# Lohan calls Obama 'first colored president.' WTF!? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 12, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440 "2008-11-12T23:30:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/101 "2008-11-14T09:42:15Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > To give this a Cafe Society flavor, there’s a scene in Ocean’s Eleven (remake) that keys on Bernie Mac being insulted by Matt Damon referring to him as “colored”. > > IMHO, it’s not that “colored” in and of itself is offensive; it’s that someone who’s so behind the times to use the word is probably mentally stopping himself from using “n\*\*\*\*er”. Right, Lohan was mentally stopping herself from using the n-word, that makes sense. For God’s sake, she meant no offence and I’m sure none was taken, except of course by the thought police on this board. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/102 "2008-11-14T11:40:26Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > She’s what, 23? She looks 40. > > I mentioned it in some other thread but I met her once on an airplane and helped her with a bag. That was about four years ago, I think. She was, in person, staggeringly beautiful. Now she looks like a pool hall strumpet. In four years. Having every word you speak scrutinized and criticized in every media outlet by millions of people since your vulnerable adolescent years will probably have that effect on some folks after a while. I’d find it stressful, I know that. Poor kid. She probably just wanted to be Ariel from _The Little Mermaid_ when she grew up. Then one day she woke up and realized that her career had cultivated a merciless army of several million internet stalkers all intent on viewing her genitals, and it’s all been downhill since then. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/103 "2008-11-14T11:50:09Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I can’t get too upset. Yeah, she used a poor, out-dated and perhaps offensive term in describing Obama but it’s hard to believe that she did so out of anything except ignorance. I had a co-worker that still used “darkie” in the '90s. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/104 "2008-11-14T12:13:33Z")
This is Lindsay Lohan we’re talking about here. I think the more important question is whether she thinks he’s [adequite](http://defamer.com/hollywood/lindsay-lohan/lindsay-lohans-fully-adequite-blackberry-manifesto-220111.php). ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/105 "2008-11-14T16:42:15Z")
As I said in the other thread, I seriously do not think this is about Lohan being stupid or ignorant. I think this is her saying to herself, “I’ve been out of the spotlight for a little while. _This_ ought to wind 'em up.” She may be miles away from being an intellectual, but she knows _exactly_ what she’s doing in terms of manipulating the media and keeping herself in the public eye. ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/106 "2008-11-14T18:33:52Z")
Wow. How could anyone imply that LL is RACIST? She was PRAISING Obama being elected. If she said “I am pissed off that a colored person was elected” THEN it would justify 3 pages of debating whether or not she is racist. And for the record - black, colored and AA have been used pretty much interchangably for as long as I’ve been around (born 1980 in CT). ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/107 "2008-11-14T21:16:56Z")
Here’s the problem as I see it. Upon first reading, I didn’t think she was saying that he’s the first black/African-American president, but that he is the first president of not-all-white-European ancestry. The only term for that, as far as I am aware, is ‘person of colour’. And I only learned that because I have some friends who did Women’s Studies in undergrad. I can’t blame someone forgrasping for a way to express that idea without knowledge of how the term ‘person of colour’ should be used. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/108 "2008-11-14T23:17:42Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > This is Lindsay Lohan we’re talking about here. I think the more important question is whether she thinks he’s [adequite](http://defamer.com/hollywood/lindsay-lohan/lindsay-lohans-fully-adequite-blackberry-manifesto-220111.php). OMG, that’s funny, but [her eulogy for Robert Altman](http://defamer.com/hollywood/lindsay-lohan/to-her-credit-lindsay-lohan-obviously-didnt-delegate-her-condolenceswriting-obligations-to-her-publicist-216737.php) was hilarious. I take back any reference I made to thoughts or portions of thoughts appearing in her mind before speaking. She is one dumb bunny. