Archive for March, 2008

Are You A Typical White Person?

Posted by: Jason | March 5th, 2008 · 7:29 PM

I have two objectives in writing this post. The first is to inform people of a terribly offensive comment which was made by Barack Obama this morning on our local Philadelphia sports station 610WIP (something I just learned was broken by the Huffington Post), and to place this comment into context with a recent controversy Obama is facing over race.

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, Barack Obama has begun a barrage of negative press over his association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his pastor of 20 years at the Trinity Church of Christ in Chicago and a man infamous for irresponsible statements on subjects of race any beyond (calling this country the “US of KKKA”, “it’s God damn America, not God bless America”, etc.). Wright has been something of a spiritual mentor to Obama, having brought him to the church 20 years ago, baptizing his children, and even marrying he and his wife.

As if such questions of association with an anti-American black separatist were not enough, Obama may have now stepped into irreparable territory. When commenting this morning to 610WIP’s Angelo Cataldi about a speech gave in Philadelphia two days ago, Obama answered a challenge over his decision within the speech to defend his association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright by highlighting statements made by less-than-angelic white grandmother as a child, using the “everyone’s a little bit racist” card to clear the name of Rev. Wright (and thus any association being a bad thing). These were his exact words to Cataldi:

“The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity,” he said. “But she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know, there’s a reaction in her that doesn’t go away and it comes out in the wrong way.”

So… What Barack Obama is essentially implying, for all we typical white folks out there, is that we automatically harbor a sense of disrespect or fear of seeing a black man next to us on the street. Cause all of us, of course, typically do this. Ehmm. Try to keep in mind that this is a candidate for the presidency.

Voters can decide for themselves how they want to view this comment. Some will shrug it aside as common truth, and applaud Obama for speaking his mind without any fear of reciprocity. Some will use the statement as a means of destroying his candidacy, arguing Obama to harbor hateful feelings towards whites himself. Some will rightfully view the double-standard in all this, asking how John McCain, a white Republican, might be treated had he called on the behaviors of a “typical black people”.

But I’m looking at this from a different angle. If you’re too stupid to not understand how saying the words “typical white person” on a live radio interview can be bad for your political future, you’re certainly not qualified to be the President of the United States, period.

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