Shelby Steele on Hillary Clinton: ‘In many ways, she’s blacker than Barack Obama is.’

by guest contributor David Mills, originally published at Undercover Black Man

That’s right, people. Shelby Steele, a black man of supposed high intellect, declared – on national TV! – that Hillary is “blacker than Barack Obama.”

He said it Friday afternoon on MSNBC’s “Hardball.” He was a guest alongside Michael Eric Dyson.

You know I got that audio. You know that, right? Click here. The clip begins with Prof. Dyson talking about the impact of Oprah Winfrey’s support of Sen. Obama.

(The complete 10-minute segment is downloadable as an iTunes podcast. Move quickly if you want it. It’ll be gone by Monday night.)

Coincidentally (or not??), none other than Andrew Young – former U.N. ambassador, former mayor of Atlanta – is quoted in an Associated Press story (hyped today on the Drudge Report) as saying that “Bill [Clinton] is every bit as black as Barack.”

Young added: “He’s probably gone with more black women than Barack.” His audience laughed, and Andy Young was quick to say, “I’m clowning.”

Now… if I was conspiracy-minded, I might say it’s no coincidence that, on this weekend when Oprah’s stump-speaking on Obama’s behalf is the biggest political news in the country… along come two prominent Negroes to publicly question Obama’s “blackness” (to the presumed benefit of Clinton).

Weird thing about that is, as Shelby Steele also said on “Hardball,” Obama’s strength is among white voters. So who thinks it’ll turn off them white voters to be reminded that Barack Obama doesn’t fit their stereotype of “blackness”?

Perhaps the string-pullers are thinking: “Well damn, if black voters get fired up behind Obama too, we’ve really got problems. Let’s at least nip that one in the bud.”

Or, heck, maybe it was all just some random shit that happened…

A clarification: Andrew Young evidently made his remarks back in September, though they just came to light. Anyway, let’s roll the videotape: