Joan Rivers Critiques Michelle Obama…As If

Joan Rivers is finally letting her age show. Once upon a time she was actually funny and I loved watching her, no matter what she was doing. She was witty, self deprecating, and she made it all look like fun. But apparently the anesthesia has finally taken its toll…
Follow the link to read the entire article. Joan Rivers Critiques Michelle Obama…As If

10 Questions: Can Somebody Answer This Please?

More and more as we go deeper into this election season, I find myself with way more questions than I have answers. So I decided that I am done pontificating on all of the issues that are arising up around us and I am just going to ask the questions. Maybe some of y’all can answer them.

1. Why is Cindy McCain telling the world about the chills through her body because Obama didn’t vote for the bill that would send more funds to her son? Did she give her own husband the cold shoulder, because he didn’t vote for the bill either? Did she close the legs leading to the Cindy straight talk express because he didn’t send money to her baby? What should be giving her chills is waking up next to that creepy man every morning. Ughh! Read More

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.

A Touchy Subject

I have been searching for a way to express myself on this subject in a way that is truly healing, non confrontational, and that will help people understand. Race has been such a polarizing topic in this country, and that is something that both infuriates and saddens me. Typically, I only talk about politics and the cultural divide with my hubby and the kids as a teaching tool, but I have very strong feelings on the topic (as I am sure everyone does) and it is getting increasingly difficult to keep those feelings to myself.

I can’t help but call to mind that moment when Michelle Obama expressed her feelings of being proud of her country for the first time in her adult life and how the media and the opponents took those words and twisted them and made them out to be something other than what she was trying to express. I felt sad that I understood what she meant and others didn’t, and even sadder that because her husband is running for the highest office in the land that she may never be able to fully share her sentiments with the rest of us.

To put it bluntly, since the beginning of our great nation, black people have always lived in a different America than white people. There have always been a different set of standards that we have lived by. That is a fact, there is no reason to go into the history, most everyone is aware of it. There are many misconceptions when you are on the black side looking in, and many when you are on the white side looking in, and unfortunately we have made very little progress when it comes to truly understanding each other.

I have to be honest, I have not always been proud of my country because my country has not always been proud of me. Do I love my country? With all of my heart. My husband has given up 20 years of his life to serve this country and I have been by his side for 18 of those years. My son is considering serving his country as well. I put my hand over my heart when presented with the colors, or when I hear the National Anthem being played. Many a day I have stopped in reverance to our flag and our country while I am on the military base and they are retiring the colors for the day. I stand and put my hand over my heart when I am in a military movie theater out of respect when the anthem is played rather than previews before the movie. And I love it, I am proud because this is my country. But we all can relate to loving someone who is not perfect and yet, we love them anyway. Our country is not perfect. No country is. And speaking out against the ugly parts doesn’t make one unpatriotic.

I don’t dare put words in Michelle Obama’s mouth, but I relate to the emotion behind what she was saying.

During the 60’s, water hoses were turned on black people who were simply seeking equality in front of all of the world to see. Is that a moment in our country’s history that we can be proud of? I think not. I remember taking my elementary school aged children to downtown Montgomery Alabama in the year 2000, where some of the atrocities occured and thinking that once upon a time, I would not have been allowed to shop in the store where I bought film for my camera. I was awed by how close the Dexter Avenue Church was from the State’s Capitol and how these things were taking place under the watchful eye of Alabama government. I am teary eyed right now, just thinking about the emotion I felt when I toured the church and then the Capitol Building and thought about how far we’ve come. And then, how far we have to go.

When black people were being killed because they simply wanted to vote, was that a time in our country that we should have been proud? Again, no. I can list many times when black people have been disenfranchised, treated unfairly, and even murdered and the “country” stood by and let it happen. The truth is the truth, whether we like it or not.

There have been some dark times in our country; times when we were not at our finest hour. And to pretend that these things have never happened and to say that we have been proud during those times and not ashamed of how an integral part of society was treated, is the equivalent of burying ones head in the sand.

So how do we begin to understand? I can only speak from my own point of view. So walk in my shoes for few moments.

I am always hyper aware of my blackness whenever I encounter “new” white people because I don’t know how they feel about black people.

When I walk into an establishment and I am the only one or one of few black people and I am stared at, I feel that it is because of my skin color.

When I walk into a store and no one greets me, and then a white person walks into the store behind me and the sales person immediately greets that person, that is a blow to my feelings (happened recently in Palm Springs).

When I get in a line and or come up to the counter the same time as a white person and the other white person behind the counter helps the white person before me (this just happened today), I feel slighted and I wonder if it is because I am black.

I have taught my son not to put his hands in his pockets while he is in the store because as soon as he walks in, he is being watched and I don’t want him to give off any type of suspicious look.

I have a college education, graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Art, speak two languages other than English at a proficient level and I am learning two more and I attended a Title I Blue Ribbon Magnet school from grades 4-12. When you assume that I don’t know what a normal English word means and you explain it to me, that is offensive. If I don’t know what something means, I will ask or look it up.

I don’t have a baby’s daddy. And I was raised in a house with two parents who were married.

And although I will stand up for myself in a fight, I am not an angry black woman. I am not bitter, I don’t have a bad attitude, I don’t go around snapping my fingers in the air (unless I am joking), and I don’t have penchant for rolling my neck.

And when I hear Hillary Clinton go on and on about how Obama does not appeal to white working class voters as if that is the most important thing in this election. My heart sinks because all votes are important in this country.

Am I overly sensitive and paranoid? Maybe. But given the history, am I justified. I think so.

Now I am sure that there are many white people who don’t see black women or people this way. Just as I feel white people have misconceptions about black people, black people have misconceptions too. But maybe if we can begin to talk openly and honestly and we can begin to see how the other group may perceive the situation, then maybe we can begin to understand and in understanding, maybe we can begin to truly heal.

We are possibly looking at the first black president of the United States. This is an amazing time in our country. And I am pretty confident that if and hopefully when this is the case, white America and black America will not see him as only a president for black people, or only president for white people, but as the president of America, our America. And I can guarantee you 99.9% that no one will be shooting dice or drinking forties in the back of the White House when he is in office. It just ain’t gonna happen.