Stephanopoulos: Obama seen as "Non-Threatening" by voters. Huh?

[MethuenProgressive]

On Stephanopoulos' ABC Sunday morning show, in a round table about fund-raising, he concluded with the observation that voters see Obama as non-threatening. WTF?
Is it just me, or does that sound code-wordy for 'he's not a Snoop-Dog kind of black guy, and whites like that kind of black'?
Maybe I listen too carefully?


edit added con to cluded
(can spell, can't type)

[TwilightGardener]

1. That is puzzling word to use to descibe a Senator and Prez candidate.

It begs the question: which of the other candidates are "threatening'? Uh...none. Why would he say this?

[jobycom]

3. Edwards is threatening

If you happened to be a corporation with no regard for your customers' safety, anyway. :)

[LostInAnomie]

4. I'd say that Hunter and Brownback are pretty damn threatening.

I would probably say that the intention was to say that Obama hasn't taken positions that are alarming to potential supporters, and that he's a very charismatic man that is appealing to democratic voters.

I doubt he was trying to say that he doesn't look like a black panther.

[w13rd0]

5. He says it...

...because it IS code, and not all that well veiled. While Barak could well be out next President, the primaries and the campaign itself demonstrate that this nation didn't leave slavery and its legacy all that far behind. Institutionalized racism and tribalism is still alive and thriving in this nation.

[MethuenProgressive]

8. I have to agree with you. w13

[warren pease]

23. Yup, it means that...

...Obama is a "tame" house Negro, rather than one of those wild, angry and dangerous field workers. Even without knowing the context of Stephanopolis' remarks, I can make an informed guess that the usual five-ton elephant of systemic racism was hiding behind the curtain, as was the stark terror many white adults experience when within 500 yards of young black men. Or, if the black guys are outnumbered, white terror shows up as bravado and belligerence, and usually features frequent use of the "N" word just so everybody's clear that the 1964 Civil Rights Act didn't change shit.

But since you can't come right out and say that kind of stuff on national TV, code is necessary to give a civilized gloss to "penetrating insights" that actually mean, "Yeah, he's a black guy, but he knows which fork to use and he won't try to screw your lovely daughter."

American mythology has it that racism is confined to low-life rednecks, republicans, religious nut cases and other dumb shits. The American reality is that racism is perhaps the most fundamental cultural "value" we have. I mean, look around. Nationally, we don't agree on very much. Culturally and politically, I probably have more in common with a Spaniard or a New Zealander than with an American from Houston or Tulsa.

But we do share a racist heritage, and race relations range from hostility to indifference; from violent confrontation to honest attempts to foster peace and mutual respect, and eliminate prejudice. But that's as good as it's likely to get. I can't imagine this country ever completely getting beyond race and racism, particularly when it's such a convenient and predictable wedge issue that aspiring GOP candidates can always use to whip their bigot constituencies into a frenzy of fraudulent patriotism.

It's been about 500 years since the first kidnapped black Africans were brought to America in chains. For the first 300+ years, they formed the backbone of the South's economy and enabled plantations to nearly eliminate the cost of labor -- still the wet dream of capitalist enterprises everywhere. During most of that 500 years, black men and women have been bought, sold, murdered, raped, maimed, flogged, crippled, imprisoned, executed, despised, dehumanized, stabbed, shot, impaled, eviscerated, strangled, bludgeoned, hanged -- and then drafted to fight the enemy du jour to protect the revenue streams of white American capitalists, among them the traitor and war criminal Prescott Bush.

And people wonder why African Americans are still pissed off.



wp

[w13rd0]

31. This is a discussion I've had with my son...

...and he, in turn, has had with some of his friends from school. I think that one of the fundamental driving forces behind the problems this nation has had in regard to the African American community is that EVERY other minority or ethnic group that came to this nation, free or forced, had a distinct language and/or vocabulary with which to communicate that the white european majority did not understand (and for the most part did not care to understand). Certainly it can be argued that the lack of a common language forced the sociological development of alternative methods of communication (music, folklore and artwork being some of the most commonly identified), but that was developed over time (and in turn exploited as well). That legacy of systematic dehumanization and division/isolation, of trying to turn people into chattel, didn't formally end until the civil rights movement, and in many ways, still continues to this day in more informal ways.

