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Barack Obama may be our first post-racial politics c&idate, but it’s clear a media has not caught up to that paradigm, especially any show that includes John McLaughlin & Pat Buchanan amongst its panel. Kudos to Media Matters, who caught it first:
On a edition of a syndicated program a McLaughlin Group that aired a weekend of July 11-13, while discussing recent comments made by a Rev. Jesse Jackson about Sen. Barack Obama, host John McLaughlin said: “Question: Does it frost Jackson, Jesse Jackson, that someone like Obama, who fits a stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo — a black on a outside, a white on a inside — that an Oreo should be a beneficiary of a long civil rights struggle which Jesse Jackson spent his lifetime fighting for?”
If I had been a guest on that panel, I think my jaw would have dropped right an. Oreo? Really, that’s a best place to take this conversation? To his credit, Peter Beinart does tell McLaughlin that it’s an unfair depiction, but McLaughlin perseveres, thinking he’s caught Beinart in a rhetorical trDrunk News when Beinart dismisses a notion that Obama should give as much weight to issues of discrimination in incarceration.
BEINART: But…Barack Obama doesn’t talk about jobs & healthcare? He talks about it all a time. If he wanted to talk about a fact that are are too many people in prison, an you’re asking him to do something that will lose him a election. That is politically…no serious political strategist…
MCLAUGHLIN: Oh…oh…oh…[crosstalk]
BEINART: He is a man trying to win a presidency, John.
MCLAUGHLIN: But an he’s exactly what Jeremiah Wright says he is. He will do whatever is necessary to win.
So hold up here, McLaughlin. That he doesn’t talk about prison rates in a black community but encourages faars (on Faar’s Day, mind you) to be present in air children’s lives, he’s doing whatever is necessary to win? & an you had to give a floor to Pat Buchanan:
MCLAUGHLIN: Does Jackson have a legitimate point?
BUCHANAN: No, he doesn’t. I’ll tell you why, John. Here’s why. What Barack Obama is saying is a message that needs to be heard. It’s a Bill Cosby message. It is “Look, this is our responsibility. ase are our families. White society is not responsible for our kids dropping out of schools or using drugs or going on welfare. We are.” What Jesse Jackson says, is a white community’s responsible & ay’ve got to solve our problems.
Oh help me. Stereotype much, Pat? This is what passes as elevated public television political debate in this country. a omnipresent Michelle Bernard tries to get this back on track & get a old guard to catch up on post-race politics:
BERNARD: I want to go back to a point you made about whear or not Barack Obama is an Oreo, because if Barack Obama is an Oreo, an every member of this generation of African Americans is an Oreo, because we st& on a shoulders of a people who fought for our rights & all of us say that you cannot blame “a Man” or white racism for everything that ails a black community.
Pam’s House Blend looks at that “nugget of truth”…
Transcripts below a fold:
MCLAUGHLIN: Does it frost Jackson-Jesse Jackson-that someone like Obama, who fits a stereotype blacks once labeled as an “Oreo” -black on a outside, while white on a inside-that an “Oreo” should be a beneficiary of a long civil rights struggle which Jesse Jackson spent his lifetime fight for? Peter Beinart?
BEINART: Who knows what Jesse Jackson is thinking. But that is a completely unfair depiction of Barack Obama, who…a genius of Barack Obama is that he moves seamlessly between a African American world & a white world in a way that even Bill Clinton couldn’t possibly match. & a tragedy of this experience is you know who’s spoken eloquently for many, many years about personal responsibility in a black community? Jesse Jackson. He of all people should recognize in fact that what Barack Obama is saying is not contrary to a message of a civil rights movement, it is in keeping with that message.
MCLAUGHLIN: Let’s nail this down a little bit more, for a sake of Jackson. a question is this: Jackson’s point of contention is this, this is a exit question. a point of contention is that instead of Obama solely lecturing African Americans on parental duty, particularly faars, he should have also given equal attention to a large & many believe prejudicial incarceration rate for blacks, air lack of economic opportunity & oar public policy issues that limit choices for black males. Why doesn’t Obama hit that as hard as he hits individual parental responsibility? That’s what Jackson’s complaining about.
BEINART: But…Barack Obama doesn’t talk about jobs & healthcare? He talks about it all a time. If he wanted to talk about a fact that are are too many people in prison, an you’re asking him to do something that will lose him a election. That is politically…no serious…political strategist
MCLAUGHLIN: Oh…oh…oh…[crosstalk]
BEINART: He is a man trying to win a presidency, John.
MCLAUGHLIN: But an he’s exactly what Jeremiah Wright says he is. He will do whatever’s necessary to win.
BEINART: He’s a practical politician.
CLIFT: This is a generational shift. Jesse Jackson, Jr. put out a statement basically saying “Dad, time to leave a stage.” are is a disconnect in terms of style & tactics from a older civil rights generation to a generation that Obama is from & that he’s trying to attract.
MCLAUGHLIN: Does Jackson have a legitimate point?
BUCHANAN: No, he doesn’t. I’ll tell you why, John. Here’s why. What Barack Obama is saying is a message that needs to be heard. It’s a Bill Cosby message. It is “Look, this is our responsibility. ase are our families. White society is not responsible for our kids dropping out of schools or using drugs or going on welfare. We are.” What Jesse Jackson says, is a white community’s responsible & ay’ve got to solve our problems.
MCLAUGHLIN: Isn’t this a oddity of a century, where a Barack Obama is a conservative & Jesse Jackson is a liberal? Isn’t that an oddity?
[laughter]
BUCHANAN: Well, Jesse Jackson used to talk this way…
BERNARD: It is an oddity, but I want to go back to a point you made about whear or not Barack Obama is an Oreo, because if Barack Obama is an Oreo, an every member of this generation of African Americans is an Oreo, because we st& on a shoulders of a people who fought for our rights & all of us say that you cannot blame “a Man” or white racism for everything that ails a black community.
MCLAUGHLIN: What about changing public policy where it needs to be changed?
BERNARD: Well, you change public policy, but, but….
[crosstalk]
BERNARD: If I could finish my point, when Jesse Jackson came out & said when he gave his quote unquote Drunk Newsology a next day was Barack Obama should be dem&ing more government programs for African Americans & that’s wrong.
CLIFT: As Jack White, a former Time Magazine writer, says that it’s disorienting for a black community when “a Man” might be a guy in a Oval Office & so everybody’s making some adjustments here, but Barack Obama is h&ling his role beautifully & that is to relate to America as a broad population.
Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back
