(CNN) -- Here's proof that President Obama has indeed ushered in a new era in race relations.
Who would have ever expected some white Americans to demand that an African-American man show more rage?
If you've followed the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, you've heard the complaints that Obama isn't showing enough emotion.
But scholars say Obama's critics ignore a lesson from American history: Many white Americans don't like angry black men.
White Americans don't like angry Black Men? What America'chu talkin bout, Willis? Because in MY America men like Denzel and Samuel Jackson run the show. They make me feel good when they yell and get pissed off. They fuck up the bad guys. They make me feel comfortable with the word "nigga," which I use way more than a white kid should...like in a good way, MYYY NIGGA!...and of course when there's no black dudes around. Look at NWA, Niggas With Attitude, find me one white hip-hop fan who doesn't know every lyric to Boyz in the Hood...jocken the bitches, slappin the hos. White America loves angry Black Men. (but we're still not completely at ease, like see how I capitalized Black Men, I feel like I'd be accused of disenfranchising the Black Man if I took their "capital" away)
But I do think that I agree with the "some white Americans" on this one, I want a more "colorful" attitude from Barry O. Next time he gives a speech I want him to grab the mic and say:
Then hold the mic at arm's length and just drop it and walk away, maybe make a white guy flinch and smack his bitch's ass. I mean in terms of politicians, BO has shown more than enough emotion, look at this oil spill: He rolled up his sleeves, he stood around in front of cameras (out of range for the mic to pick up sound) and pointed at things and shook his head, he said he wanted an ass to kick. I don't get what more they want?
It's the lesson Obama absorbed from his upbringing, and from an impromptu remark he delivered last summer. Yet it's a lesson he may now have to jettison, they say, as public outrage spreads.
"Folks are waiting for a Samuel Jackson 'Snakes on the Plane' moment from this president as in: 'We gotta' get this $#@!!* oil back in the $#!!* rig!' But that's just not who Obama is,'' says Saladin Ambar, a political science professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Some of the same people crying for Obama to show more emotion would have voted against him if he had displayed anger during his presidential run, says William Jelani Cobb, author of "The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress."
"It would have fed deeply into a pre-existing set of narratives about the angry black man," Cobb says. "The anger would have gotten in the way. He would have frightened off white voters who were interested in him because he seemed to be like the black guy they worked with or went to graduate school with -- not a black guy who is threatening."
That just sounds so racist, he says "black guy who is threatening" like it's not a stereotype but like a per-usual character trait of every black guy.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
WHITE PEOPLE HATE ANGRY BLACK MEN?
(CNN) -- Here's proof that President Obama has indeed ushered in a new era in race relations.
Who would have ever expected some white Americans to demand that an African-American man show more rage?
If you've followed the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, you've heard the complaints that Obama isn't showing enough emotion.
But scholars say Obama's critics ignore a lesson from American history: Many white Americans don't like angry black men.
White Americans don't like angry Black Men? What America'chu talkin bout, Willis? Because in MY America men like Denzel and Samuel Jackson run the show. They make me feel good when they yell and get pissed off. They fuck up the bad guys. They make me feel comfortable with the word "nigga," which I use way more than a white kid should...like in a good way, MYYY NIGGA!...and of course when there's no black dudes around. Look at NWA, Niggas With Attitude, find me one white hip-hop fan who doesn't know every lyric to Boyz in the Hood...jocken the bitches, slappin the hos. White America loves angry Black Men. (but we're still not completely at ease, like see how I capitalized Black Men, I feel like I'd be accused of disenfranchising the Black Man if I took their "capital" away)
But I do think that I agree with the "some white Americans" on this one, I want a more "colorful" attitude from Barry O. Next time he gives a speech I want him to grab the mic and say:
Then hold the mic at arm's length and just drop it and walk away, maybe make a white guy flinch and smack his bitch's ass. I mean in terms of politicians, BO has shown more than enough emotion, look at this oil spill: He rolled up his sleeves, he stood around in front of cameras (out of range for the mic to pick up sound) and pointed at things and shook his head, he said he wanted an ass to kick. I don't get what more they want?
It's the lesson Obama absorbed from his upbringing, and from an impromptu remark he delivered last summer. Yet it's a lesson he may now have to jettison, they say, as public outrage spreads.
"Folks are waiting for a Samuel Jackson 'Snakes on the Plane' moment from this president as in: 'We gotta' get this $#@!!* oil back in the $#!!* rig!' But that's just not who Obama is,'' says Saladin Ambar, a political science professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Some of the same people crying for Obama to show more emotion would have voted against him if he had displayed anger during his presidential run, says William Jelani Cobb, author of "The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress."
"It would have fed deeply into a pre-existing set of narratives about the angry black man," Cobb says. "The anger would have gotten in the way. He would have frightened off white voters who were interested in him because he seemed to be like the black guy they worked with or went to graduate school with -- not a black guy who is threatening."
That just sounds so racist, he says "black guy who is threatening" like it's not a stereotype but like a per-usual character trait of every black guy.
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