Monday, December 29, 2008
2008 The Break
Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 9:08 AM
More signs of a future three-party system.
(CNN) — The chairman of the Republican National Committee said he was "appalled" by a song called "Barack the Magic Negro" on a CD distributed by one of his political rivals.Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan is the first party member to criticize "Barack the Magic Negro."
"The 2008 election was a wake-up call for Republicans to reach out and bring more people into our party," RNC Chairman Mike Duncan said in a statement reported Saturday afternoon by Politico.
"I am shocked and appalled that anyone would think this is appropriate, as it clearly does not move us in the right direction."
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1
Yeah, this is just the opportunity the Greens needed to break away disaffected Republicans from their southern base.
3
Holy shit! Did you see that video? Does he want to be head of the RNC or the local klan?
And the Republicans wonder why such a low percentage of blacks vote for them.
And the Republicans wonder why such a low percentage of blacks vote for them.
4
@2: Not really... the magic negro helps the protagonist in some way, but he isn't the protagonist. If you can't see how this archetype is ill-suited to the 2008 election, you need to go back and do some reading.
5
The Green party will not be the next party to take up a major national platform. This is mostly due to their leftest platform that will only take the most liberal of Dem's. The next party must be progressive and moderate. Most likely seeing the Republican party shifting toward the Pat Buchanans and the Palin types, with the Dem's shedding their liberal wing in the hopes of being the big power house they were in the mid 20th century. This will leave you dissaffected patouli smelling hippies out in the cold if you don't stop with the radicalism.
6
Indeed, Greg, the key racist element of the magical negro is that he is not allowed to win, and typically dies before the white protagonist he is helping archives his victory. This is something I first learned reading Charles Mudede. What Republicans are doing is trying to push Obama back into the second-fiddle, supporting roles that they are comfortable with, as with Colin Powell or Condelezza Rice.
During the primary you often heard Clintonites accuse Obama supporters of liking Obama because he is "your black friend that makes you cool". Again, they were trying to push Obama out of the role of leader into a secondary place, making him a mere sidekick. Subtle, but that's how the dog whistle plays.
During the primary you often heard Clintonites accuse Obama supporters of liking Obama because he is "your black friend that makes you cool". Again, they were trying to push Obama out of the role of leader into a secondary place, making him a mere sidekick. Subtle, but that's how the dog whistle plays.
7
The 3rd party will be Libertarians. There are many Republicans who care only about taxes, and don't give a crap about any of the social issues. The whole Religious Right aspect kinda freaks them out, but not enough to vote Democrat. These people are all potential Libertarians.
How does this relate to "Barrack the Magic Negro"? It doesn't. That is to say, that song will not be the rift between Republicans and any new party, unless the new party is the Redneck Trailer-Trash Party, and it won't be.
How does this relate to "Barrack the Magic Negro"? It doesn't. That is to say, that song will not be the rift between Republicans and any new party, unless the new party is the Redneck Trailer-Trash Party, and it won't be.
8
Weren't righties saying it was the end of the left in 2000? They had all the control to, the Dems don't. Act arrogant and in 2 years the right will be back.
10
Anyone who thinks this country can shift to a more-than-two-party system is dreaming. The way our election rules are set up, the system is at equilibrium with two parties. Three parties is unstable, and will always end with two parties merging or one dying out, resulting in a return to two parties. Never in our history have we had a number of competitive parties that wasn't two for more than two consecutive election cycles, and unless the election rules are changed that will continue to be the case. We may have three or four or one competitive party for a couple election cycles, but the system will ALWAYS reset to two parties.
11
You forgot to note that the Chairman is running against this man for his own seat in the election. THAT's the only reason he is coming out against it.
12
1) The Green party will never be a viable political party because it doesn't have a broad enough platform. It's popular with single-issue voters, but to get enough steam for a national stage a party needs to have a much larger tent. Same goes for the Libertarians.
2) The GOP is currently operating the biggest tent. It could, in theory, split into two smaller -- but still large enough -- tents. One would be social -- the far right -- the other would be economic -- the fiscal conservatives. They could both then broaden what they're doing to appeal to independents.
3) This would be bad for everybody, but it seems almost foregone.
2) The GOP is currently operating the biggest tent. It could, in theory, split into two smaller -- but still large enough -- tents. One would be social -- the far right -- the other would be economic -- the fiscal conservatives. They could both then broaden what they're doing to appeal to independents.
3) This would be bad for everybody, but it seems almost foregone.
13
The supposed outrage doesn't wear well if we scrape off some of the accreted pretense around it.
First, it's inappropriate to treat this eruption out of context. Context is this case includes reading and considering (black, gay, liberal) opinionist David Ehrenstein's March 2007 LA Times piece
Obama the 'Magic Negro', subtitled "The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man". This in turn commends a reading of the literature on the "Magic Negro" coinage (recognizing a particular stock character relationship of long standing, in turn a variant of "noble savage" caricature). This may have entered the film study lexicon as recently as October 1998, and of late aggressively popularized by Spike Lee.
