On Oreos, the New Yorker and being PC
It's an interesting tangle people are finding themselves in with Barack Obama being the Democratic nominee for president ... all of a sudden, either the underlying racism of people and institutions is revealed, or we've all become way too sensitive.
I'll be the judge:
John McLaughlin, host of a usually great PBS political talk show, calls Obama an Oreo — black on the outside, white on the inside.
While I don't personally believe McLaughlin is a racist, he may just be an idiot. Comparing blacl people to inanimate objects, no matter what the point, is generally the wrong thing to do.
The New Yorker publishes a magazine cover featuring Obama dressed as Osama — as if we need any more confusion on this front — and makes Michelle Obama out to be a revolutionary, complete with an AK47 and gun belts.
While it's easy to say the cover of the magazine is inappropriate, it's clearly satire. It rattled some cages, and it pissed some people off. That's just successful political commentary. The cover was meant to be a reflection of the misinformation and rumors being spread about the Obamas, and it was exactly that. If some readers can't tell the difference between this ironic potrayal and the reality of the Democratic nominee, then the New Yorker's point is well taken.
Some people are so taken with Obama, and his candidacy, that they feel mockery should be off limits. My feeling? Screw them if they can't take a joke. It will only be a matter of time before McCain is spoofed for some aspect of his candidacy, and I wonder if the legions of Obamaphiles will cry foul then? Not likely.
