# Rush Limbaugh calling Obama a "Halfrican American." WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 26, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513 "2007-01-26T02:20:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/1 "2007-01-26T02:20:05Z")
From [mediamatters](http://mediamatters.org/items/200701240010) > [@](#): > > On the January 24 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Rush Limbaugh referred to Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and actress Halle Berry as “Halfrican American[s],” stating that “Barack Obama has picked up another endorsement: Halfrican American actress Halle Berry.” Limbaugh then said: " ‘As a Halfrican American, I am honored to have Ms. Berry’s support, as well as the support of other Halfrican Americans,’ Obama said." Limbaugh then conceded that Obama “didn’t say it.” What the hell was Rush’s point with this? What did he THINK he meant? Did he have an explanation for his use of this oh-so-clever play on words? Is there some kind of legitimate political point buried in there somewhere? If this isn’t just naked race-baiting, what IS it? And why bring Halle Berry into it? ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/2 "2007-01-26T02:33:38Z")
I’m hoping that it’s the last guffaw/horrified gasp of misogenism. Stupid puns for Tiny minds. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/3 "2007-01-26T02:36:28Z")
**Demagogue Fear Mongerer Limbaugh Panders to Dittoheads!** Film at eleven. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/4 "2007-01-26T02:36:34Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] What the hell was Rush’s point with this? [/QUOTE] Ever read Allure, or Jane magazines? They routinely tip their readers on such things as the coming polkadot and miniskirt craze. Rush is just doing the same for _his_ demographic. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/5 "2007-01-26T02:38:21Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] **Demagogue Fear Mongerer Limbaugh Panders to Dittoheads!** Film at eleven. [/QUOTE] Film of his radio show? That doesn’t sound very interesting. I think I’ll pass. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/6 "2007-01-26T02:38:31Z")
I think “Halfrican American” is used to describe the offspring of biracial parents. No particular reason to use it aside from appealing to your audience, so yeah it’s race baiting. Actually it’s worse than race baiting, because it makes fun of her parents as well. Equivalent to “you’re ugly and yo mamma dresses you funny”. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/7 "2007-01-26T02:42:04Z")
[QUOTE=Patty O’Furniture] I think “Halfrican American” is used to describe the offspring of biracial parents. No particular reason to use it aside from appealing to your audience, so yeah it’s race baiting. Actually it’s worse than race baiting, because it makes fun of her parents as well. Equivalent to “you’re ugly and yo mamma dresses you funny”. [/QUOTE] I understood that it was a crack at them being biracial, I just don’t understand WHY he would tak a crack at them being biracial. I didn’t think Rush was dumb enough to be OPENLY racist, but I can’t find any other way to take this. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/8 "2007-01-26T02:46:10Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] I understood that it was a crack at them being biracial, I just don’t understand WHY he would tak a crack at them being biracial. I didn’t think Rush was dumb enough to be OPENLY racist, but I can’t find any other way to take this. [/QUOTE] My take is that is just trying to get the phrase out there. He’s a media whore, but his listeners are unlikely to abandon him if he simply reinforces the stereotypes they hold. He doesn’t give a rat’s ass if if the ‘libruls’ call him a racist. It would be more like a badge of honor. (Edit) Didn’t he popularize “feminazis,” and “environmemtal cases?” Same same. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/9 "2007-01-26T02:47:07Z")
In political terms, I suppose he’s trying to undermine any claim that might be made for Obama as a “black” candidate representing the African-American community – practically all of whom are of mixed race anyway, however dark their skin. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/10 "2007-01-26T02:47:32Z")
Sure, but whose fault is it that he couldn’t just flat out call them ‘niggers’? The PC Liberals. I see that you place no blame at THEIR feet in your rant. Hypocrite! -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/11 "2007-01-26T02:49:47Z")
[QUOTE=Merijeek] Sure, but whose fault is it that he couldn’t just flat out call them ‘niggers’? The PC Liberals. I see that you place no blame at THEIR feet in your rant. Hypocrite! -Joe [/QUOTE] [Not in Brazoria, Texas, he can’t.](http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2822656&page=1) ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/12 "2007-01-26T02:52:08Z")
Are you sure he wasn’t joking? I think the end was merely the pun itself. ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/13 "2007-01-26T03:02:55Z")
