# Barack the Magic Negro **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 28, 2008, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980 "2008-12-28T18:06:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/81 "2008-12-29T14:57:15Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I am offended by the lack of Magic Indian characters in film. Other than that bartender dude from _Keeping the Faith_, maybe. Wait, magical Indians like Kal Penn or magical Indians like Jay Silverheels? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/82 "2008-12-29T15:03:05Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#): > > Wait, magical Indians like Kal Penn or magical Indians like Jay Silverheels? Dots, not feathers. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/83 "2008-12-29T15:09:48Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > It is a bit handy if we ever look at the article a few months later, Lib. Really, I consider it basic internet manners. Setting aside two facts: (1) I did supply a link (two of them, in fact); and (2) links provided now could very well be broken in a few months — setting that aside, I did indeed provide links, so the fuss from you two must be about what I said rather than about what I did. And yet, what I said is still true. It is a fact that I have been asked before for links to current events that were (or should have been) common knowledge. And so, it isn’t clear to me what you’re arguing about. I’ve done everything you demand and haven’t said anything in need of correction. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/84 "2008-12-29T15:11:01Z")
What uncalled for, blithering stupidity. I honestly can’t believe that anyone in the Republican party would find this humorous. I don’t, and I voted Republican by and large for many years until fairly recently. They just don’t represent me anymore. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/85 "2008-12-29T15:31:51Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > There are non-whites in the party and at every level of government, including the Supreme Court. If you don’t include the House, the Senate, and all governorships, that is. :rolleyes: (Even if there were, you \*do \*know what tokenism is and means, right?) [quote] The thing is though, they think conservatively so they get portrayed by the left as Uncle Toms and so forth, so they get no credit for their accomplishments [/quote] Since you took care to point out Clarence Thomas as your (sole) evidence of Republicans’ colorblindness, perhaps you could list what you think his creditable accomplishments are for us? Ooops, that brings us back to tokenism, doesn’t it? > [@](#): > > The fact of the matter is that Saltsman is no more typical of the average white Republican than Rev. Wright, Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson are typical of the average minority Democrat. The average white Republican isn’t a candidate for the party’s _leadership_.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/86 "2008-12-29T15:31:56Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I’m confident there are no _Cirque du Soleil_ acrobats who would ever attempt leaps like some of the leaps of logic that come from the impassioned do-gooders of the left in this country. > > What did I say that even remotely relates to homelessness, food stamps, LSD, Red Skelton, the 50s, anything? Anything? > > Care to try to relate all that to what I said, **luce** , or do you just want to admit you have no adequate refutation for the fact that every country has immigration laws and that we’re no different, and so you chose to fall back on the tried and true liberal tactic of attempting to portray your conservative opponent as unhip, uncool, uncaring and hateful…and all without a lick of logic to bring it all together? > > Can’t really blame you though. It’s a tactic that has worked amazingly well for forty years. Cogent points, I suppose, had I even mentioned immigration. What I was riffing on was your charmingly retro Pubbie talking point about how the unemployment numbers weren’t really about people being without work, but more about how lazy and shiftless folks had become. Why, the employment pages fairly burst with employers eager for good workers, so it can only be their fault if they aren’t working! Its a lie, **Starkers.** Which wouldn’t be so bad if it were not a cruel and heartless lie. And, by the way…“impassioned do-gooders”? Why, yes, yes I am, thank you for noticing. That you deliver it as an epithet and a sneer reveals volumes about your, ah, values. Such as they are. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/87 "2008-12-29T15:38:08Z")
Doing good is a fine thing if the object of your doing agrees that it’s good. Otherwise, it’s a pain in the ass. “If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.” Henry David Thoreau ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/88 "2008-12-29T15:43:16Z")
Edward G. Robinson as Sol Roth in “Soylent Green”. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/89 "2008-12-29T15:50:50Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Doing good is a fine thing if the object of your doing agrees that it’s good… So I need 300 million permission slips? A daunting prospect, to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/90 "2008-12-29T15:51:56Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > If you don’t include the House, the Senate, and all governorships, that is. Correction: **SA** said “nonwhite”, not “black”. The GOP has a Magic Indian of its own - fella named Bobby Jindal. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/91 "2008-12-29T15:58:51Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > The GOP has a Magic Indian of its own - fella named Bobby Jindal. He’s into exorcism, so I think that makes him an anti-magic Indian. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/92 "2008-12-29T16:13:44Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > So I need 300 million permission slips? A daunting prospect, to be sure. Maybe you’d understand the point better if Reverend Killjoy decided to come and do some good on you. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/93 "2008-12-29T16:19:05Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Doing good is a fine thing if the object of your doing agrees that it’s good. Otherwise, it’s a pain in the ass. “If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.” Henry David Thoreau I don’t know that **luc** is advocating doing good on someone against their will: he’s no George W. Bush. He might advocate taking stuff from you and me to do good for a third party, but that’s another fishkettle. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/94 "2008-12-29T16:31:44Z")
“Excuse me, sir, but this fellow appears to be belaboring you with a stick. Would you like, perchance, for me to intervene? Sir? Sir? Oh, dear. Well, nevermind, then…” ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/95 "2008-12-29T16:33:56Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > FWIW, I agree with [Peter Yarrow] completely. I completely disagree with this part: > [@Peter Yarrow](#): > > What might have been wearily accepted as “the way it was” in the campaign, is now unacceptable. Obama is not a candidate. He is the President-Elect, and this song insults the office of the Presidency, the people who voted for him, as well as those who did not The president is not the king. He is merely a temporary employee, and is the head of one of _three_ co-equal branches of government. He is not the symbol and embodiment of the nation or his people. Neither the president nor the presidency is due any degree of respect or reverence different than that due to any other person in the country or the world. Obama’s status as a candidate or a president-elect is irrelevant. If anything, the president deserves _less_ deference than any other person, because he exercises extraordinary powers of office. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/96 "2008-12-29T16:35:50Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I don’t know that **luc** is advocating doing good on someone against their will: he’s no George W. Bush. He might advocate taking stuff from you and me to do good for a third party, but that’s another fishkettle.l I’m glad to be interacting with you again. I’m tired of hauling around back-breaking grudges. I know that an apology would be hollow, so I hope you accept the change in me as a suitable substitute. I can’t promise never to get on your nerves again, but I can promise not to do it intentionally. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/97 "2008-12-29T16:38:14Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > “Excuse me, sir, but this fellow appears to be belaboring you with a stick. Would you like, perchance, for me to intervene? Sir? Sir? Oh, dear. Well, nevermind, then…” While you’re here, would you mind sweeping my deck and feeding my koi? When you’re done, we can sit on the porch and criticize the cars as they go by. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/98 "2008-12-29T16:41:35Z")
To whom should he feed the koi? My cats have kindly volunteered to be the reluctant yet grateful recipients of such charity. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/99 "2008-12-29T16:42:12Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > The president is not the king. He is merely a temporary employee True but not quite on point. Yarrow’s objection was to insulting the \*office \*of the Presidency. Regardless of the nature of the individual occupying it at whatever the moment, the \*office \*is indeed in part “the symbol and embodiment of the nation or his people”. I might quibble with Yarrow that the ditty insults the office and not the person, though. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/100 "2008-12-29T16:46:54Z")
Every time I hear something like this, I’m torn between a variety of emotions. I know the biggest one I ought to feel is sadness and disgust that neanderthals like this still draw breath and hold positions of influence. But truthfully, that runs second place to a combination of disbelief and joy at watching them put their true colors on full display for public derision. Honestly, have they not yet learned that you don’t shoot yourself in the foot until you’ve removed it from your mouth? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980.md?page=6)