“Have the last 64 days been a relatively colorblind time?
by Guest Contributor Tami, originally published at What Tami Said
What, Ann Compton? This reminds me of all those times that I have met someone who wants to appear all egalitarian and unbiased and unfazed by my black self, but then reaches to find random “black” topics to discuss with me, clearly illustrating that my race is top of mind. (My favorite such conversation, at a work dinner eons ago: “Hey, have you seen that new show ‘24?’ Yeah, they have a black president on there. I thought that was really interesting…that they have a black president.” Okay…)
Ann Compton’s question seemed the equivalent to one of those eye-rolling conversations. (You can tell the Prez thinks so, too. Just look at his face as she’s asking it.) When every citizen is talking about the economy, wondering if they can keep their homes, wondering if they will keep their jobs, wondering if they can send the kids to college, wondering if they can retire, Compton stands before POTUS and all the world and basically says, “You’re black…and the president. Yeah, I think that’s really interesting.”
Worse than the subject matter of the question is the fact that it was vague and unanswerable. How can President Obama know how other world leaders perceive him? And, is it me, or was there an assumption in Compton’s question that other world leaders are not “of color.”
Ann Compton, Chuck Todd, Ed Henry–the ineptitude of the corp at last night’s presser was maddening and Obama’s deft and intelligent handling of the event made participating journalists look even more deficient in comparison. Sweet fancy Moses! Having a smartypants president sure highlights the failures of the modern Fourth Estate.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
CVT wrote:
I wish I could have heard what he WANTED to say in response . . . That question made no sense, whatsoever.
The situation there (and the “24″ one referenced) remind me of a time when I was talking to this woman, and she kept make all these references to Hawaii and how “Hawaiians do like to do -blank” and “I’ve heard that, in Hawaii . .. ” Obviously, nothing we were talking about or doing had ANYTHING to do with Hawaii whatsoever.
But, since she didn’t want to be perceived as “rude” by just flat asking me my background, she tried to “tactfully” get me to say, “Oh, really? That’s amazing – and what a coincidence, because I happen to be Hawaiian!!!”
Instead, I just said, “Oh?” And moved on.
(I’m not Hawaiian, by the way)
Posted 02 Apr 2009 at 9:51 am ¶
Baiskeli wrote:
Yeah, I nominate her question for ‘Dumbest question of the day’.
I mean, seriously! What world do these people live in.
Posted 02 Apr 2009 at 10:11 am ¶
A.D. Nix wrote:
This is a patient man.
Posted 02 Apr 2009 at 11:06 am ¶
Kandi wrote:
You can tell he’s heard this type of *question* before. ::rolling eyes::
Posted 02 Apr 2009 at 11:12 am ¶
Lola wrote:
I love those “I’ve never spoken to a non-white person before so I don’t know how to act” type of questions. My personal favorites are “do you like basketball?” and “do you listen to rap music?”.
Posted 02 Apr 2009 at 11:48 am ¶
Amused0472 wrote:
Sounds like she was trying to rent a negro. See here: http://www.rent-a-negro.com/
Posted 02 Apr 2009 at 11:56 am ¶
Paz wrote:
I liked his answer. “That lasted about a day.”
I think one part of her question, how do you think other world leaders perceive you as a black man, is an interesting question, since the US is generally thought of as a symbol of white North American neocolonialism and here a historically enslaved and oppressed minority has risen to be its leader…but has your administration been so far colorblind? Seriously?
Posted 02 Apr 2009 at 1:13 pm ¶
PPR_Scribe wrote:
I thought it was kind of funny that in all those words she used she couldn’t seem to bring herself to say the word “Black.”
I wish I could have heard what he WANTED to say in response
CVT, this sounds like the golden nugget for a comedy skit. You should call SNL. I’m thinking something along the lines of Garrett Morris’s “translation” of the news program…
Posted 02 Apr 2009 at 2:16 pm ¶
Colin B wrote:
Implicit to me was not that other countries don’t have leaders of color, but that “developed” countries’ leaders, or ACTUAL “world leaders”, the leaders of nations that “matter” are white.
It was basically, to my ears, like hearing, “Lula da Silva, pfft. Hu Jintao, please. Taro Aso, come on. Kgalema Motlanthe, get out of here. How did Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy react?”
Posted 02 Apr 2009 at 2:19 pm ¶
brownstocking wrote:
It’s too bad print media is dying considering the talking heads who think they’re journalists have a captive audience to display the inanity.
I have GOT to learn to not roll my eyes at comments like these. A coworker just used “articulate” referring to a prominent Black woman, and I felt my face jerk a little. I try, but the insults register.
Posted 02 Apr 2009 at 4:09 pm ¶
Paz wrote:
@Colin B — How is it implicit that her phrase “world leaders” meant white leaders or leaders of developed nations?
Posted 02 Apr 2009 at 4:16 pm ¶
Embarcadero13 wrote:
Worst than the question was the interpretation of the response by news media. I saw Maddow (who I like) interpret the response as “Race doesn’t matter/ its not important. These other things matter instead.”
Personally, I interpreted the response as, “Yeah, for a second everyone was on the We Are the World tip, but the next day, I went back to being treated and discussed like a Black man. MEANWHILE, the world is falling apart, so let me focus on the things that I CAN fix (i.e. not you).”
But in Compton’s defense, there has been a lot of well-deserved criticism of the lack of Black media, so I’m guessing that she was trying to show her “versatility” as a journalist by, you know, talking about Black People stuff like, um, what its like to be Black.
On a tangenital note, where can I rant about the use of the term “class” to symbolize “whiteness”?– Not literal socioeconomic class, but the term itself: When Whites (fearing for their waning Privilege) can’t use the usual stereotypes for a person of color (”uneducated,” “urban,” “poor,” or otherwise “beneath” them), they attempt to undermine the power of POC with the elusive/subjective idea of “class,” i.e. “something you can’t buy.” Their logic is that no matter how much sophistication, education or financial stablitity that a POC has, POC will never be “equal” or better than the White speaker due to the inherited “class” of the latter.
I saw this come up an awful lot yesterday with the whole Queen thing.
Posted 02 Apr 2009 at 6:13 pm ¶
Reiter wrote:
Reminds me of all those times people ask me where I’m from, and I’d reply, “New York, born and raised.” And then they’d ask, “No, I mean, where are you REALLY from?” Sigh.
People are just stupid and can’t see past their nose sometimes. Obama has more patience and poise than I do.
Posted 03 Apr 2009 at 7:14 pm ¶
Kathi430 wrote:
Gawd, that’s embarrassing to watch. From her opener, I cringed.
*sigh*
Posted 05 Apr 2009 at 6:27 am ¶
elle the elephant wrote:
@Embarcadero13:
On the whole “class as a stand in for white” thing, that isn’t the only word that is a stand-in for white. How about All-American? Or Middle class? There is an entire list of words that white people use in place of black
Posted 05 Apr 2009 at 8:06 pm ¶
CDF wrote:
LOL!
I guess it’ll be a while before we get past these types of questions.
Posted 06 Apr 2009 at 12:48 pm ¶
Westerly wrote:
‘Hard-working’, ‘tax-paying’ and ‘mainstream’ are common euphemisms for white as well. And perhaps my two favourites that are always waved around with a vengeance in white colonial countries – ‘average [insert nationality]‘ and ‘ordinary’ [insert nationality]…
Anyway, that question is slap-worthy. Wish he had said: “Yeah sure – until now.”
@Colin B:
That’s EXACTLY how I read it too.
Posted 06 Apr 2009 at 9:51 pm ¶
Nick wrote:
From the UK perspective, I think Gordon Brown may have a man-crush on Barack Obama. Every photo of the two of them has Gordon smiling shyly at him.
Of course, this could relate to the special relationship that Britain believes it has with the United States. We may have lost the empire, but we’re still BFF with America!
Posted 07 Apr 2009 at 3:15 pm ¶