Of course they will stop being an issue if they are ignored.
As a matter of fact the only way to get rid of race and racism is to ignore race.
Mmmm…chocolate icing…
Sure, if everyone, overnight, stopped noticing what race people are, a lot of problems would go away. That’s a nice, safe, happy, utopian thought that privileged people use to comfort themselves into an inertia they mistake for virtue.
Failing that, inaction favours the status quo, and ignoring the problem is equal to inaction.
I wonder how many one on one interviews Obama will do with a reporter who isn’t black?
(Not counting Barbara Wawa.)
So, do we need to commemorate when the first black President takes his first dump in the White House toilet? How about when nails his wife for the first time in the Presidential bedroom? Pukes in the toilet? Scratches his ass? Lets face it, as the first black President of the US, everything he does in the White House is going to be some kind of first for a long time. Do we need to know about all or even most of those things?
That’s a ridiculous straw man and you know it. Would you please at least pretend like some sort of a historical event officially happened today and that it might conceivably continue to be discussed for the next day or two?
What kind of silly question is this? Does it have a point?
Besides Ms. Walters, he has already given interviews to Bill O’Reilly, Larry King, Richard Stengel, Maria Bartiromo, Steve Kroft, Mario Lopez, and, a few years ago, Cathleen Falsani, all of whom are white.
In fact, it is remarkably easier to discover interviews Prsident Obama has given to white makes than with non-whites or women.
There’s nothing ridiculous about it. As the first black President everything he does for a while will be considered a “first.” Sure, most people aren’t going to comment on his first Presidential log, but you can bet, when he signs the first bill into law, the first treaty, or goes overseas on a state visit, we will hear from some idiot somewhere, “This is the first time a black President has ever __________.”
Yes, today was historic, but ya know what? I don’t need every commentator telling me its historic every five fucking minutes. If I haven’t figured it out for myself by now, then I’m not going to.
Well, why not wait a few months for an answer? Let’s see how many one on one interviews he does with black reporters (especially those who have white bosses). It shouldn’t make any difference what color the reporter may be. My point is the regular angle to “get the story” is to attach some sort of connection between the story and “something” the audience can share, no matter how tenuous the connection. I suspect race will be the tenuous factor for some time.
Interviewers with the reputations of Barbara Walters and Larry King will get more one on one interviews because of who they are and their skills. Race won’t play a factor. My concern is when Obama travels and does a local interview, will that local reporter who gets the nod for the local interview get it on merit (regardless of race, or even gender), or will it be the news editor scrambling to find someone (anyone!) of color on the station payroll who can be relatively coherent with a microphone in front of the lens, regardless of the professional quals or abilities? If that be the case, such a decision would continue to separate people by race.
I want to see/hear those interviews about my president. Reporters from outside of the White House corporate press pool often glean more diamonds that those who it it every day at the big shot level. I don’t care who does the interview as long as the reporter has the professional cred to carry it out. Black, white, or whatever, I don’t care. But let’s not create the “local angle connection” as skin color just to secure the interview. Obama was elected by Americans of all races. Shouldn’t the news interviews be done by reporters with the professional quals first, last and always, regardless of race?
Barack Obama is the President of the United States. He’s no longer a “black” story. Do you seriously think some editor is going to be saying “Frank’s black. So we’ll have him interview the President. Meanwhile, Bob, you’re our top reporter so we’re going to have you covering our lead story on the city council meeting.”
Yes, I do. It’s not about substance. It’s about image, and ratings.
Yeah the emphasis on it is excessive. I don’t give a shit that he’s the first black president. I’m happy because he’s a damn good pol as pols go and he’s not Bush.
I’m reminded of that comedy sketch by the English comic, Dawn French.
She starts the sketch sobbing dreadfully about something terrible to do with her husband, how she hadn’t realised, and nobody, not even her best friends had told her before the marriage, and why hadn’t someone said something, she had no idea etc. Finally she blurts out the problem:
“He’s black”.
Of course it is only a funny and not an appalling sketch if you know that she is married to Lenny Henry, who is black.
Well, obviously a very large amount of people do give a shit, and for very good reason IMHO, and so media coverage for the next little while will be focusing on that.
