Udolpho - It has its disease in you

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He's not all that… How is it that Barry Hussein Obama Christ gets plaudits (which stop just short of, I'm CUUUMMMMIIIINNNG!!!) for "the most extensive discussion of race ever by a presidential candidate", when the fact is that anyone lighter than a dusky caramel who says anything intelligent on the topic is exiled by the same effusive punditry?

It seems like a contest rigged so that only blacks can speak honestly (or "honestly" as in this case) about racial issues and only when they feel like it and only when their closing statement is along the lines of "and this is why we need to tax and spend the wealth of people other than you".

Is it really all that courageous for a black politician to say anything that Obama said? And if you peer more closely at what he said – rather than just enjoying the way it made you feel – isn't there a rather empty quality to his applause lines? But once again, Barry can say he "understands" why [insert broad stereotype here] feel the way they do, and educated people mistake this for sympathy or unity. It is more like emotional sleight of hand.

Remember, if you are a black politician you can say anything you want about blacks such as Barry's spiritual mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as long as you remind everyone that rich white people and corporations are still the enemy.

But American pundits are cheap dates, and smooth talkin' Barry Half-White knows just what to tell them. Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - 10:19 AM

Postscript: Mickey Kaus dissects Barry's speech at length, saying what our useless pundit class is too afraid to say (while the applause for Barry's courageous yet empty rhetoric trails off). Money quote: "Obama's explanations of black anger seem intimate and respectful. His explanations of white anger seem distant and condescending."

One aspect of this is that Barry refuses to confront the ugly side of the black church (from a certain point of view the uglier side) and of the black electorate – confrontation that goes beyond mentioning but not refuting the deranged belief that the government created AIDS to kill black people. (Between murder and abortion, black people are doing just fine without anyone else's help.)

The ugliness includes a hypersensitive paranoia and narcissism on all issues touching race, plus a media reward system which gives attention to those who shriek like babies over every dubious expression or double entendre while withdrawing it from those who behave with class and dignity. This is all less the result of anger over injustice and more the product of liberalism's infantilization of the black adult – which includes Democratic politicians who shout and sway with them darkies on strategically picked Sundays but sneer at dumbass evangelicals for creationism. Holding whites to a higher standard is a factor in black misbehavior.

The black church itself is more a tribal regime than a religious institution, as is made blindingly obvious by its politics and its rhetoric. Yet why talk about the political machine that keeps 90% of blacks in lockstep? Our pundits would rather listen to Barry slander his grandmother – but it's a brilliant speech, we are told by the airheads who refuse to allow a serious conversation about race to ever happen. America in its current declension is a pitiful and stupid place.

Meanwhile, Bob Somerby has a very thoughtful liberal take on Barry's speech, expressing concern with both the speech's late timing and the way Candidate Barry uses race to bash his opponent. Somerby is mostly appreciative of the rest but is sensitive to the losing way that liberals often talk about race: we still have a long way to go until you share my views.

Obama will be knocked for his hamheaded moral equivalence – being scared of indigent, physically aggressive black men is just as bad as screaming bitter white-hating demagoguery and worse – but I am inclined to agree that the real damage will be done by tone-deaf liberal pundits who cannot restrain themselves from lightheaded, flowery praise. When people troubled by certain aspects of Barry's speech hear that it was the greatest statement about race in the history of the world, they tend to hear a silent condemnation.

Texas primary… Voting for Hillary today because I think she'd actually be the best choice for president out of the current major contenders. Life just got pretty depressing! Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - 9:14 AM

...?… I had some sort of weblog entry or whatever you call it about that Stuff White People Like weblog but the whole thing was just a quote from it, and I realized that I hate it when people just quote someone else's writing without adding anything, as if they think their offhand praise is some priceless imprimatur, I mean it's just the next step away from sending emails to all your "friends" entitled "The difference between men and women - FUNNY" or "re: RE: RE: HILLARIOUS CAT PICS :-)" and in a moment of self-revulsion I deleted it.

Then I thought, did he write an entry already about fake self-deprecation about being white, because that is something white people truly love. (He's talking about David Brooks' bobos, am I already the last person to point that out?) Whether it's Eddie Murphy's white person for a day sketch or a Garrison Keillor story about fucking annoying Minnesotans or Martin Mull's entire career, white people love the pseudo-edginess of making fun of themselves as white people. Did you notice no other ethnic group does this? With the possible exception of Hispanics, because when you go to a comedy club there will be at least one guy who claims to be part Mexican so he can tell lame jokes about Mexicans (the guy in question never actually looks Mexican so the whole thing could be a put-on).

The reason for this is that white people are assholes. Also these same white people are made unbearably uncomfortable by anyone doing an ethnic accent, I don't know why imitating an accent is considered insensitive, much less racist, but then I also don't know why every other person I meet is such a cringing pussy, I guess that's just the way things work out. Sunday, March 2, 2008 - 11:53 PM