Knocking off one cheap falsehood (used upthread to disqualify the analogy), the Magic Negro doesn't usually die (even if you "learned" from Mudede that he does). Poitier doesn't usually die. Morgan Freeman doesn't usually die. Whoopi Goldberg doesn't usually die, especially in Star Trek (where there are backstory hints that "Guinan" may not be merely quasi-immortal, but metaphysical). South Park's "Chef" doesn't usually die (until the South Park satirists rumble with Isaac Hayes' Scientology posse).
Another cheap deflection upthread is the assertion that Obama'08 doesn't fit the Magic Negro because he's the protagonist, not the occult assistive figure. This is simple reflexive rejection. Taking Ehrenstein's analogy on its own terms, White Liberal America is the protagonist, and his recognition of Obama's stock-character attributes is on point.
Another lame pretense is that RNC distributed either of a couple of widely-circulated videos constructed around Shanklin'S "Puff" filk. This is not the case.
The most widely-seen video was propagated by 'jesterdomain', an apparent antagonist of Bush, Rush, et al.
The less accessible, more offensive version is "U da real Negro Al, Screw Obama". This contains one photoshopped image of Barack in KKK robes, one image of Sharpton as a Joker, and a few mainstream-acceptable political cartoon caricatures of Sharpton. This was constructed not by the RNC ... not by Rush ... not by Shanklin ... but by obsessively pissed-off black conservative 'Snoop' at politicalpartypoop.com ... a sad case indeed.
If you're trying to skewer the Republican Party for propagating offensively racist imagery, you are proceeding on premises that would be insufficient even if they were true.
Also note that Shanklin's "Puff" is a rip on Sharpton and his sense of camera-hogging entitlement, not on Obama -- as are both of the videos in question. And Sharpton routinely finds himself on the receiving end of even less charitable treatment originating in the black community and culture.
Scraping it to bare bones, Shanklin appropriated a culturally current and (arguably) culturally-relevant expression to anchor a piece of mediocre satire (and even lower-quality filk). One of several aspirants to a big desk in the Republican party bureaucracy picked it up as part of a collection of similar material and shared it with colleagues.
There's nothing here that will bring down a political party. There's not even a proper pretext for racially-sensitive outrage except ... sheer pretext.
As a pretext for unfounded OUTRAGE, this incident is the public-discourse equivalent of something too many black motorist are too, too, familiar with -- the pretext stop.
More...
First, it's inappropriate to treat this eruption out of context. Context is this case includes reading and considering (black, gay, liberal) opinionist David Ehrenstein's March 2007 LA Times piece
Obama the 'Magic Negro', subtitled "The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man". This in turn commends a reading of the literature on the "Magic Negro" coinage (recognizing a particular stock character relationship of long standing, in turn a variant of "noble savage" caricature). This may have entered the film study lexicon as recently as October 1998, and of late aggressively popularized by Spike Lee.
Knocking off one cheap falsehood (used upthread to disqualify the analogy), the Magic Negro doesn't usually die (even if you "learned" from Mudede that he does). Poitier doesn't usually die. Morgan Freeman doesn't usually die. Whoopi Goldberg doesn't usually die, especially in Star Trek (where there are backstory hints that "Guinan" may not be merely quasi-immortal, but metaphysical). South Park's "Chef" doesn't usually die (until the South Park satirists rumble with Isaac Hayes' Scientology posse).
Another cheap deflection upthread is the assertion that Obama'08 doesn't fit the Magic Negro because he's the protagonist, not the occult assistive figure. This is simple reflexive rejection. Taking Ehrenstein's analogy on its own terms, White Liberal America is the protagonist, and his recognition of Obama's stock-character attributes is on point.
Another lame pretense is that RNC distributed either of a couple of widely-circulated videos constructed around Shanklin'S "Puff" filk. This is not the case.
The most widely-seen video was propagated by 'jesterdomain', an apparent antagonist of Bush, Rush, et al.
The less accessible, more offensive version is "U da real Negro Al, Screw Obama". This contains one photoshopped image of Barack in KKK robes, one image of Sharpton as a Joker, and a few mainstream-acceptable political cartoon caricatures of Sharpton. This was constructed not by the RNC ... not by Rush ... not by Shanklin ... but by obsessively pissed-off black conservative 'Snoop' at politicalpartypoop.com ... a sad case indeed.
If you're trying to skewer the Republican Party for propagating offensively racist imagery, you are proceeding on premises that would be insufficient even if they were true.
Also note that Shanklin's "Puff" is a rip on Sharpton and his sense of camera-hogging entitlement, not on Obama -- as are both of the videos in question. And Sharpton routinely finds himself on the receiving end of even less charitable treatment originating in the black community and culture.
Scraping it to bare bones, Shanklin appropriated a culturally current and (arguably) culturally-relevant expression to anchor a piece of mediocre satire (and even lower-quality filk). One of several aspirants to a big desk in the Republican party bureaucracy picked it up as part of a collection of similar material and shared it with colleagues.
There's nothing here that will bring down a political party. There's not even a proper pretext for racially-sensitive outrage except ... sheer pretext.
As a pretext for unfounded OUTRAGE, this incident is the public-discourse equivalent of something too many black motorist are too, too, familiar with -- the pretext stop.
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