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.