Here's Rush Limbaugh's "Barack the Magic Negro" performance from Crooks and Liars. A couple of comments.
THE RACISM LINE. Part of what Limbaugh is doing is trying to find the "racism line" in relation to the candidacy of Barack Obama.
On one side of the "racism line" is racism that can be interpreted as satire or humor--in other words as within the bounds of morality and political correctness. That's how Limbaugh and his followers hope "Barack the Magic Negro" will be interpreted. That's why they emphasize the "Sharpton rant" and the fact that the whole idea was taken from an LA Times op-ed rather than being their own expresion of racist sentiments.
On the other side is racism interpreted as being racist, vicious, bigoted, and otherwise immoral--the kind of racism that can make you a former media personality like Don Imus or Jimmy the Greek.
The problem for Limbaugh is that the line seems to be shifting in such a way that there is much less room for politically correct racism from the right-wing than there used to be. To me, this is a sign that the country is becoming less tolerant of the right rather than an indication of declining racism.
Still not good news for Limbaugh though.
THE GOP RACISM DEFICIT. Somewhat of a surprise here is that Republican candidates are having such a hard time defining a politics of race for the 2008 election. Rudy Giuliani is the only Republican candidate who's put out a racial narrative on how his ability to control blacks (and black crime) in NYC is evidence that he can control the terrorism from the (non-white) Arab world. But Giuliani is flagging and the other Republican candidates look like they're not going to pick up the banner of racial politics. In other words, Limbaugh is somewhat alone among major Republican figures in flying the banner of white racism.
LIMBAUGH'S WEENIE-BOY CIGAR. The Crooks and Liar picture of Limbaugh with a huge cigar in his mouth is vintage Limbaugh stuff. Only a super weenie-boy like Limbaugh would advertise himself sucking on such an obvious penis substitute. Guys like Limbaugh are hyper-masculine precisely in proportion to their inability actually to deal with women.
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5 comments:
http://www.brynmawr.edu/hart/Syllabi/levine/HART%20350%202006/192120Freud20with20cigar.jfif
http://www.nndb.com/people/118/000023049/fidel-castro-sm.jpg
http://www.comune.milano.it/webcity/comunicati.nsf/d68aa3e55927f9f7c1256c4500573452/9493dab9f59ed31fc1256f960057359d/$FILE/Ernesto%20Guevara.jpg
Best for last
http://www.newscopy.org/images/cigarman2.jpg
I take it that these are pictures of Fidel and Che with cigars. Are you tryin to say that Limbaugh is a communist?
But Giuliani is flagging and the other Republican candidates look like they're not going to pick up the banner of racial politics.
Take a look at some of Mitt Romney's comments on Muslims and you might change your mind.
I probably should have said "anti-black racial politics" instead. Of course, there are anti-Muslim, anti-Hispanic, and anti-gay boomlets among the Republicans and they can all be considered "racist" in a way. None of them seems to be catching on with the political urgency that anti-black racism used to have.
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