I don’t think any one group owns words. Does that mean I can no longer speak about the United Negro College Fund? For many generations, the word ‘Negro,’ was used as a term of courteousness. It is out-dated now; not the preferred. I actually know older blacks of another generation who refer to themselves as ‘colored.’
Mackie, do you know Juturna? How can you assume anything about her, especially her ethnicity. Additionally, I know for a fact that all Americans who are people of color do not agree with each other on all these issues. Not by any stetch.
Having said that, I think Chippie Boy was an idiot for sending out that jingle. It is not public humor…not without severe consequences attached.
Wow, I guess my brain was so shocked by the audacity of this song that I “blocked” it out when I wrote this post. Thanks for the e-mail (you know who you are!) for catching my mistake and letting me know 🙂 The title is now correct.
So, Mackie, should the NAACP be put on a list since the word “colored” is in their title? Should the country of Nigeria (niger is Latin for the color black) change? I, for once, agree with Juturna – get over yourself.
I’m tired of your accusations that everyone on this blog is racist or against those of color except for you.
Question – do you use the word gypsy? Because that can be considered racist. Do you say things are kosher? That can be offensive. Enough is enough
No Alanna, not a joke. It is a way to disrespect and dismiss the President-Elect, using age-old racial superiority as the foundation.
Mackie and You Wish, semantics is not the issue. It’s the intent that is offensive here. Words are just ways of expressing how you feel. The way this man feels is ugly. The only thing uglier is his warped idea that any self-respecting American would welcome it.
What an idiot!! Some people can get educated buy they can never get unignorant. An absolute bozo.
Mackie, if I may ask, how old are you? Purely in broad terms like decades? Just asking.
The reality is that any forward thinking adult would realize that this song is NOT a way to make people feel as though the Republican Party is extending a hand to people who come from diverse backgrounds. I can’t tell you how many times I have been a room where a Jewish joke is told, not knowing I am Jewish of course, and I did not think it was funny. Not because the joke was mean spirited , but because the spirit in which it was told was meant to codify an old stereotype. When I mention that I am Jewish, after the joke is told, then these people, usually co-workers, would say, “oh, you are Jewish, gosh you don’t LOOK Jewish, are BOTH your parents Jewish?” then, a half hearted apology would follow. Negro was meant as a word to bring us back to a time long ago, when there was still segregation, when Jim Crow still existed, it was meant as a way to instill divisiveness, and that the song came from Rush Limbaugh is doubly offensive in my mind.
As much as I did not believe that President Bush was a good president, making fun of him because he was white would NOT have been funny. The amount of death threats, from AMERICANS, against Obama has been unbelievable, if at any time in our history, Americans needed to rally around a new president, this is the time. I don’t recall, when President Bush was elected, either time, that there was such an outpouring of possible violence directed a an incoming president.
PWCR,
That’s an odd question
PWCR,
Mackie does not take personal questions, even a broad question such as yours. Don’t waste your keyboard strokes on him. He’ll just assume you are another “white” he can take issue with.
It’s interesting to see the republican party engage in these kinds of masochistic acts. It’s almost like an addiction pathology where the addict knows the drug is killing them but they can’t stop.
Or, perhaps more accurately, it’s simply arrogance. Despite the slaughter they suffered at the polls, respect for the human dignity of minorities is too much to expect from them.
I would hope to see the republican party reduced to ashes. Unfortunately, Barack Obama will probably accelerate the economy’s collapse with his misguided, albeit well-intentioned, fiscal policies. In doing so, he will inadvertently toss the republican party a life jacket just as it was about to go under.
Mackie
Are you Greg L? You sound like it.
Juturna,
Maybe, maybe not. I have to admit, my mischievous side finds a certain satisfaction in your concern that it may be true.
It does not surprise me at all. The Republican and Democratic leadership sit in a closed room, and bounce ideas off each other – without realy looking at what is happening around them. Just look at the Obama Bucks put out by the Repub;s in california – and they thought it was not racist.
What are Obama bucks? Buck as in ‘buck?’
Wouldn’t surprise me at all Mackie. Not at all. Obviously the best interests of this blog are not in your celestial sphere.
Why give a sh!t about “who or what” Mackie is or isn’t.
He’s just a mouth piece, and nothing more.
Ah, as ususal, Mackie, you overestimate others interest in you. Just mild curiosity, nowhere near concern.
Just struck me as being the same ethic-less ranting with a familiar cadance…. 🙂
Age tells much about the man.
‘Mackie doesn’t take questions?’ Rock star or Queen of England?
…. or faker.
The idea that one ethnic group can claim words only for themselves is absolutely ludicrous, and it accomplishes nothing more than providing bait to further racial divisions. What a crock.
Juturna,
I suppose you can focus on what I’m saying or when that’s too difficult, you can focus on the way I’m saying it.
I don’t find you difficult – simple actually. Boredom sets in so I go to the how…. However, you may or may not know, a good reader looks at both!!
Thanks for the help though.
As a simple and boring person I couldn’t help noticing that your recent derogatory comments were inconsistent with your advice that
It think it’s time you re-re-learn what we need to re-learn. Have fun laughing at yourself.
Mackie,
Have you ever entertained the idea of taking your comments and thoughts over to bvbl, and see how long your a$$ lasts there?
Oh Mackie, you have the best advice. Give it up man.
Mackie’s making me laugh as always, and not in a good way.
If a word is rude, it is rude for everyone. If a word is out-dated, then it is outdated. One group doesn’t own a particular word at the exclusion of others.
Every once in a while I agree with Emma. On this subject, I agree.
I’m with Juturna.
I’m a big believer that people have become too politically sensitive. The word “negro” in the context of a song that pokes fun as Al Sharpton’s gig is not offensive to me and probably not to most black people. (I know a few. I live with a few).
That’s not to say that some perpetually offended individuals may feign outrage, but this is silliness.
The song does not denigrate Barack Obama. Nor black Americans. It’s more about white reaction.
I somehow doubt that “that one” Barack Obama or his wife who believes in open dialogue about race are offended by this, as opposed to his own VP describing him as clean and neat.
“I love the way white people think they can tell people of color how they should react to bigotry.”
Well everyone’s entitled to an opinion, aren’t we.
“Since when did this comity and equality between whites and people of color exist so that we have to relearn it?”
I don’t know the exact date but it was at some point before “Chappelle’s Show” was one of the most popular shows in America. I guess according to you Chappelle’s white writing partner is guilty of hate crimes.
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” Biden said.
Absolutely hilarious. Biden is going to be better SNL fodder than Clinton and Ford combined, and ultimately a huge liability for Obama unless he can keep his trap shut.
I like Biden, always have, but he’s a walking political time bomb. And his intimations of future crises in front of a group of donors was not so cool, especially given his access to classified info.
And especially given the fact that those hints came very soon after Obama’s first Presidential Daily Briefing. Like he was saying “I know something you don’t know!”
Yep. Palin took a lot of heat, but Biden misstepped in a big way.
He’s well-intentioned but absolutely addicted to telling people what he knows and how he has all the answers. A consummate know-it-all.
And, according to Mackie, a virulent bigot steeped in white prejudice.
Yes, but Mackie could find a way to call Gandhi a racist hate-monger.
Obviously my point of view has struck a nerve.
Thanks Rick. I REALLY hate pretend. It’s okay for white folks to call other white folks trash. Time other races were able to stand up and do the same within their race without being attacked for it. Bill Cosby has taken a few hits. The revolution that is coming will not be about race, it will be about economics.
Due to it being asked, here is a link to the Obama Bucks – I do not agree with these.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_buck16.3d67d4a.html
Wow that’s stupid. Well on the brighter side, we have a black President.
The Obama bucks thing is pretty bad. No way to nice talk that away. I was thinking of buck being used completely differently when I first read it. I don’t know what is worse.
Biden will be ok. We have to have someone in office who puts their foot in their mouth. Biden is smart, unlike some of his foot -in -mouth predecessors.
Mackie, I am sorry but I thought I asked you pretty nicely. The reason for asking is because I got pretty beat up in March of 65 in Selma. I was just wondering if we were contemporaries, even if we don’t agree on things–especially one tinged with hate.
Question withdrawn.
Pat.Herve,
Thanks for the link. I am just speechless, an unlikely position for me, at the utter viciousness of the GOP. Apparently the “Obama Bucks” isn’t the only utter disgusting piece of “genuis”, there is also a picture of Obama, with a turban on, next to Osama Bin Laden, with the caption, “the only difference between Obama and Osama is B.S.”. What in G-d’s name is wrong with these people?!
Bad losers?
Geez Juturna, I hate losing too, but I don’t forget my humanity!
A Prince William Resident, I would love to hear some of your stories if you would consider sharing.
Rick, Do we have a black president? I see Obama as bi-racial and that he is just as white as he is black.
Maybe we should all thank the tv show 24 where President Palmer president. Wasn’t that the guys name?