Obama Baby Mama? Are They Serious?

by Katie Fretland and updated

A Fox News anchor faced backlash recently for characterizing Barack and Michelle Obama’s fist bump as possibly a “terrorist fist jab.” Now during a segment the network has displayed a screen referring to the wife of the presumptive democratic nominee as his “baby mama.”

The screen was displayed beneath a segment in which anchor Megyn Kelly interviewed Michelle Malkin, a conservative blogger. The segment discussed a conservative group’s planned anti-Obama documentary.

“Outraged liberals: Stop picking on Obama’s baby mama!” the screen read.

Today, Malkin writes:

“I did not write the caption and I was not aware of it when it ran (the Baltimore studio doesn’t have a monitor). I don’t know if the caption writer was making a lame attempt to be hip, clueless about the original etymology of the phrase, or both.”

Fox News issued this statement today from Bill Shine, senior vicepresident of programming for Fox News Channel.

“A producer on the program exercised poor judgment in using this chyron
during the segment.”

For more about Michelle Obama, see this article in The Swamp.

 

 

For more about Michelle Obama and Fox News, see this article by Salon’s Alex Koppelman.

Okay it takes quite a bit to get under my skin when it comes to racism. I am not one who “plays the race card,” or blames other people for the problems in the black community. But I am also not one who believes that racism doesn’t exist or that it has ended in this country by any means.

I do have to say that the people at Fox News have stooped beyond low with their supposed fair and balanced coverage. And it is amazing to me that otherwise good hearted, normal, everyday people cannot see past some imaginary political loyalty, and realize the absolute hatred, bias, and exclusion that is spewed on this channel. How can anyone watch this tabloid news station and take anything that is reported there seriously?

So I am sure you are wondering why this particular blunder is so offensive and yes, absolutely racist.
Very simply, if Michelle Obama was anything other than black, this crap would not have scrolled across the television screen. What is even more offensive, is the fact that this woman, as many women in the past is a potential first lady of our country. The closest thing that the United states has to royalty, and yet this anti-news cable news station would stoop so low as to use such a derogatory term when referring to her. A term that does not in any form of the imagination apply to this intelligent, accomplished, MARRIED woman.

Now either Fox news is comprised of a bunch of racists who have decided that it is okay to practice hidden racism in order to get their point across, they are really just that desperate for ratings, or they really are a bunch of squares with no real concept of the slang terms and “fist bumps” that are popular in today’s society. I suspect the the truth is a combination of all three.

It usually takes a lot for me to get upset about things like this. I usually chalk these things up to ignorance and I try to live my life in a way that uplifts everyone regardless of race. I would like to think that this presidential race for once could possibly be about the issues and fixing the problems that are really, really, wrong with this country. But as most political races go, this one will have its share of nastiness as well. It is just so sad that it may have to involve the more insidious issue of race.

What really makes me even more upset is the fact that if Obama in anyway ever suggests the truth, that black people are still deeply affected by race in this country and that we are angry, and that in many ways we do want acknowledgment, he would be vilified. It is amazing how it is okay to speak in racial terms when you are belittling a whole race of people as has occured in this country for decades, but it is just an outrage when a black person stands up and defends him or herself for being belittled. I have heard more than once, “get over it, slavery is over.”

When Rev. Wright was exposed as a hate monger and a racist, everyone was up in arms. Oh how could this man say these things about our country? I don’t agree with everything that he said and I don’t agree that we should be teaching hatred, but I do believe that as citizens of this country, we do have to say that sometimes it is very hard and very painful to endure a lot of the madness that comes our way. And these things are not things to be proud of.

Basically, if getting over what has happened to us as a people is what we are expected to do, then maybe I will get over it when Cindy McCain, Laura Bush, and Jackie O. are referred to as somebody’s baby mamma. At least then I will feel that as a black woman, I am on a level playing field.

To Stay or Not To Stay…

No one knows what makes a woman stay in a relationship with a man who clearly doesn’t love her the way he should. But is it really fair for someone who is not in the relationship to judge? Why is it any of our business? I have come to learn in life that people deal with life the best way that they can. They do the best they can because that is all they know how to do. And if they are like me and a lot of women I know, they don’t complain about it and if they do, they only complain about it to a select few. There are women who stay in situations because they are afraid to leave, or because they are in love (ooh novel concept) or because they really believe that they can make it work. Take for example, the lovely and beautiful Kim Porter, who is incidentally featured on the most recent cover of Jet Magazine. The world has watched her go through ups and downs with her on again, off again relationship with the infamous P.Diddy. I have seen her be labled a gold digger, greedy, a woman with low self-esteem, and a poor example to her daughters because she chose to be a mother and loyal to the man that she loves. Wow! When did staying with someone because you believe that it could work become equated with being a gold-digger? That is asenine! Much less famous, less rich women stay in far worse relationships and only they know why. It doesn’t make them bad women, or less worthy of praise for being loyal. It simply makes them individuals who made a different choice. I personally believe that Kim Porter and women like her should be patted on the back for having the moxie to see a situation through to the end whatever the reason, unlike a lot of people who just give up at the first sign of trouble. Would I have stayed in the situation? Maybe, maybe not. That was not my relationship and it is not my place to judge. Aside from physical violence, I believe that there is the possibility that any situation can turn around. People have been known to actually work through things and come out of it much better and stronger. So who really has a right to say what a person should do? I once had a friend who told me, “The hardest thing for a woman to do when her relationship has gone bad is to try and stick it out and make it work. It is much easier to leave.” Whether this is true or not, one thing is for sure. NO one but the person in the situation knows why she is choosing to stay. And many of us will never know what it is like to have the worst parts of our lives, the worst decisions we have ever made, and the hardest trials that we have had to endure paraded across an international stage for all of the world to judge based on their own limited and narrow experiences. Nor will we have people judge us based on a few minutes on television, a photo, or malicious gossip. I don’t know Kim Porter personally, and although I have been in a roller coaster ride of a relationship, I don’t know what it is like to be in her particular pair of Jimmy Choos. And I am not a hater, and I am not going to cast aspersions. But what I will do is wish her and her family the best and send good vibes her way, like a true Diva should, and hope that one day she and all of the women like her find the happiness that every woman deserves.