# 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:** 7
**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, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/121 "2008-12-29T21:44:26Z")
Oh yes, I’m sure. The little mouse heads left lovingly on the back step reassure me. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/122 "2008-12-29T22:02:09Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > Oh, yeah, it really shows in the current unemployment figures. Must be because there are so many new jobs that people just can’t decide which one to take. Well, the unemployment rate was going down until the Democratic congress took over… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/123 "2008-12-29T22:52:35Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Isn’t there a “Magic Jew” character in some films, too? Someone who’s a little wiser/funnier/more grounded, and who takes the long view? > > I can think of 2 examples: Saul in _While You Were Sleeping_, the only older person who’s not a buffoon, and Sam Weinberg in _A Few Good Men_, the scrawny Navy lawyer who brings ballast and sanity. And (if we include TV shows) Alex in _Taxi._ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/124 "2008-12-29T22:55:29Z")
> [@Scissorjack](#): > > Judd Hirsch in **Independence Day**. No, he was a tinfoil-hat moron who just happened to be right. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/125 "2008-12-29T23:04:51Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Since I’m here I should say something about the OP, no? > > It’s not even funny.\* You can get away with a lot if it’s funny. But if this guy thinks this is the way to win elections in the RNC than either he’s fucked up or the RNC is. > > \*O.K., I chuckled at the Marlboro Man. For some reason, RWs seem to have a **problem** with funny. _Mallard Fillmore_ is not funny. Rush Limbaugh is not funny. Dennis Miller has not been funny since his _SNL_ days; P.J. O’Rourke, not **very** funny since his _National Lampoon_ days. RW political cartoonists like Wayne Stayskal and Michael Ramirez are almost never funny. I’ve heard clips of “Christian comedians’” acts and they’re not funny. Why is that? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/126 "2008-12-29T23:11:13Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > If you are gonna claim part-time workers and people who have “given up” (which I think you’ll have to agree contains a significant number who don’t really want to work . . . :dubious: Not, I think, “a significant number.” ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/127 "2008-12-29T23:24:22Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > :dubious: Not, I think, “a significant number.” In fact, as I pointed out earlier, the data explicitly discounts such people. So it’s not just that “a significant number” overstates the case; it’s that any number greater than zero is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/128 "2008-12-29T23:26:37Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > What a hoad of looey! > > What are you saying? That immigration laws are bullshit and we should just throw our borders open to all comers? And that Republican Mexicans are racist against their own race? > > What utter nonsense! > > My guess is that, like most conservatives, they believe that laws exist for a reason and that they shouldn’t be broken. Illegal immigration is breaking the law! What is so racist about that? Every country on the face of this planet manages its immigration and has laws to keep people from entering illegally. > > Perhaps you could explain why it’s racist when we do it? Oh, [I think racism does figure into it somewhere](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=310401) – now [as in 1924.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924) I’m sure Pat Buchanan and Lou Dobbs and the Minutemen would have significantly fewer objections if most illegals came from Europe or Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/129 "2008-12-29T23:28:16Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > P.J. O’Rourke, not **very** funny since his _National Lampoon_ days. PJ O’Rourke is pretty funny. From his description of his visit to Somalia during the US aid mission: > [@](#): > > Somalia is amazingly roofless. Almost every building we flew over had its ceiling off. How much of this was from neglect and artillery and how much from looting of corrugated tin sheets I don’t know, but you could look right down into the rooms and hallways, and it made the entire country seem like a gigantic game board of Clue. Probable correct answer: Everybody. In the toilet. With an AK-47. and, > [@](#): > > The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it. George Will can be funny. Scott Stantis is funny. Christopher Buckley is funny. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/130 "2008-12-29T23:33:02Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > 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. The head of state – whether king or president – **is** the symbol and embodiment of the nation in a way that the other branches are not. Just like a mayor, even a poltically powerless figurehead-mayor, is the symbol and embodiment of his town. That does not mean he should not be insulted; rather, it means the POTUS himself has a special duty to preserve the dignity of the office. But just keep it in perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/131 "2008-12-29T23:42:36Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Doesn’t _Gunga Din_ count too, come to think of it? Probably in the 1939 movie, which bears little resemblance to the original poem: the British soldiers treat Gunga Din rather better, for a start, with no beatin’ and flayin’ and he cops a bullet while heroically warning an approaching relief column of an ambush, and thus is posthumously promoted to corporal, whereupon his ghost salutes his own eulogy, bursting his new-found buttons with pride. Then there’s _The World’s Fastest Indian…_ ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/132 "2008-12-29T23:46:14Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > No, he was a tinfoil-hat moron who just happened to be right. 😕 I think a rewatch is in order. That doesn’t even come _close_ to describing Hirsch’s character. Not even a little bit. ---
**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, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/133 "2008-12-29T23:57:52Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > George Will can be funny. Scott Stantis is funny. Christopher Buckley is funny. If the ‘Prickly City’ strips are any guide, Scott Stantis is an un-funny idiot. He embodies every bad stereotype about political cartooning being a safe place to practice logical fallacy while hiding behind a translucent veneer of “satire”. Much like the subject of this thread, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/134 "2008-12-30T00:01:45Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Oh, [I think racism does figure into it somewhere](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=310401) – now [as in 1924.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924) I’m sure Pat Buchanan and Lou Dobbs and the Minutemen would have significantly fewer objections if most illegals came from Europe or Canada. I disagree. People like that believe (as I so) that the law is the law and if people were flooding our borders in similar numbers from Canada or Europe, I would expect the exact same type of objection. (I’ve also mentioned here before that the family that lives next door to me includes a woman who came here from Mexico legally, went through the process, waited her turn, etc. and came here and made a good life for herself, and currently works for McDonald’s overseeing three of their restaurants. She is resentful of how we’ve allowed people from Mexico to stream in here virtually unchecked, and she is very much against both amnesty and health/welfare benefits because they broke the law to get here. (Which of course puts the lie to everyone objecting to illegal immigration being a racist.) Such a scenario would make it more difficult for libs to scream racism though. “You motherfuckers hate whi…uh, _Europeans_!” 😃 Yep, in the eyes of liberals the U.S. is just one big honey pot, free for all to draw from, and if you object you’re either a selfish bastard or a racist asshole. Oh, yeah…libs don’t care much for laws either, unless they’re related to hate speech or establishing government progams, so don’t expect to get anywhere by pointing out that the Canadians and Europeans flooding into the country are also breaking the law. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/135 "2008-12-30T00:01:53Z")
I think Prickly City is hysterical. Not always, of course, but when it’s on, it’s on. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/136 "2008-12-30T00:09:50Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > (I’ve also mentioned here before that the family that lives next door to me includes a woman who came here from Mexico legally, went through the process, waited her turn, etc. and came here and made a good life for herself, and currently works for McDonald’s overseeing three of their restaurants. She is resentful of how we’ve allowed people from Mexico to stream in here virtually unchecked, and she is very much against both amnesty and health/welfare benefits because they broke the law to get here. (Which of course puts the lie to everyone objecting to illegal immigration being a racist.) I don’t say they’re **all** racists – [Michael Lind](http://www.newamerica.net/people/michael_lind) emphatically is not, and he wants to seriously curtail **legal** immigration for socioeconomic reasons; many environmentalists want the same for zero-population-growth reasons – I only say that racists and racism play a significant and undeniable role in the anti-immigration movement and the others are bound to more or less tolerate them. Strange bedfellows, y’know. And yes, the picture would be very different if the immigration pressure came from Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/137 "2008-12-30T01:15:54Z")
I’ve seen conservative bloggers like Michelle Malkin sneer at the RNC’s apologies, basically calling them wimps for trying to apologize for a “not racist” and “perfectly defensible” “piece of satire.” Either way, I expect this’ll blow over pretty soon. It just doesn’t feel like a story with “legs” to me, though I’m sure it’ll turn into one of those things that partisans trying to make a point will bring up at every opportunity, rightfully or not. ---
**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 30, 2008, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/138 "2008-12-30T02:32:37Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > I think Prickly City is hysterical. The irony… it burns… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/139 "2008-12-30T03:02:54Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Either way, I expect this’ll blow over pretty soon. It just doesn’t feel like a story with “legs” to me, though I’m sure it’ll turn into one of those things that partisans trying to make a point will bring up at every opportunity, rightfully or not. It will blow over, if the Pubs and RWs let it, and do not play nor call attention to the song at any of their future rallies or events. Odds we’ll be hearing it again in 2004? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980/140 "2008-12-30T03:22:01Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Odds we’ll be hearing it again in 2004? :dubious: What, um, year do _you_ think it is now? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-the-magic-negro/478980.md?page=8)