Rush Limbaugh-ful

So I listened to this piece of comedic brilliance that Rush Limbaugh aired recently. It's a song entitled "Barack the Magic Negro," to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon." (Ironic that Limbaugh, with his boat-load of drug abuse issues, is parodying a song that makes drug references, no?) It was, shockingly, not funny. The expression, "Magic Negro," was invoked first by an LA Times editorial about the role that Barack Obama plays for the guilty white conscience--that of the non-threatening, asexual black man that assuages white guilt about racial injustice.

At this point, nothing Rush says on air or chooses to broadcast on his show really shocks me. And there's not much to be gleaned from criticizing the song. More interesting to me is the LA Times editorial itself. Namely, the fact that after nearly a full column of describing the phenomenon of the "Magic Negro" in the modern American imagination, the writer describes how Obama fits the same role in this way:

Obama's fame right now has little to do with his political record or what he's written in his two (count 'em) books, or even what he's actually said in those stem-winders. It's the way he's said it that counts the most. It's his manner, which, as presidential hopeful Sen. Joe Biden ham-fistedly reminded us, is "articulate." His tone is always genial, his voice warm and unthreatening, and he hasn't called his opponents names (despite being baited by the media).

So Obama is magical because he's "articulate," "genial," and has refused to call his opponents names even in the face of baiting by the media. Two paragraphs earlier, the writer also pointed out how little real criticism Obama had gotten, other than his lack of racial genuineness. Apparently, the writer is taking the lack of criticism to mean that there's a lack of desire to criticize him--not that there's a lack of actual stuff to criticize him about! This move to me seems really dangerous. Can't Obama just be a really good guy without that being evidence of his being a pawn to the liberal guilt of white America?

Do I need a non-threatening black figure to assuage my guilt over slavery? Mostly I want someone like Obama, who could fuel a real grassroots political movement, to push for national health care, public funding of campaigns, environmental regulations, and end to the War in Iraq. I think back to Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic convention. What I remember is being blown away by the strength of his ideals and the power of his rhetoric. Not the fact that I'd finally found the solution to my gnawing racial guilt. Obama being president will do nothing to make up for slavery, segregation and ongoing racial prejudice. He will solve a lot of problems, but no one and nothing can make those wrongs of history right.


In other news, I saw the movie Brick last night. It was great--the writing reminded me of a cross between a less-profane David Mamet and a more literate Dashiell Hammett. Funny that those names rhyme. It has a lot in common, I thought, with David Lynch's willingness to look at the underbelly of wealthy suburbs, as in Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet.