Obama the 'Magic Negro'

The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man.

By David Ehrenstein
Los Angeles Times

AS EVERY CARBON-BASED life form on this planet surely knows, Barack Obama, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois, is running for president. Since making his announcement, there has been no end of commentary about him in all quarters — musing over his charisma and the prospect he offers of being the first African American to be elected to the White House.

But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro."

The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia.

He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest.

As might be expected, this figure is chiefly cinematic — embodied by such noted performers as Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Smith and, most recently, Don Cheadle. And that's not to mention a certain basketball player whose very nickname is "Magic."

Poitier really poured on the "magic" in "Lilies of the Field" (for which he won a best actor Oscar) and "To Sir, With Love" (which, along with "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," made him a No. 1 box-office attraction). In these films, Poitier triumphs through yeoman service to his white benefactors. "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" is particularly striking in this regard, as it posits miscegenation without evoking sex. (Talk about magic!)

The same can't quite be said of Freeman in "Driving Miss Daisy," "Seven" and the seemingly endless series of films in which he plays ersatz paterfamilias to a white woman bedeviled by a serial killer. But at least he survives, unlike Crothers in "The Shining," in which psychic premonitions inspire him to rescue a white family he barely knows and get killed for his trouble. This heart-tug trope is parodied in Gus Van Sant's "Elephant." The film's sole black student at a Columbine-like high school arrives in the midst of a slaughter, helps a girl escape and is immediately gunned down. See what helping the white man gets you?

And what does the white man get out of the bargain? That's a question asked by John Guare in "Six Degrees of Separation," his brilliant retelling of the true saga of David Hampton — a young, personable gay con man who in the 1980s passed himself off as the son of none other than the real Sidney Poitier. Though he started small, using the ruse to get into Studio 54, Hampton discovered that countless gullible, well-heeled New Yorkers, vulnerable to the Magic Negro myth, were only too eager to believe in his baroque fantasy. (One of the few who wasn't fooled was Andy Warhol, who was astonished his underlings believed Hampton's whoppers. Clearly Warhol had no need for the accouterment of interracial "goodwill.")

But the same can't be said of most white Americans, whose desire for a noble, healing Negro hasn't faded. That's where Obama comes in: as Poitier's "real" fake son.

Read more

Comments

[asdad]

翻译公司
标签
碳带
标签打印软件
数据采集器
条码扫描器
条码打印机
条码检测仪
录音电话
录音系统
聚羧酸盐减水剂
聚羧酸
聚羧酸高效减水剂
猎头公司
连接器
高压熔断器
船型开关
职务犯罪
防静电地板
进销存软件
进销存
erp软件
生产管理软件
非油品
中石化
油烟净化器
风柜

司法考试
司法考试/国家司法考试
韩国留学

鱼鳞病
康明斯
防静电地板
传奇私服
气枪
仿真枪
防窜货
无负压
防雷
防雷器
猎头
猎头顾问
广州猎头
上海猎头
北京猎头
猎头公司
发电机
发电机组
发电机出租
发电设备
发电机租赁
租赁发电机
出租发电机
厨房设备
空气过滤器
北京婚庆
北京婚庆公司
拆除
拆除公司
建筑物拆除
中央空调
家用中央空调
格力中央空调

按摩椅
东方神
增高鞋
隐形增高鞋
如烟
紫环
颈椎治疗仪
疯狂甩脂机
瘦身
甩脂机
减肥
锅王
大长今
成人用品
炒股软件
炒股
股票
利多方舟
利多方舟软件
操盘手
操盘手软件
夏新
夏新股票王
金立语音王
金立
待机王
清洁机器人
背背佳
血糖仪
丰胸