For instance, by a mainstream media that feels one lone person of color committing a crime is worth more airtime than a boardroom of criminals ruining the lives of hundreds of people. By a society that actually has to DEBATE whether calling a group of people "nappy headed hos" is in ANY way acceptable?

[jobycom]

2. I'd have to hear the full context

If the context had something to do with Obama being "non-threatening" in terms of other African-Americans, you have a point. But without knowing what led up to the statement, I couldn't say for sure. He could have meant in the context of the other candidates in the primary or the general--in which case it was an assinine statement, or he could have been still harping on that whole madrasa thing, meaing to say, for instance, that "The attempts to make him look like a terrorist won't work because people see him as non-threatening."

Dunno. :shrug: I haven't watched Stephenopoulas as a "journalist" enough to get a feel for him, but he seems very passive-aggressive to me, so maybe you're right.

[MethuenProgressive]

10. Like your sig: "Build up your candidate, don't tear down someone else's."

Well said.

[Beelzebud]

6. So I don't have to watch out for Obama at the ATM machine then?

/me pukes...

[gaspee]

14. You made me spill

My coffee. Thanks! (actually, thanks, really. I needed a good laugh.)

[ContraBass Black]

20. He's so clean and articulate that you might like to see him behind the counter.

[LisaL]

22. I still don't understand what is so bad about articulate.

I'd be happy if somebody called me articulate.

[ContraBass Black]

25. See here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=258&topic_id=4084&mesg_id=4084

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. what was the sarcastic "sci fi" spoof, with crazy ads in the middle,

with a black guy who had no rhythm, and ended up popular as a "nonthreatening" black singer?

[johnfunk]

19. Amazon Women on the Moon -- featuring Don "No Soul" Simmons!

Classic David Allen Grier.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

26. YES. thanks much! eye oh ewe.

as campy as it was, watching at in an insomniac zombie zoneout at 3am still makes me laugh. probably because it was so campy.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

9. That's one possible interpretation.

The other being that voters somehow view Hillary as "threatening." Which I suspect would be true of a lot of rightish white males.

[MethuenProgressive]

11. No vid of this part of today's show at abcnews.go.com ?

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/
If there is, I can't find it.

[undeterred]

12. HILLARY is threatening

Maybe she threatened Georgie when he worked in the White House and he's still scared.

[valerief]

13. Well, if he qualified it with "he won't start or support a stupid war so he's

non-threatening to the world" then that would make sense. Otherwise, it's the usual racist garbage.

[gaspee]

15. I agree

And he's trying to hide it as 'other people are so racist' armchair bullshit. Just like if he *did* call Hillary threatening, it would be the same old bullshit sexism.

[Venus Dog]

16. Yes, you read too much into everything

Pretty soon you'll be saying that Scooter and Timmy were trying to send secret messages by using crutches - SHEESH!:eyes:

[WinkyDink]

17. I think the OP is spot-on.

[johnfunk]

18. Snoop Dogg hates BillO and doesn't strike me as threatening -- now Cheney...

THAT is threatening.

[AndyTiedye]

21. Don't Need any Decoder Ring to Figure This One Out

[Perky]

24. Not Snoop...but not Al Sharpton either.

White SOutherners carry a burden of guilt about Slavery and Jom Crow and segregation. 90% realize how wrong it was. What they reject are people who continue to milk the issue (their perception) of blacks continuing to play victim of opression. White are all for atonement but not on somone ele's terms.

In therms Of Obama...he is someone they apperciate as ahving been the fullfillment of MLK's "I have a dream" Speech.

[Nia Zuri]

27. OF course : Black Males = threatening to many whites

[SoCalDem]

28. or Willie Horton..

:grr:

[Radical Activist]

29. Yeah, I'm not worried he's going to mug me in the alley like that Jesse Jackson guy.

:eyes:

[Poiuyt]

30. Here's how I feel Obama is non-threatening:

To me, he seems like the kind of politician that both Democrats and Republicans could embrace. He is certainly liberal, but there is something about him that seems to transcend party lines. I get a feeling of hope and unity from him. If I were a Republican, I would find him non-threatening for that reason.