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1. Patterico’s Pontifications » NYT Editorial Blog Unhinged Over McCain’s Obama Girls Gone Wild Ad — See’s Race Baiting Behind Picture of Any White Chick on 31 Jul 2008 at 8:51 pm

   […] Besides, it wasn’t the McCain campaign that raised the whole Obama/White Chick issue. It was Madtv’s Fear Mandingo Love: […]

Comments

1. Latoya Peterson wrote:

   We really need a boo chorus.

   Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 11:40 am ¶

2. John McCollum wrote:

   Ugh. The “Aren’t Asians Great?” and “Nice White Lady” sketches are actually ABOUT racism.

   Perhaps with some work the Obamandingo skit could have added to the conversation by mocking the black-man-as-predator myth. Unfortunately, the writers got lazy and ended up with a piece of offensive and unfunny crap. Sigh.

   Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 1:07 pm ¶

3. James wrote:

   That was simply disgusting. It’s sad that mainstream America enjoys such bizarre stereotypes to the point where they can be applied to anyone, no matter how professional or moral or upstanding, simply because of skin color and gender identification. I’m worse off as a person having seen that. Really, I feel ill

   On a less emotional note though, this type of sketch comedy hatespeech only reinforces some of the major electoral disadvantages the Democratic Party’s ‘08 frontrunners bring to a general election campaign. Call me cynical, but even though I support Senator Obama, I really wonder if his campaign can execute a winning electoral strategy that doesn’t need the people who find this trash funny to vote for him on a nationwide scale.

   Sometimes people laugh because something’s funny, sometimes they laugh because something speaks to their personal truths, even if those ‘truths’ are prejudiced in the extreme. In Tennessee, Harold Ford Jr. watched his senatorial ambitions disintegrate after the infamous ‘Harold, call me’ ad aired, and that ad was widely criticized for its anti-miscegenation slant. I don’t believe that people who respond to anti-miscegenation humor with laughter (instead of extreme anger and resentment) are confined to one political party, and I don’t think those people will help elect a Black male or White female President.

   Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani don’t endure public sex jokes in this fashion. This video was depraved.

   Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 2:49 pm ¶

4. Gregory A. Butler wrote:

   This is so racist it makes me want to puke.

   It tells us a LOT about what a large section of White America (including educated Blue State White Americans - like the Hollywood screen writers who put this abomination together) think about Black men

   In a presidential race where you have the likes of Rudy Giuliani (on his third marriage - wife # 1 was also his cousin - and he got with wife # 3 while he was still married to wife # 2 - and wife # 3 entered his life as mistress # 2) and Fred Dalton Thompson (who is married to a silicone enhanced woman young enough to be his daughter) it’s OBAMA who gets targeted as a sex fiend???

   Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 4:03 pm ¶

5. Ron wrote:

   I am suprised that SNL did not beat them to the punch. You can be sure that more will come.

   The liberal whites (Hollywood) are the ones who have perpetuated sexual stereotypes of black men and keep them alive. For all their enlightenment and refinement they can never overcome millenia of evolutionary feelings of insecurity.

   The insecurity of non-black men towards black men will always allow for incidents like this to continue to pander to white hysteria.

   Although Hillary and Obama were victims of this skit, Obama’s wife and Hillary’s husband should not have to deal with this mindless and depraved catering to base instincts.

   Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 4:44 pm ¶

6. mistersquid wrote:

   While the skit does reference a few stereotypes regarding black male sexuality (viz. exoticization and penis size), the skit hardly characterizes Obama as a sex fiend. In fact, he’s characterized more as a wiling sex object.

   The agency is in the character who represents Clinton, who expresses strong sexual desire for Obama with references to “jungle fever” and “Mandingo.”

   The skit depends upon the knowledge that interracial relationships, especially between blacks and whites, are to this day taboo. The reaction of commenters here reveals nothing so much as the internalized and largely unconscious racism of the commenters.

   Does the skit deploy racial stereotypes? Yes, but (I would argue) primarily to mock them. Interracial sexuality frequently depends on valuing (and sometimes fetishizing) specific racial characteristics. The MadTV skit recognizes that and brings up these issues in a humorous way, which some will find offensive.

   In any case, the video does not characterize Obama as a sex fiend but, rather, characterizes Clinton as one.

   Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 4:46 pm ¶

7. dnA wrote:

   I’m not gonna lie. This video made me feel absolutely violent.

   Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 4:47 pm ¶

8. Eric Daniels wrote:

   You people are shocked, that’s calling the kettle black ? This country believes in the worst sterotypes of Black Men as anti- social, violent, lazy, sexist, uncivilized and a few things I can’t even rememeber. I told you people (Carmen I will ease up on the sterotypes with respect to your policy) Most White and other Americans along with some dumb- ass brothas love the sterotype of the sexual mandingo and all the postive and negative images that go with it.

   I am beyond caring what some Hollywierd writer in L.A. thinks about whether are gay, st8, lesbian or whatever. Just spell my name right on the checks when I get paid, MAD T.V. or anyone else in elite -land. I still say get your station, studio, record company and do what John H. Johnson did instead of appealing to the decency of ’some’ white Amerikkkans.

   Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 5:45 pm ¶

9. dnA wrote:

   In any case, the video does not characterize Obama as a sex fiend but, rather, characterizes Clinton as one.

   Yes the depiction of Clinton as complete slut is in no way influenced by or reflective of Obama as a big dicked mandingo sex object.

   I’m sorry, I missed the part where that was progress.

   That skit doesn’t mock racial stereotypes, it deploys them for humor. If culture is an inside joke, the joke is on white women and black men.

   So who do you think is laughing?

   Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 6:49 pm ¶

10. Tariq Nelson wrote:

    This was very offensive. Anyone else notice at the end it said: “Directed by Heidi Klum and Seal” ?

    Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 7:26 pm ¶

11. Girlfriends wrote:

    Normally, I’m the first one into the Hollywood-liberals-are-subconciously racist pool. For example, I thought the movie Crash was a laughable piece of drivel that said nothing meaningful about race relations but a lot about the work even most so-called liberal white still have to do in educating themselves around these issues. The plaudits it received made me laugh.

    But I got to agree with mistersquid here. This clip — not funny, not original, insipid and incredibly lame — in no way portrays Obama as an overly sexualized mandingo. It’s about Clinton — and the fantasies of white women who IMAGINE black men as such. In the scheme of things, this is not worth getting upset about.

    Sometimes, we all need to take a deep breath.

    Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 8:13 pm ¶

12. merq wrote:

    Mistersquid:

    I love that. Funny how predictable responses like yours are.

    1. You very nicely deployed the “You talked about racism. That makes you a racist!”
    No, my friend. How many times do we need to explain to your kind that racism isn’t the same as a fart. He who smelt it wasn’t necessarily the one who dealt it.

    2. “Sure, they engaged in racial stereotypes… but only to mock them.”
    I didn’t see any mockery of the stereotypes.

    James said:

    It’s sad that mainstream America enjoys such bizarre stereotypes to the point where they can be applied to anyone, no matter how professional or moral or upstanding, simply because of skin color and gender identification.

    Crediting Seal and Heidi Klum as the video’s directors is the perfect illustration of this. The two pairs have NOTHING in common, except that they’re a black man and a white woman. (In the former case, they aren’t even a couple!!!)

    dnA:
    I’m with you there, man. Wanna smack someone.

    Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 9:21 pm ¶

13. Gingerous wrote:

    gee…it’s ok and funny to laugh at asian stereotypes–but don’t touch obama!

    Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 11:40 pm ¶

14. Ron wrote:

    Thus - it is all the same. I guess will never have any understanding. It is just a bad to say white women loose their senses when Mandigoized. The Japanese say once their women have sex with black men they loose all their inhibitions.

    This is the classic strategy of killing two birds with one stone. I could write a book about this skit alone. The abridged version is this: Hillary is nothing but uncontrollable white woman that threatens everything we worked (wink) for and Obama represents a threat to the status quo.

    My professor in college used to say: “We should let loose all the Mandigos on white women, and all our problems would be solved.”

    Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 12:11 am ¶

15. Orville wrote:

    I really believe in America there is a fear about Senator Obama. People are afraid they don’t like it that he’s becoming “too powerful”. I am not suggesting he’s going to win the Democratic Party nomination or anything. But the fear in some parts of America is that Senator Obama actually has a legitimate chance. And we all know what people do when they fear something they “lash out” in a number of ways. This Mad TV skit may appear like a harmless joke but its just another example of society’s fear of powerful blacks.

    Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 12:18 am ¶

16. Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:

    Gingerous, the “Aren’t Asians Great?” skit made fun of Gwen Stefani’s racism. That’s very different from this sketch, which instead of mocking stereotypes, simply revels in them.

    Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 8:36 am ¶

17. Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:

    Eric Daniels, I appreciate your easing up on the stereotypes, but could you also please stop using the word “Amerikkkans?”

    Suggesting that all citizens of a nation are KKK members is a hell of a generalization, and violates no. 7 of our comment moderation policy:

    7. Try not to speak in generalizations. Don’t attribute characteristics to entire ethnic or racial groups. Adding modifiers like “some” or talking specifically about your personal experiences help reduce the likelihood that you’re stereotyping entire communities.

    Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 8:39 am ¶

18. Lynn Gazis-Sax wrote:

    I’m not seeing mockery of the stereotype in this skit. The Blazing Saddles scene where the sheriff gets the Klan to lose their heads by asking where the white women are, that’s mockery. This one’s just showing the slutty white woman side of the stereotype coin (as opposed to the pure threatened white woman side of the coin).

    Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 11:21 am ¶

19. Nathan M. wrote:

    For those of you who claim it’s just about mocking Senator Clinton (even though it’s not): so bigotry against women (and girls) is acceptable then? The whole myth of black men and white women was to keep a choke hold on both groups by *white men*.

    Notice how even today (white male-run) society blames white women for the Jim Crow lynchings, totally bypassing the fact white men were the killers and that usually the “offense” justifying a lynching was a black man “disrespecting” a white man.

    Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 11:34 pm ¶

20. Anonymous wrote:

    Sigh.

    Echo chamber, much?

    I came to this site excited about the possibility of thoughtful, open-minded discussion about these issues. But like so many websites what this really is is a space where the few shout down anyone who perceives things differently and then smugly pat themselves on the back for “getting it.”

    No one is more self-righteous than the “enlightened.” Scary.

    As a black woman it never ceases to amaze me that the very people who proclaim themselves to be liberal, anti-racist, whatever are just as narrow-minded as anyone else.

    Here’s a question to ask yourself: when was the last time you REALLY listened to someone with a different take? When was the last time you changed your mind?

    Bye, ya’ll. I’m taking it off the old bookmark and moving on.

    Posted 12 Dec 2007 at 9:03 am ¶

21. Lynn Gazis-Sax wrote:

    “For those of you who claim it’s just about mocking Senator Clinton”

    Well, I think the thing is, it is mocking Senator Clinton, but she’s a pretty random target if you’re trying to make a point about white stereotypes. The “humor” of the skit, such as it is, is more about contrast with Clinton’s public image (in charge, not especially publically sexual, famously cuckolded) than about mocking anything she’s actually doing. So using Clinton as the fantasizing white woman makes it come off more as a random unfunny political put down of both Clinton and Obama than any kind of actual satire of the whole Mandingo thing.

    I suspect fictional characters like those in the “Nice White Lady” skit would actually work better if you wanted to mock the whole black-man-as-predator thing.

    Posted 12 Dec 2007 at 10:48 am ¶

22. Mr. Hapa wrote:

    I’m not so sure “Aren’t Asians Great?” was very effective. Judging about how the youtube commenters seem to revel and wholeheartedly believe the part of “they build a great wall but in their pants their kind of small” parallels the Obama sketch of how it affirms white people’s views of minorities and their place among the hierarchy, in particular the sexual one. I say this because Bobby Lee and the “penis” slander has reached a relative critical mass compared to his earlier role in the show in which it was from the reruns I’ve watched on Comedy Central went from being never seen to being the IT thing for him. It’s how he ended the Average Asian sketch where a woman laughs at his penis. It’s how he parades about with a tiny penlight in the flashlight sketch. It’s pretty much all the Tank sketches. He’s stated before in an interview how he ultimately doesn’t care about this image he’s creating because he has a “pretty white girlfriend.” And given his comment on how the Vietnamese are “Dirty Jungle Asians” in a spontaneous interview with Joe Rogan paints a picture of a very sad self hating man. A textbook sellout.

    I suspect that white man in a way, like attributing the mandingo to black men in part because they can crap and emasculate Asian men in turn. As long as they feel in the middle of the barrel, the “normal” one, they feel safe. I imagine they don’t even think it’s racism because to them it’s self-deprecating. “Hey we’re just boring ol white guys we’re not special like you big buck ghetto blacks and small weiner smarty pants Asians!”

    Disgusting.

    Posted 13 Dec 2007 at 9:38 pm ¶

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