Analysis A black president speaks about race and no one hears

[Spazito]

snip

The "N-word," now a fixture in American and Canadian English, is just a slippery proxy that allows the speaker to piously claim distance from and distaste for racist language while at the same time triggering the actual epithet in the listener's mind.

Just because we're not mouthing the word, Obama is saying, doesn't mean we aren't thinking it.

A week after the massacre of black worshippers by an overt white supremacist in a South Carolina church, Obama is finally trying to talk hard truth to Americans about racism.

snip

The reaction? His remarks today made news. But tentative, nervous news, and probably not what Obama was hoping.

"Obama uses N-word," said CNN's gormless website headline. As though any further irony were needed, a graphic accompanying the audio of Obama's remarks substituted "n***r" for the word as the president spoke it.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/a-black-president-speaks-about-race-and-no-one-hears-1.3123540

This is an analysis posted on Canada's CBC's website. It is long and quite thorough and finding only 4 paragraphs to copy in order to adhere to the copyright rules here was really hard and I might have chosen the wrong ones to highlight. The person doing the analysis sometimes completely misses the point on some issues in the US and echoes the 'inside DC' point of view as if it speaks for all in the U.S. but, imo, I think he got this one mostly right.

[Tarheel_Dem]

1. I hope he says it again. If it keeps the conversation going, he should say it early & often.

I say that as an AA myself. And people clutching their pearls & reaching for the smelling salts should get over themselves.

[Spazito]

2. I have to admit I still re-act with anger at hearing it when used by a white person...

probably because I was taught as a child how ugly the word was and why but the discussion the President is trying to start and reading the analysis I posted has made me think in a deeper way than I had before.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. I was confused by your comments...until I got towards the end of the piece.

Yes, the author gets it right in that the conversation being had is more about a word used, than the actual system the word represents. Therein lies the problem! However, as he continues, he basically scolds the president for not being "more outspoken" and not "leading" in regards to racism. I'd like to remind him (and others like him), Obama was elected to lead the UNITED STATES, not correct centuries of racism! FFS, he had his hands full just trying to right the ills of the previous 8 years, and he was supposed to, somehow, 'fix' 400 years of racism?! It is, quite frankly, an ironic piece. It starts by "chastising" the media for "not getting it" about Obama's snippet, yet he explains, and I am guessing without even knowing it, exactly why the president couldn't be "the be all to end all" which so many white people wanted. His examples demonstrate how people don't understand, even when the message is "watered down", and now that he has taken a more "aggressive" stance...look what happened?!

Once again, this is about how racism should be discussed by a black person as determined by a white person, as opposed to letting black folk determine how to discuss racism and white people shutting the fuck up and LISTENING! White folk are needed in the conversation, but what isn't needed is our dominating the discussion and "correcting" the experiences of PoC in order to fit our needs or assuage our guilt.

[Spazito]

4. I agree...

"Once again, this is about how racism should be discussed by a black person as determined by a white person, as opposed to letting black folk determine how to discuss racism and white people shutting the fuck up and LISTENING! White folk are needed in the conversation, but what isn't needed is our dominating the discussion and "correcting" the experiences of PoC in order to fit our needs or assuage our guilt."

I, too, read it through the white prism as my life experiences are from that of being the recipient of white privilege and knew the writer of the analysis was doing the same. I posted the analysis here to learn, listen. I value any criticism of the analysis, it helps me learn.

The writer of the analysis has been critical of the President in other columns in ways I have found to be unfair and biased but I didn't see this analysis to be, for the most part, one of those. I certainly can be mistaken in that perspective.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. I wasn't critizing you for posting, just adding my thoughts.

I am a white too!

To me, it is biased because he is basically trying to hold this president to a different standard because of his race. I picture a group of white people leaning in, ever so closely, on pins and needles, waiting to hear what the president will say in regards to racism and soon as it is said, then lean back and start clucking how what he said was "wrong", "not authoritative enough", "didn't speak to the masses", etc. While true Obama is African-American, he is our president and therefore, a politician, and the role of a good politician is diplomacy. I think, quite frankly, many white people think they elected a civil rights leader; they didn't. It doesn't mean he hasn't done some very good things in regards to civil rights, he has, it just means he is the leader of a diverse nation and must reach as many people as possible. It is a double standard in that a white person who mentions racism gets nods and applause, but a black person who mentions it is criticized for not being frank enough (heaven help them if they are "too frank" because then...oh wait, that's the start of the article!), or not solving the problem.

[Spazito]

6. I didn't take your post as a criticism of me posting the OP at all...

I appreciated your post and thought it was a valid criticism of the analysis. My response included the point that I, too, was viewing the analysis through the white prism as was the writer of the column more to add clarity in that I understand why I could well be wrong in my take on the analysis.

[Number23]

7. Spaz, I am so happy you're posting in this forum. Speaking only for myself (of course)

you are always welcome here.

[Spazito]

8. Thank you, Number23!

I am learning so much, including about myself, from reading the threads here and it was your influence that led me here, I thank you so much for that!

[lovemydog]

9. Same!

[Starry Messenger]

10. It makes me sad that's the only thing the media focused on in that interview.

I just listened to it last night, I hope it gets transcribed sometime soon. His riff on what he could accomplish if Congress wasn't so backward was hilarious, including his Science Chair (I'm paraphrasing like crazy) doing unhelpful things like holding up a snowball to prove global warming isn't real.

[Spazito]

11. I agree, I think the President was making a powerful statement on the issue of racism...

a statement most of the media ignored while hyperventilating on the "word" he used and completely ignoring the rest of his interview which was also well worth reporting.

[Starry Messenger]

12. It was one of my favorite things I've listened to with the President

He really kicked ass on racism, and finding his way as a Black man in the US. I know he's talked about these subjects before, but the format of the interview was very intimate and candid.

[Spazito]

13. I haven't yet listened to the podcast, am downloading now...

It was reading Rolling Stones article "10 Most Fascinating Quotes From Obama's 'WTF' Chat With Marc Maron" that informed me of the breadth of his interview topics.


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-10-most-fascinating-quotes-from-obamas-wtf-chat-with-marc-maron-20150622?page=2

[randys1]

14. And I still say Marc's agent and manager are doing back flips LOL

[Spazito]

15. As they should, it was a great interview...

I didn't know it was the White House that reached out to Marc "to see if he'd be interested in having Barack Obama as his guest" and that the interview took place in Marc's garage! I love it!

Obama Visits Marc Maron's Garage; Cats Annoyed They Were Shut In Bedroom

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/22/416481081/obama-visits-marc-marons-garage-cats-annoyed-they-were-shut-in-bedroom

[azmom]

16. k&R