“Magic Negro” Satire
Limbaugh, Shanklin and now Saltsman would like to convince you that the parody calling our next President a “Magic Negro” is merely good-humored, lighthearted, innocent satire.
I have used satire myself in several of my writings, but none of them makes fun of or ridicules someone’s race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.
I also looked up the definition of satire in my trusted dictionary. It defines satire as: “the use of ridicule, irony, sarcasm, etc., to expose folly or vice or to lampoon an individual.”
Pardon me, but how does calling our next President a “magic negro” expose folly, or vice, or lampoon Barack Obama?
Oh wait, perhaps in “etc.” we might find included “the use of prejudice, intolerance, racism” to expose folly or vice or to lampoon an individual.
If that’s the case, Mr. Saltsman needs to inform dictionary and thesaurus publishers to expand the definition of “satire” accordingly.
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10 Responses to ““Magic Negro” Satire”
The song is clearly satirizing the “folly” of Sharpton and Ehrenstein's clueless racial obsessions(ie: Ehrenstien called Barack a “magic negro” and not a real black politician), not Obama directly.
I do think that this went over the line, just as I think SNL went a tad over the line in making fun of Patterson and his disability.
However I also think Mad TV (just as one example) went over the line in portraying McCain as a senile fool and openly mocking his disability (acquired while a POW).
I just find it a bit sad that while people quite properly raised an issue over the former, they did not do so over the latter.
Isn't the whole “Magic Negro” thing aimed at those who supported Obama because he was a “safe” Black man? It is definitely offensive but it does make a point about a possible issue. Sometime you have to go over the top to make a point. That being said using it for RNC campaign (well, sort of) is just stupid. I never listen to Limbaugh but in it's original forum of his show there was a point made if in an unpleasant manner. This is just stupid.
What “line” are you people talking about? And would you find “light-hearted, good-humored, funny satire” about rape, pedophiles, lynching, the Holocaust, or 9/11 “crossing the line”? Could you tell me exactly, where you”draw the line”?
Whats annoying to me is the line that Rush blurs between entertainment and political commentary. He uses the concept of being an entertainer to cross the line in his political commentary.
The line keeps moving, Dorian–and we are not the better for it either. Simpson's “If I Did It” crossed the line– “the Magic Negro” crossed the line– making fun of McCain and Patterson's disabilities crossed the line–putting Obama's face on a food stamp with pictures of fried chicken and watermelon (not done by an entertainer but by a Republican women's group in Ca) crossed the line— Coulter's line about the “harpys” of 9/11 crossed the line, as does just about anything she writes. There are so many other examples that I could come up with. Mel Gibson's drunken rant about the Jews–not good-humored- just sad. Robertson's and Falwell's insane insistence that 9/11 , AIDs and Katrina were sent by God to punish us crossed the line. The Palin rallies where Obama was called a terrorist. The film that portrayed the fictional assasination of George W Bush, Muslims in the US cheering after 9/11, rabbis who call for the Palestinians to be wiped out. (my God wasn't one Holocaust enough???)
krit11, thank you for some very appropriate examples of “crossing the line” and how it keeps moving. If we keep moving the line, one day the line will drop into a bottomless chasm, pulling us all into it..
Dorian
I see this as just more evidence (could we possibly need any more?) that too many republicans don't even know where “the line” is anymore. To they extent these folks continue sharing sensibilities with the likes of Limbaugh, then they are lying down with dogs and getting up with fleas… to put it mildly. These same folks, rather then get of their fleas, will find excuses to continue harboring them. In a word? Pathetic.
“If we keep moving the line, one day the line will drop into a bottomless chasm, pulling us all into it..”
Yes, Dorian– or maybe over time we will increase our incivility to the point that we return to our simian roots and stomp around through the jungle on all fours!!!???
Again there is a difference between a non affiliated person using something offensive to make a point, remember the phrase was coined by a black writer for the LA Times, and this idiot who put the song on a promotional CD.
[...] “Magic Negro” Satire – Limbaugh, Shanklin and now Saltsman would like to convince you that the parody calling our next President a “Magic Negro” is merely good-humored, lighthearted, innocent satire. I have used satire myself in several of my writings, … [...]