山东助听器信息网
上海助听器网
北京助听器网
助听器
贵州助听器信息港
名品助听器（南京）直销店
广西助听器验配网
杭州助听器验配中心
广东助听器总汇
中国助听器与聋康复网
天津助听器之家
中国助听器大全网
中国助听器价格查询网
丹麦助听器上海验配中心
上海助听器在线
上海助听器大世界
上海助听器服务网
宁夏助听器网
甘肃助听器直销网
北京崇文门助听器验配中心
中国助听器直销网
全国聋儿助听器展示中心
中国聋儿助听器直销网
广东助听器之窗
内蒙古助听器验配网
聋儿家长助听器交流网
国际品牌助听器（北京）直销中心
助听器博客群
中国助听器频道网
名品助听器（南京）直销店
海南助听器直销网
江苏助听器特价网

瑜伽
北京瑜伽
瑜伽教练培训
肚皮舞
肚皮舞培训
职业装
快速熔断器
法语
西服
西装
按钮开关
微动开关
钥匙开关
润滑油
3C代理
强制认证
新开传奇私服
日光温室
节水
rohs认证
最新传奇私服
新开传奇私服
跑步机

汽车进口
法语培训
婚纱摄影
最新传奇私服
海参
紫外线消毒器|搪瓷水箱
网站优化|google优化|google推广|google排名
冬虫夏草
生态餐厅

婷美|婷美内衣
按摩椅
成人用品
血糖仪
血压计
减肥|瘦身
丽立美
足浴盆
高佰增高鞋
气血循环机
背背佳
纤诗婷
矫形内衣
如烟
紫环
颈椎治疗仪
血压计
血糖仪
爵士纯烟
婷美锁脂定型衣
婷美锁脂定型内衣
喜来健
健尔马鼻炎仪
眼保姆
钻石炉
正大不老
东方神按摩椅
oe冷光子嫩肤仪
可丽儿
迪斯尼魔法书
旋转开关
低压熔断器
熔断器
按钮
软件
管理软件
营销软件
财务软件
餐饮管理软件
酒店管理软件
投诉管理软件
车辆维修管理软件
车辆管理软件
学校管理软件
售后服务管理软件
文件管理软件
生产企业购销存管理软件
美容美发管理软件

[ChicagoChild]

Oh, no honey. You're talking about the OLD SCHOOL "safe" negro. That one NEVER acknowledged anything.

Now, the NEW SCHOOL "safe" negro does ackknowledge these things. EVERYBODY DOES. It's just that the NEW SCHOOL "safe" negro keeps it real for "right thinking" White folks by JUST SKIMMING the topic.

The NEW SCHOOL "safe" negro can hang out and make appearances at Black churches and organizations to show that he is still "hip" and one of us.

But YOU know who is paying the bills. And for that the NEW SCHOOL "safe" negro" can be all things to all people. As long as he can SKIM any topic and NEVER tells it like it REALLY is.

The point is the same as always: pretend that you don't know about any of that deeper "Black" stuff, do not appear interested in White women, and most of all----do not scare White people under ANY circumstance.

[Deocliciano Okssipin Vieira]

dna

You are right.

Omaba success would make many unhappy.

On the African-American it would burn the revolutionaries-chick flag.

[dna]

Here's the problem: Obama IS the result of interracial sexual congress. He can't exactly be "safe" in that area.

[rikyrah]

I am growing weary of the ' why do White people like Obama' stories.

How about the ' I don't like Obama because of his stance on issue w, x, y, z' stories?

I'd appreciate those stories more.

I get that White people like him. If they didn't, he wouldn't have a shot in hell at the Presidency.

Next.

[Kristasphere]

I think Mr. Ehrenstein is mixing his metaphors. A 'safe' negro and a 'magic' negro are 2 entirely different ideas, primarily because the 'magic' negro is a fictional stereotype on film, designed to dehumanize. This doesn't jibe with Obama because he is a flesh and blood human being, not a character.

A 'safe' negro is as one write put it "not THAT black" - meaning not angry, never brings up discrimination, civil rights, do not think Obama fits that bill either, or in my view, he would not run for president, lest he strike fear in the hearts of white voters.