For people who don’t give shits, you folks seem to be awfully insistent about that fact. The usual, recommended way of not giving a shit about something is usually not to give a shit.
No, I do not believe that will happen, any more than when Kim Campbell led her party to a horrendous defeat, people said, “This is the first time a female Prime Minister has led her party to a horrendous defeat.”
I do expect to be reminded that he’s the first black president from time to time, however. That would be because it is significant. If it really gets up your ass so bad, just interpret it as a more positive way of saying, “Holy shit, do you realize there weren’t any black presidents for 233 years?”
Yes, because Canadian and American politics are so similar.
Check your math. The United States of America didn’t come into existence until 1789, so its 220 years we went without having a black president (though several African countries did manage that feat long before we did).
In an unforgivable lapse of academic judgment quite unworthy of a poster on an Internet message board, I foolishly went by the traditional date of 1776 (you know, the one they celebrated with that bicentennial about 33 years ago).
However, Wikipedia, source of all good things, gives us two alternative dates of which this unworthy foreigner was formerly unaware: September 3, 1783 (the Treaty of Paris, at which the independence declared in 1776 was recognized), and June 21, 1788 (the ratification of the current Constitution).
Any of these would be a plausible date for the United States’ having come into existence, but none of them are 1789, so I’m not sure what you meant.
A bit of digging tells us that George Washington assumed office in 1789. Nevertheless, I’m relatively sure that whatever ragtag honchos guided the ship of state in the years intervening between 1776 and 1789 were also not black, so I humbly consider my point to be pretty safe.
For the rest of my historiographical inexactitudes (I mean really, who considers the United States to have been founded in 1776?) I can only fling myself, quivering with remorse, into the dust.
News saturation exhausts almost every topic, but no, we really don’t need to start ignoring this right away. I know you might feel special because you don’t think it’s a big deal that Obama is black, but history shows it actually is a large deal. The Civil Rights Act came into being during the president’s own lifetime. Slavery lasted about 250 years on this continent and Jim Crow repression lasted another 100. Obama’s been president for about 18 hours.
I don’t want to hear about it every second of his term either, and after the next few days, you probably won’t - it’ll come up on August 28, on MLK Day, during February and at a few other set moments. This is a milestone and it is not, now, magically irrelevant.
Also, we’re all very well aware that he’s an Obama. My god, it’s Obama this and Obama that. We GET it already. His name is Obama. Can’t they call him something else once in a while?
I think the reason we haven’t gotten tired of the “OMG OUR PRESIDENT IS COLORED HUR” after election day is that there was some niggling doubt that something would happen to screw it up before 1/20. As in, he’d find himself joining JFK physically and not just in oratory ability. Or maybe Crazy George and Tricky Dick would find some way to sabotage the process and keep themselves in power as the King and Queen of D.C. Or maybe Barack’d overdose on fried chicken. Seeing the Obamanator ascend to the throne puts those fears to rest; we actually got the black guy- our black guy- in the Oval Office.
Bingo! I’m in my early 50’s and I never thought I’d live to see the day that a woman and a Black man were the two most viable candidates for the presidency! I’m thrilled to see Obama in office. I voted for him, campaigned for him, got the bumper stickers AND the t-shirt! I think he is THE man for the job! I’m extra happy that for once the country decided that anybody other than a middle aged (and I’m being kind when thinking about Reagan and McCain, et al) White man could take this seat!
This IS about our new president being an African American but it’s about so much more. It’s about a democratic administration again (I missed Bill Clinton for the last 8 years!), it’s about the country recognizing what a horrendous mistake GWB was and how bad he and his cronies were for this country AND the world at large, it’s a about a young man with fresh perspective, raising young children, looking at our country and our circumstances from a whole different vantage point than any president has had before.
I am so excited and hopeful for this president. He’s going to make mistakes. He’ll fuck up but I truly have confidence that he will be a president who LISTENS to his advisors, that he does not have a self seeking agenda (like, ohhhh, big oil) coloring his decision making, that he will give CAREFUL consideration to his decisions and that when mistakes are made they will be just that… Mistakes. I trust this man more than I’ve trusted any politician in a long time.