By all accounts, the therapy had been working.
Inigo Montoya Syllogism:Inigo Montoya Syllogism:
A. Inigo Montoya is white.
B. Inigo Montoya believes X to be true.
C. Therefore, all white people believe X to be true.
Well, that one didn’t pan out.
Inigo, I don’t believe that you believe that “white people” like to be offended. So I’m wondering why you wrote in a dialect so inappropriate to Obama. Whup 'em is one thing. It is natural sometimes to slip into a dialect when you are feeling comfortable with people or when you want to make them feel comfortable with you. But this particular dialect seems out of place.
So why use it?
White people do like to be offended. Cite.
It’s precisely because it is so inappropriate that it’s the perfect dialect to use. It’s a pretty twisted hyperbole, so I don’t mind explaining. And understand, I know little about all the players involved. My OP just came from my impression of the picture and the way the symbolism played: Ancient black guy gifting a stick to the young Black guy, who then vows to whup a group of people (the leadership of the very institution that fostered and reluctantly abandoned the oppression of their new leader’s ancestors) into seeing things his way. And then, with the scene set with Obama and his whuppin stick, his mission to dominate a possibly unwilling congress, his slipping into the vernacular … we have possibly the whitest White woman on the planet apart from Martha Stewart identified as a “public servant. ”Peotic, really. Hillary the “servant” (oh, and as VP?) makes me think of Benjamin Buford Blue’s momma.
And there’s so much wrong with that impression it’s hard to tell where to begin. We can debate what “African-American” means, to begin with. Does the label fit Barrack? Does he have any more ancestral right to speak in Gullah than I? The stick was defined as a “walking” stick; Barrack immediately defined it as a weapon of subjugation. Did he misinterpret the gift or did he grok? Public servant is an innocent enough term, isn’t it? So eloquent a man wouldn’t have chosen that specific phrase to imply anything apart from someone who sits in an elected office, would he?
Both sides of my family are from The South. If you’re not comfortable with the “racist southern hick” stereotype, then I’d advise you not to pay them a visit because they’ll creep you right out of your own skin. Think the scene in that first paragraph wouldn’t stir them up some? It’s a scene from their darkest nightmares. All it lacked of completeness was for Barrack Obama to morph into Bre’er Barrack.
Oh, well, if you’re going to talk about twisted hyperbole…
I don’t get it. How is “happy campers” offensive?