Obama Forced to Explain Comment to Typical White Person
The Mighty Dan Gross accidentally kicked over the Barack Obama apple cart yesterday when he publicized a throw-away comment in which the Illinois senator recklessly, if not purposely, insinuated that his white grandmother, long fearful of encountering black men on the street, was a “typical white person.”
The online political world buzzed, the news tickers chugged, and then Obama sat down on Larry King Live last night and had to expand on and defensively explain his comments to the pointy-shouldered talk show host in the best way possible:
[W]hat I meant really was that some of the fears of street crime and some of the stereotypes that go along with that, you know, were responses that I think many people feel. She’s not extraordinary in that regard. She’s somebody who I love as much as anybody. I mean, she has literally helped to raise me.
But those are fears that are embedded in our culture and embedded in our society. And, you know, even within our own families, even within a family like mine that is diverse, you know, there are those gaps in understanding or the stereotypes that are fed by the news media and fed by what we see around us and, you know, in our popular culture.
Yeah, you know?
Obama’s poorly chosen words, the bigger picture [The Swamp]
March 21st, 2008 at 11:46 am
I think Sen. Obama’s “typical white person” comment mostly shows that he is out of touch with what might offend people. He is running for president after all, and sometimes what can seem like a small thing can really matter to voters.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Do we really want this to be our president. If he were white and said “typical black person” they would be looking for his body right now because of the uproar from the black community.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Show your support against this
http://www.cafepress.com/typicalwp
March 21st, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I’d like Senator Obama to explain, perhaps with the help of his church, a fuller description of who a “typical white person” is. For that matter, perhaps he can also explain what he has done over the past 20 years to “unite” blacks and non-blacks. Maybe he should start by telling us how many “typical white persons” did he take into his church and tried to unite them with the African American community. After all, he is running on the “Uniting” platform, right?
March 21st, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Gosh, poor Granny! Maybe the fear she has of black men was actually a premonition of her own grandson.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Ease up, give him a break. He is a whole lot better than arrogant full of her herself Hillary who can’t even manage her own marriage, let alone America.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Steve (#6): Your comment on Hillary is sexist. You are willing to give Obama a break, but not one for Hillary, huh? Maybe we need a “gender speech” for guys like this.
March 21st, 2008 at 2:41 pm
If Obama had been white and said “typical black person”, there’d be a riot.
I guess white people should just shut up & suck it up.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I have no trust for Obama. He is a total fake. It will be a nightmare if America let’s him get to Oval office! Instead of severing the ties with Jerehe was actually trying to clear the name of the guy who, even as a former US Marine, “dammed America”. He holds deep hatred to white people and he does not have the guts to admit it. I totally agree with Ed (#4) and William (#2). The easy way to identify the correctness of the statement and the main issue at hand is to apply it to apply it to another side: if any white person would say ‘typical black person’ the would have been a riot on the streets and black reverants claiming racism toward blacks.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:59 pm
I call upon the “black community” to dissolve all racist establishment practices. Dissolve the NAACP and make it the NAAP (National American Association of People). Disband the UNCF and make it into the UACF (United American College Fund). End Miss Black America. End all affirmative action. End all minority requirement clauses in government contracts.
End it all! Stop Black racism against all other colors in America!
March 21st, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Typical white ppl remarks…lol
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:27 am
Calling everyone by their color and sterotyping them seems to be the new definition of Hope and Unity. This we dont need.
If you stay in a place and listen to the messages in what is your relaxed hour and when you are most receptive to the messages, it goes into your subconscious mind easily. That is what psychologists do with patients. That is what the priests do as well.
So, all these 20-year long public and private messaging has probably made deep dents in the wrong places of the cranium.
This is indeed a “different kind of politician” who tears people from inside and makes them question how far we have indeed come.. and in that process, negates the progress made.
My mom said, “The potter takes a year; then comes the stick and it takes just a minute.” Destruction is easy, especially if you have no sensitivity to the work involved in construction.
It is all a very telling story about the total lack of character and judgment of this person who seems to have a hollow core of principals.
No wonder he had no empathy for the tenants of Rezko’s 11 huge apartment complexes in his own backyard.. so much so that they went without heat, sanitary conditions.. The unity and caring are only lip-deep.
It appears that he chose this church over many other options, and further stayed in it for 20 years.
I am also deeply disturbed by the New Black Panther endorsement that I found on his website which have been taken off his website 2 days after his telepromted 37 minutes speech earlier this week. The New Black Panther seems to have donated to the campaign; they among other things are llooking for a “black nation”? I dont have much research on this.. and am exhausted today to go find.
Here is something I found today that I am trying to chase down info on.. If any of you find info on this, please post here. I will ttry to check back here.
http://tinyurl.com/37euaf
Quote:
When it rains it pours. We all know that. But this is not a subject to feel sad about, in my opinion. This news is completely unacceptable and Barack Obama should be held responsible for his decision to stick with this hate-filled preacher and church. What I am talking about? Simple. Last year, Obama’s Church “reprinted a manifesto by Hamas that defended terrorism as legitimate resistance, refused to recognize the right of Israel to exist and compared the terror group’s official charter – which calls for the murder of Jews – to America’s Declaration of Independence.”
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We must save INFORMED DEMOCRACY in this country. This is the reason for my intensive qquest for truth. Let us all be sure to make a very well informed decision, so that ONLY THE DESERVING.. those who have ALREADY EARNED their mantle and can show CREDIBILITY and JUDGMENT SUPPORTED BY EXPERIENCE get on the ballot. Thank you.
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:34 am
Let me put it slightly differently..
Why did he feel he had to make it such an explosive diversion?
Because the topic in front — Anti-American linkages and ties — is far more explosive.
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:09 am
Hey Steve. I’m sleeping with your wife.
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:18 am
I think Obama is going to take all of our earnings and pay off black reparations with it. Then he’s going to ask that radical bomber Bill Ayers to get rid of us all. That’s the kind of “Change” Farrakhan, Meeks and Wright “can believe in”. Typical black people.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
It is my belief that Obama is probably caught up in something that he is not prepared for. I believe that those like Reverend White and Farakhan believe he is someone that they can push through their own agendas with. I believe the worst thing Obama is guilty of is being naive. I also believe that those like Wright and Farakahn will not just go after white folks but after black folks who are not militant. It will be a race war and there will be no winner. There is just no way that kind of hatred can bring about any kind of good.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Honestly, I have nothing against white people, but for him to individually say that his grandmother is white (a fact) and that in a high crime neighborhood, she would at least have a suspision that a stranger whom she did not know may fit some stereotype is NOT racist agaisnt the “typical white people”. If he said he his grandmother was at an airport and an Islamic Musilum man with a huge black bag walked by, and then she didn’t profile him… that’s change.
But for those who think he’s racist for being obvious is an idiot. I’m biracial and I still get crapped on for not claraifying that I”m black… which is only one label. If Obama said that his grandmother was a “typical American”, any opposer would say he was anti-American.
If you don’t like him, pick and support someone else. I already chose.