There are several videos of this around the Interwebitubes with an assortment of images attached. This one is up on YouTube. A more inflammatory version can be found on AlterNet.
On March 19, 2007, David Ehrenstein of the LA Times wrote a column about Hollywood and politics. The headline of his column: “Obama, the ‘Magic Negro.'” Then on March 21, 2007 the Rush Limbaugh show aired a parody produced by Paul Shanklin, imitating the Rev. Al Sharpton singing, “Barack The Magic Negro.”
Rush is still on the air and Imus isn’t. How odd.
Rush has listeners who are nostalgic for the days of minstrel shows and “nigrahs who know their place”. His sponsors probably don’t give a damn.
Imus had a larger proportion of listeners who’ve made it to the 20th Century and beyond. I guess.
Not odd at all.
“Nappy-headed ho’s” is a misogynistic denigration of (likely black) women on a Rutgers athletic team.
“The Magic Negro” refers to an individual’s race, and a quality of that individual.
A member of Rutger’s teams is presumed to be an upstanding individual, and worthy of competition.
A politician, by contrast, is worthy of nothing in the United States. While I have deep respect for Obama, and little respect for Limbaugh, I have an even deeper respect for the US Constitutional First Amendment. Imum violated a public trust in broadcasting through his epithet; like him or not (I don’t), Limbaugh has done no such thing.
There is no oddness here, only your citation of the obvious, in error.
Negro was used by black scholars as a term meaning black as late as the 1970s. They did not consider it offensive to refer to blacks as negroes, but now people everywhere consider it a firing offense?
It’s not odd at all when you consider that Limbaugh works for a right wing consortium with no pretention to be unbiased, while Imus worked for an organization that is based on political neutrality.
If you find a program offensive, do what I do… grit your teeth and listen just for the commercials. Then contact the advertisers and tell them that you will explicitly avoid their products based on their choice of advertising on a specific program. Sometimes just one complaint is enough… I got a call once after I complained about advertising on Mike “the Jewish Nazi” Savage’s program, and the owner of the company was horrified that he had advertised on such a show… all he knew is that his add would air that afternoon, and he had never listened to the show himself. Needless to say he gave the radio station an earful, and became an activist against the show himself.
Of course, if you are mentally weak, low on IQ or easily manipulated you might start to agree with a’holes like Savage or Limbaugh, so my suggestion might backfire.
On a related item…. why is it that my mental image of Limbaugh is that of “Jabba the Hutt” of Star Wars?
#2 – Imus didn’t violate any public trust, he simply offended people by making fun of kids (technically they were adults, but people consider college students kids) . Sharpton/Jackson + “Think Of The Children” = Media Frenzy.
I like humor as much as the next guy, but this is pretty lame
Rush – the magic asshole!
I don’t like Rush Limbaugh. I think he’s an ass. Having said that, I get the joke. I don’t think the parody itself is funny, but I think the fact that he took a shot at Al Sharpton is hilarious. Al Sharpton is at least as big an ass as Limbaugh, and far more racist.
I think Peter, Paul and Mary should sue the pants off these guys.
No, not really.. but I do think someone should make one called McCain the golden throated white guy. See if that one goes down as easy.
#9 – rax,
Good point.
The blog post says there is a more inflammatory version?! I couldn’t listen to this one. Yecch!!
What happened? The neocons couldn’t find anything real to debate the man about so they did this?
More stupid human tricks, I guess.
This is offensive and small-minded. But it’s different than Imus, IMHO.
Obama is a public figure and in a position of power and that makes him “fair game” so to speak.
Also — I might add — making fun of the accent of a guy at a Chinese restaurant is, we’ll, just bullying.
Did the left consider Rush offensive and small-minded prior to this? Yes.
Therefore, this is a non-story, unless bemoaning the left’s inability to get any message out… compared to the right’s ability to get the most meaningless messages out… is of interest to you.
It is a send up of hypocrite and race baiter Sharpton, and pseudo-libs. Funny.
I think Peter, Paul and Mary should sue the pants off these guys.
1) The composer (and I don’t know who wrote ‘Puff” off the top of my head) could sue, but the performer(s) can’t.
2) The suit could only be about the music, I believe. MAD Magazine won a suit decades ago over their song parodies, but that covered only the fact that the lyrics could be “sung to the tune of”.
J/P=?
#14 This is a parody and the Supreme Court has ruled that a parody is protected under the Constitution no matter how distasteful.
I’ve said this again, and again… what IMUS said was ignorant and stupid, but if we fired people for being ignorant and stupid Rush Limbaugh would no longer be on the air.
#13 is the only one who seems to understand the kind of show that Rush does. This is not a joke demeaning Barack or even black people for that matter, what it is making fun of is the Democratic left and their continued use of black people as political ping-pong ball. What Rush is doing is shining a light on what many people on the right perceive (correctly in my opinion) is the unspoken hypocritical racism inherent on the Left.
Here you had the LA times, not exactly a right wing rag, with a piece entitled “Obama, the ‘Magic Negro” and no one batted an eye… Rush does a parody making fun of it and he is considered a racist?
C’mon people….
Well, whomever posted this shameful video on youtube is just as foolish as anyone who would try to defend the use of the word negro. negro should be used to describe a color of paint. Thats it. We as a society have moved well beyond this particular word. Anyone who uses it in everyday conversation has certainly used it to describe someone negatively as this video so clearly demonstrates my point. Oh, as a white middle aged conservative type who is one of Senator Obamas constituents, If he makes it past the primaries, I’ll vote for him. He couldn’t possibly be any worse than the current dunderhead in the white house. Sadly, I voted for Bush twice! Just goes to show you that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I refuse to get worked up by any name that anyone calls those of African descent until such time as they all agree on what they want to be called and put out a memo.
I’m 45 years old and during that time blacks that I know have referred to themselves and expected others to refer to them as.. .
Negro
Black
Afro-American
African-American
Colored
People of Color
and of course the N word that I can’t use but they are free to.
The only reason the NAACP hasn’t changed the name of there organization is that they could never afford buy new stationary every time it changed.
#19 Ever hear of an organization called United Negro College Fund?
http://www.uncf.org/
Doesn’t seem as if anyone there is ashamed of the word, or feels foolish. Remember, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
This story just proves that Rush is Right! He predicted that he’d be tarred and feathered, and the LA Times would get a pass.
Thanks Uncle Dave for making his point for him.
I don’t have time to listen or watch everything on the radio or web, my point is that this was used in a negative way to belittle a person who is a success. Just because he doesn’t act “black” doesn’t mean anything. This was a negative and stereotypical political dirty trick. The Republican party has many other things they can use to go after a candidate, but drug addicted radio talk show hosts with no credibility go after the person, not the issues. Seems to me they like it when its not them being drug through the mud. When its their turn, they think that they can get by with some small apology and everything will be ok. Well, it isn’t ok. Fools like Imus, Stern and Rush should be tuned out and forgotten. That is, unless you enjoy listening to hateful, shallow people using shallow logic and gullible people willing to line their pockets with their hard earned dollars!
Wait, it’s the same thing to call a team of women “nappy headed hos” as it is to mock the people who are treating an unproven and unexperienced politician as the magical cure for all political ills?
Really? Those two things are exactly the same?
Huh? I don’t get it? Does he have magical powers or what? Can he fly?
#19 When did the word “negro” become off-limits to white people? Is there a website or something that I can check on for updates for words that white people aren’t allowed to use? Hmmmm. “Words” that “white people” can’t use…. that sounds almost as racist as “Bathrooms” that “black people” can’t use.
#23 I like how you don’t understand who the parody was mocking. But I really like how you chastise Limbaugh for making a personal attack, while in the same sentence making a personal attack on Limbaugh. It’s my opinion that YOU should be tuned out and forgotten.
Rush might be racist, I don’t know. But since we all know he’s a first rate jackass, do we really care what he thinks or says? Yeah, not so much.
There are some good responses that explain why the two situations are very different really well. I am bewildered about how anyone would think a verbal assualt on late adolescent girls and a mockery of a major public figure are equivalent. Even the law of slander and defamation sees the difference.
I think the more interest question is: Why are people like Uncle Dave still defending Imus? Why do they think they are losing something of value if a multimillionaire is not allowed to verbally abuse innocent young women to his heart’s extent? Uncle Dave, if you read this comment , I would really appreciate an answer directly from you.
Well, thats about the worst parody I have ever heard. But, it’s just that….a parody of Al Sharpton, and to some extent of the Left in general.
I also wonder when the word negro became a nasty word.
And, stop the presses here…..I agree with Podesta(shaking my head in disbelief at that)….there is no comparison of what Imus did and this so called parody.
The fact that a member in good standing of the liberal elite left wrote the original story that this so called parody came from, just goes to show what most people with a brain have known for 30 years, that the Left has plenty of racists of it’s own.
“…just goes to show what most people with a brain have known for 30 years, that the Left has plenty of racists of it’s own.”
#28 hits it right on the head. The racism is not exposed as such though. If the original column from the LA Times had been written by a Buckley or Medved or Stossel, they would have been summarily excoriated by the media.
Well this is once again Dvorak running his mouth off. He knows why Rush wont be touched. Rush Reports to no one. The Rush Limbaugh show is owned and produced and record by the EIB network…. Who owns the EIB Network well none other than Rush Limbaugh.
Also since Rush is on Clearchannel and Cox , and ABC radio and other indapendents. So it would take alot to down Rush. Dvorak knows this he is just leaving flame bait open like to do what he does best get people alll huffy puffy. While I am completely against rush playing that stupid parody Stupid blog post like this is not needed either
30. Rob- Did Dvorak post something here? Where, I dont see it. Please tell me so I can read it, I too want to get all Huffy Puffy.