Video: “Barack The Magic Negro” & How The G.O.P. Can’t Tell Humor From Racism
28 December 2008, 5:15 PM. By Cindy Casares
Chip Saltsman, a candidate for Republican party chairman who hails from Tennessee, (of course), is in big trouble this week for distributing a parody song from The Rush Limbaugh Show entitled, “Barack The Magic Negro.” The title is based on a term invoked by black Los Angeles Times journalist David Ehrenstein in March of 2007 to describe then presidential candidate Barack Obama. This was back when the old black, political guard were still pissed off that a guy with good hair (as opposed to Al Sharpton) was winning America’s hearts and minds. The argument was as ridiculous as it was unoriginal: People of color who aren’t confrontational and unintelligible are not “real” people of color.
The Rush Limbaugh Show, masters of humor that they are, saw this as an opportunity to discredit the Democratic party by pointing out the inherent racism in Ehrenstein’s statement and attributing it to the entire “liberal left” community. (Because everyone knows black Americans are as liberal as they come.) Anyhoo, “Barack The Magic Negro,” sung to the tune of “Puff The Magic Dragon” was born, (via the show’s regular parody composer Paul Shanklin), and Republican supporters everywhere were free to sing along to racist lyrics about what constitutes a “real” black man–you know, poverty and ignorance–as opposed to whatever Barack and his Illinois farming empire represent, without taking any blame.
The song does a great job of pointing out how incredibly green with envy people like Ehrenstein were, for whatever reason, when B.O. first came on the scene. As people of color we all know, like lobsters trying to escape from a boiling pot, the first ones to try and hold you back will be the other dipshits in the same mess.
But this is December of 2008. That song is, like, ancient now. Have Republicans like Saltsman learned nothing from Obama’s win in November if not that everything they think and do is passé? We mean, we understand fighting dirty, but fight dirty in a way that works to your advantage. As it stands, most Republicans find the song really embarrassing. Even Newt Gingrich who famously said Spanish is a language of “the ghetto” isn’t touching this Saltsman guy with a ten foot pole. “This is so inappropriate that it should disqualify any Republican National Committee candidate who would use it,” he said. “There are no grounds for demeaning [Obama] or for using racist descriptions.” See? He learned. Meanwhile, J. Kenneth Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary, who is one of two black Republicans also running for the chairman position, dismissed the whole thing as “hypersensitivity.” Now THAT’S a magic negro. The song is below. Take a listen and decide for yourself.
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This video is extremely racist, in my opinion. Amazingly, it appears that the people who made it attempted to make it sound like a black man singing it in order to suggest that there is jealousy and dissension in the black community regarding Mr. Obama.
Now, my question is…who would be more jealous that a black man has the nerve to run for President of the UNITED STATES?
I think the answer is obvious.
This video represents a hate crime pure and simple and if it were degrading a Jewish person, that would be self-evident.
Someone needs to be brought to answer for this abomination.
This video is extremely racist in my opinion.
Amazingly, the people who made it went to a lot of trouble to make it sound like a black man singing it to infer jealousy and dissension in the black community against Mr. Obama.
My question is…who would have more reason to be jealous that a black man had the nerve to run for President of the UNITED STATES?
I think the answer is obvious.
How will we ever get past looking at some Americans as sons-of-slaves and others as daughters-of-slave-owners unless we diligently stamp out such racist abominations whenever and where ever they rear their ugly heads?
This video represents a hate crime, pure and simple, and I think someone should have to answer for it.
Want to bring out every racist in the country? Make their worst nightmare come true!
And the GOP wonders how they lost Congress and the White House. Looks like the Silent Majority isn’t the majority any longer.
that’s fucked up racist as fuck…
BUT! i do think Obama is not an african-american, not in the sense black people are, his father was an African student and Obama’s upbringing is nothing like that of real african-americans so in that sense i think the song’s right, i don’t like the racist ass tone it takes against blacks though
Another track on the Republican CD is The Star Spanglish Banner. Sounds like they really want the hispanic vote.
That is so stupid to say that Barack is not an African-American. He is in the truest sense. I’m so sick of hearing that mess. People act like just because you are a Black person that has been somewhere but on the block all your life that makes you “less than”. That’s pure bullshit, and I’m tired of hearing it and living it. Other Black people have always asked me where I am from just because I speak a certain way or know certain things. I grew up in Camden, NJ with parents who insisted that I go to school, church and take responsibility for my education. It doesn’t make me less Black! It makes me all that I can be as a Black woman in America! There are more Black folks like Barack in this country than you even care to know about! And that mess is racist as hell!