Over the past week, Barrack Obama has been confronted with a flurry of negative attention from both the media and the public that has been unprecedented up in this presidential race. The harsh criticism arose from some controversial and racially inflammatory remarks made by Obama's long-time pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The imbalance in the media's coverage of the two contenders for the Democratic nomination consistently has been in Obama's favor, as Clinton noted in a recent Saturday Night Live skit when she jokingly suggested that the media should ask Obama if he's comfortable and whether he would like a pillow. Although most media outlets have fielded criticism for their nearly unwavering support of Obama up until this point, SNL faces a different charge. The combination of Hillary's recent appearance on the program and Tina Fey's skit "Bitch is the New Black" have fueled criticism that SNL is supportive of Clinton's candidacy. In "Bitch is the New Black," Fey, a white woman, transforms "bitch" from a negative stereotype into a positive quality by asserting that bitches get things done. As a self-proclaimed bitch, she lends the skit an air of authority and credibility. The next week, SNL presented a skit in which former cast member, Tracy Morgan, a black man, defends Obama from accusations that he entertains racist sentiments just because of his associations with Rev. Wright. Morgan compares his frequenting of strip clubs as an example of how one should not be judged on the basis of what one's associates do. Seemingly to balance the coverage of the Democratic candidates, Morgan makes a parallel claim that an aspect of Obama's identity, his blackness, will allow him to get things done. Morgan's blackness lends the same impression of credibility to the "Black is the New President" skit that Fey's whiteness and bitchiness gives to "Bitch is the New Black." "Black is the New President" may appear to be supportive of Obama, but upon closer examination, it is just as pro-Hillary as "Bitch is the New Black."
Fey uses the positive side of a traditionally negative stereotype that has surrounded Clinton from the outset of her campaign to illustrate that she will be able to get things done in her presidency. In contrast, Morgan takes an undeniable fact, that Obama is black, and uses a negative stereotype typically associated with that characteristic, that black people, especially black men from large cities such as Chicago, are gangsters to prove the point that Obama will also get things done. "Black is the New President" reinforces stereotypes that Clinton has used throughout her campaign to attack Obama and in this way, reveals SNL's support for the Clinton campaign.
The tables have turned when it comes to media scrutiny of the candidates with Obama receiving much more negative publicity for his association with Rev. Wright, a person whom he has no control over, than Clinton is receiving for the racist remark made by a former member of her finance committee, Geraldine Ferraro, that Obama would not be in the position that he is in if he were not black, at a time when Clinton was responsible for her as her employer.
Race may have replaced gender as the primary preoccupation of the presidential race, but mutual racism is not just prevalent on the national level. I have seen it manifested right here on our own campus in the wake of Eve Carson's death. Black students have been scapegoated as Eve's murderers were both black men while many black members of the community have resented the amount of media coverage that Eve's death has received and have attributed it solely to the fact that she was a pretty white female.
Unfortunately, unless Americans can progress beyond reducing one another to either black or white and instead view each other simply as people working collectively toward a common solution to today's most pressing problems, like poverty, flawed healthcare and education systems, and climate change, the issues that the 2008 presidential election should be about, the truest part of Tracy Morgan's "Black is the New President" dialog will remain his theory, "We are a racist country. The end."
Fey uses the positive side of a traditionally negative stereotype that has surrounded Clinton from the outset of her campaign to illustrate that she will be able to get things done in her presidency. In contrast, Morgan takes an undeniable fact, that Obama is black, and uses a negative stereotype typically associated with that characteristic, that black people, especially black men from large cities such as Chicago, are gangsters to prove the point that Obama will also get things done. "Black is the New President" reinforces stereotypes that Clinton has used throughout her campaign to attack Obama and in this way, reveals SNL's support for the Clinton campaign.
The tables have turned when it comes to media scrutiny of the candidates with Obama receiving much more negative publicity for his association with Rev. Wright, a person whom he has no control over, than Clinton is receiving for the racist remark made by a former member of her finance committee, Geraldine Ferraro, that Obama would not be in the position that he is in if he were not black, at a time when Clinton was responsible for her as her employer.
Race may have replaced gender as the primary preoccupation of the presidential race, but mutual racism is not just prevalent on the national level. I have seen it manifested right here on our own campus in the wake of Eve Carson's death. Black students have been scapegoated as Eve's murderers were both black men while many black members of the community have resented the amount of media coverage that Eve's death has received and have attributed it solely to the fact that she was a pretty white female.
Unfortunately, unless Americans can progress beyond reducing one another to either black or white and instead view each other simply as people working collectively toward a common solution to today's most pressing problems, like poverty, flawed healthcare and education systems, and climate change, the issues that the 2008 presidential election should be about, the truest part of Tracy Morgan's "Black is the New President" dialog will remain his theory, "We are a racist country. The end."