It’s cheering to note that despite three marriages Rush Limbaugh has never reproduced. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/14 "2007-01-26T03:05:30Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] In political terms, I suppose he’s trying to undermine any claim that might be made for Obama as a “black” candidate representing the African-American community – practically all of whom are of mixed race anyway, however dark their skin. [/QUOTE] Is that a road he really wants to go down? Demanding that people prove their “black” credentials before they’re allowed to identify as black? Does Rush think Obama should identify as white? Obama is, for all intents and purposes, a Black American. He clearly self-identifies and thinks of himself as “black.” His wife is black, his kids are black, he belongs to a black church and feels at home in the black community. Perhaps even more importantly, he’s spent his life in a country which is going to _perceive_ him as “black” even regardless of his own self-perception. Rush can’t be sincere with that angle, and it wouldn’t matter to his audience anyway. No matter what angle you look at this from, it’s still amazingly offensive, pointless and unavoidably racist in how it sounds. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/15 "2007-01-26T03:21:07Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Rush can’t be sincere with that angle, and it wouldn’t matter to his audience anyway. No matter what angle you look at this from, it’s still amazingly offensive, pointless and unavoidably racist in how it sounds. [/QUOTE] Umm…yeah. This was the “Rush Limbaugh Right-Wing Hate Show”…not NPR, right? -Jod ---
**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:** [January 26, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/16 "2007-01-26T03:28:54Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Is that a road he really wants to go down? Demanding that people prove their “black” credentials before they’re allowed to identify as black? Does Rush think Obama should identify as white? [/QUOTE] I don’t think he was going for anything profound. Limbaugh tends to go for the cheap laugh, and he was just making the joke that if a black person is an “African-American”, somebody who’s half black is a “Halfrican-American”. So, when he heard that a biracial celebrity was endorsing a biracial politician, he figured he’d be cute. In other words, what **Pizzabrat** said. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/17 "2007-01-26T03:38:35Z")
That’s most likely it. No shot too cheap. But I also pick up overtones of calling “phony”, as though they were pretending to be black in order to reap the cornucopia of benefits available, but they weren’t “really” black, just “half-rican American”. I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something very distinctive about Africans that black Americans just don’t have. (Forgive the phraseology, this is awkward territory). If Obama stood with a group of black Americans about the same height, skin tone, etc., he would stand out, he looks more “African”. I freely accept that is my impression, and may not be commonly held. And if it need be said, no disrespect to any carbon-based life forms, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/18 "2007-01-26T04:12:34Z")
It could be worse. He could have sung the Cher song “Half Breed.” Otherwise, I think it is a reprehensible mix of race bating and an attempt to diminish the legitimacy of Obama’s racial identiy, wrapped up in a pathetic attempt to justify it as weak humor. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/19 "2007-01-26T04:24:22Z")
[QUOTE=Billdo] It could be worse. He could have sung the Cher song “Half Breed.” Otherwise, I think it is a reprehensible mix of race bating and an attempt to diminish the legitimacy of Obama’s racial identiy, wrapped up in a pathetic attempt to justify it as weak humor. [/QUOTE] I think you just nailed it. It has enough of a resemblance to a “joke” to put a bikini on the race-baiting but I think the real intent is both to try to undermine Obama’s “black” credentials and (on an even more insidious level) get the subliminal message out to the true troglodytes in the audience that his father had sex with a white woman. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513/20 "2007-01-26T04:31:41Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something very distinctive about Africans that black Americans just don’t have. (Forgive the phraseology, this is awkward territory). If Obama stood with a group of black Americans about the same height, skin tone, etc., he would stand out, he looks more “African”. [/QUOTE] No – what distinguishes Obama from most African-Americans is not that he is more African than they, but that he is culturally more white than anything else, having been raised mostly by his mother. And his ancestors were not American slaves. So he’s not really part of the “African-American community” by birth. OTOH, he has married into that family and embraced it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rush-limbaugh-calling-obama-a-halfrican-american-wtf/389513.md?page=2)