Racial Politics

I know I'm late to the scene, I've been a bit busy, but I had to stop and take some time to comment on some things, namely this New Yorker cover that is supposed to be a caricature of Obama and his wife.

Yes people are talking. Their talking about the racism, the ignorance, the bias. But what are they not talking about? What issue of great importance are they missing? I'll tell you.

How dare they give Michele Obama that jacked up jerry curled 'fro! Has anyone ever scene her sporting that tired do? She rocks a perfectly coifed bob not some side show Bob from the Simpsons crap they did in this cover! How dare they!

But seriously, I've heard the cover is meant to be a satire on all the ignorance being thrown at Obama from his political haters and some ignorant G.Q. Publics. HOWEVER, I am not satisfied. This isn't funny and things are still too sensitive for those stupid enough to believe Michele is a terrorist and that Obama is a follower of Osama and burns the flag to get that this is meant to show how crazy the statements made about Obama are. In fact, it simply looks like the New Yorker is siding with those simpletons and making fun of Obama.

Now the New Yorker may make fun of other politicians but some things get lost in translation when the insult deals with America's fear of terrorist and misguided criticism of Muslims. I say bad timing. Why wait now to do this instead of when he was campaigning against Hilary? Are they fearful he might actually win? Seems people are scrapping the bottom of the barrel to find ways to discredit Obama. No ones perfect so I'm sure you can find something better to pick on than his name, his former minister, his alleged elitism (if he came from the ghetto would he have enough street cred to run the country? Come on this is the presidency not the rap game, and most presidents have come from money, our current one included. Guess this brown person's getting too "uppity"!)

As an aside, did I miss something, why are all the papers referring to Obama as the "presumed" Democratic candidate but McCain gets the full Republican candidate to his name. What's the presumption? Didn't Hilary stop fighting the good fight?

Black in America

On a semi related note, we get another series on Black America by a news program. This time CNN is airing a two part series on July 23-24. Day one focuses on black women, day two on men.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/black.in.america/

I'll check it out and see if they do a more detailed review than NBC news did. As long as they don't generalize, I won't be annoyed...