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/109 "2008-11-15T01:19:25Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > I’d like to point out that in the film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” (1967) Sidney Poitier’s character tells his father, “You think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man.” Since the term is not used in negative sense within that scene, it seems clear that in the late sixties this was the polite term. I believe other characters in the film use the term ‘colored man’ to describe the character and not in a racist way. > > I’m in my mid-fifties and I can’t remember that it was ever a racial slur, unless it becomes a racial slur in some people’s minds because it has fallen out of fashion. Actually, your analysis of this bit is somewhat incorrect. The negative aspect of “colored” is exactly what Poitier is trying to convey – he’s saying that he thinks of himself as simply and fully a man while his father, who’s older and has been conditioned by society to think take a back seat, thinks of himself as something less than fully a man – “a colored man.” I’d be interested to know how you saw this any way other than that. I’m not sure that it was a racial slur but it’s fairly slathered with negativity, even for a son talking to his father. Re: Lindsey Lohan, as an avowed supporter of Obama, perhaps she was simply unthinking, confused between “person of color” and “colored person,” or drunk. But not racist, I don’t think. > [@fusoya](#): > > And for the record - black, colored and AA have been used pretty much interchangably for as long as I’ve been around (born 1980 in CT). No they haven’t. ---
**Author:** ![oliversarmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/eb8c5e/32.png) [@oliversarmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oliversarmy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/110 "2008-11-15T02:04:48Z")
Now that I’ve heard the actual recording of what she said, I don’t know what she said. It was not understandable in the recording I heard. My initial posting on this was harsh for a reason, though. I’m 50 and I remember the signs at the laundromat, the movie theater, the water fountains. They all said the same things: “For coloreds,” “Coloreds only,” “No coloreds.” I guess the racists of the time thought they were being polite by not using the n-word. Although other posters seem to think it’s OK to use “colored,” for me it has a very negative connotation. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/111 "2008-11-15T02:41:55Z")
> [@5-4-Fighting](#): > > Actually, your analysis of this bit is somewhat incorrect. > > The negative aspect of “colored” is exactly what Poitier is trying to convey – he’s saying that he thinks of himself as simply and fully a man while his father, who’s older and has been conditioned by society to think take a back seat, thinks of himself as something less than fully a man – “a colored man.” > > I’d be interested to know how you saw this any way other than that. I’m not sure that it was a racial slur but it’s fairly slathered with negativity, even for a son talking to his father. I see what you mean. I was just trying to say that you could substitute, “negro man” or “black man” or “African American man” for “colored man” and the meaning would be the same in the context of the scene. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/112 "2008-11-15T03:05:10Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > My point is that it’s foolish to express outrage at the use of this term, given that American society can’t seem to settle on a suitably non-offensive term. Heck, on more than one occasion, I’ve seen people take offense at the term “black,” even though most people don’t seem to have trouble with it. This is just one of those situations where it’s best to let it go. I agree, I have made this same point on these boards several times. There is no racial term that some do not find offensive. I have one Black freind that hates being called “black” as she says she’s actually a nice mocha brown. As long as we have the NAACP, “colored” can’t be too bad. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2008, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/113 "2008-11-15T22:44:20Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > I see what you mean. I was just trying to say that you could substitute, “negro man” or “black man” or “African American man” for “colored man” and the meaning would be the same in the context of the scene. Yes and no. While blacks have historically (at least until Obama was elected - :p) been relegated to second class citizenship, his use of “colored” in that scene was exactly right for its time. Additionally, the use of Black and African-American were used later as a signal of empowerment and black pride, so not exactly the same. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/114 "2008-11-16T02:54:30Z")
After reading about [Earl Butz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Butz)’s infamous comment in which “colored” was one of the _least_ offensive parts, I must say that there are a lot worse things that Lohan could have said. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440/115 "2008-11-16T11:29:49Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Show me a member of the NAACP in this, or any, thread saying the terms just change so gosh-darned much that there’s no way to keep up, by golly! By [what???](http://www.byegolly.co.uk/) :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lohan-calls-obama-first-colored-president-wtf/472440.md?page=5)