"The Black Genius Camp" - Eugene Robinson

[ariesgem]

How weird is this presidential election? So weird that I'm about to give a nod of appreciation (of sorts) to Geraldo Rivera, of all people -- and also to, gulp, Fox News.

On "Fox and Friends" last week, the mustachioed infotainer gave his take on Barack Obama's borrowing of his campaign chairman's words: "When I saw that they were the same words that Deval Patrick, the black guy who won as Massachusetts mayor -- as Massachusetts governor -- had used, I said to myself, it seems so premeditated. It's almost as if they went to a camp where these black geniuses got together and figured out how to beat the political system. . . . What's the other formula that they're going to use?"

Ridiculous? Of course -- this is Geraldo, remember. But it's absurd in a way that's new and refreshing. If Fox viewers are being invited to entertain the notion of a Black Genius Camp where young Afro-brainiacs are busy plotting world domination, something has changed.

>>>>>>>>>>>

The Obama campaign hasn't had success just on black America's terms but on white America's terms. For all the impact of Barack Obama's soaring rhetoric, he wouldn't be where he is without a campaign organization that is second to none. He's the one with more money and more offices. He's the one who made the better decisions about where to spend resources. Obama has won overwhelming support from black voters, but there's nothing stereotypically "black" about his campaign. It's as if a black American is beating white America at its own game.

So when Clinton made an issue of how a passage from a Deval Patrick speech found its way into a Barack Obama speech, Geraldo Rivera imagined some sort of secret conclave of black geniuses who had developed a foolproof formula for winning elections. He didn't envision a basketball camp, or a prison camp; he saw a genius camp, presumably for African Americans who had figured out just how white America works and just what buttons to push. How diabolically clever.

Hey, if I'm trying to catch a taxi late at night, I'd rather have the cab driver wondering if I'm secretly plotting world domination than thinking I'm about to mug him.

Who else attended Black Genius Camp? Will Smith must have spent at least one summer there -- he's the most bankable star in Hollywood right now. And Tiger Woods, who has conquered our whitest sport. Condoleezza Rice enjoys sitting around the campfire, entertaining everyone with corny knock-knock jokes in Russian. And Oprah's a regular, of course; she even has her own "cabin," although it looks more like a luxury hotel.

Oops -- I think I've said too much. Forget I mentioned it. And pay no attention to Geraldo's paranoid fantasies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/25/AR2008022502420.html

[Olney Blue]

1. Another amazing, insightful article by Eugene Robinson- K/R

[Window]

3. He is the absolute best.

Peace:thumbsup:

[Connie_Corleone]

2. We've been found out.

The next black geniuses meeting will be March 3rd.

[K Gardner]

4. Is there any way a white person could sneak in? Cuz I think some of the DINOs in the House and

Senate might need some help in the next couple years.