James Wolcott-smacks down the race-baiting from the O camp-specifically, re NYT pc on the 3 am ad.

[libbygurl]

Vanity Fair
JAMES WOLCOTT'S BLOG

3 O'Clock Rock

(March 11, 2008, 6:39 PM)

Now that everybody's a media expert, savvy to the gleaming fingertips of perception, pundits and professors alike have become deep-sea subtextualists when it comes to decoding political spots. Give them a few frames of Fassbinder to study and they'll come up dry, but stick a YouTube parody or Web ad in front of them and suddenly they can peel through ten layers of emulsion thick with socio-cultural-ethnic-semiotic significance. On today's op-ed page of the Times, Orlando Patterson hit the high-dive board over Hillary Clinton's "3 AM phone call" ad* and met the ghost of D. W. Griffith on the way down:

""I have spent my life studying the pictures and symbols of racism and slavery, and when I saw the Clinton ad?s central image--innocent sleeping children and a mother in the middle of the night at risk of mortal danger--it brought to my mind scenes from the past. I couldn't help but think of D. W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation," the racist movie epic that helped revive the Ku Klux Klan, with its portrayal of black men lurking in the bushes around white society. The danger implicit in the phone ad--as I see it--is that the person answering the phone might be a black man, someone who could not be trusted to protect us from this threat.""


Man, is that ever a stretch, and the Daily Howler's Bob Somerby is scathing on the troubled thoughts that Patterson can't help but think even if those thoughts are hobgoblins of his own imagination:

"..The uneasy professor "ha(s) spent (his) life studying the pictures and symbols of racism and slavery." Another person might have put that sort of work to good use, but Patterson is left with "scenes from the past" that come to his mind?with things he "couldn?t help but think." Of course, fools that we are, we all have things we?re inclined to think?reactions we're inclined to have, thoughts that instantly pop into consciousness. But to the extent that we have trained our minds, we then subject such reactions to analysis. Sorry, but Patterson doesn't go there much. Later on, he again reports the things he "could not help but think." Soon, he's throwing the r-word around quite a bit, based on things he "could not help but think."

-snip-

Patterson offers interpretations of this ad that are, simply speaking, inane. For that reason, it's sad to see him boo-hoo-hooing about the way some people "may" or "could" be "trading on the darkened memories of a twisted past Obama has struggled to transcend." Part of our history with which Obama has struggled (quite brilliantly, in our view) is the requiremen--lodged in the brains of many professor--that every incident in the world must be given a racial reading. Obama has struggled against that quite brilliantly. (It's a shame that he's had to do it. Just think of the other social problems this brilliant man might have solved.) But race men like Patterson have played this dumb card ever step of the way in the past four months. They've played this card inanely befor--but never as inanely as this.

Patterson saw a child asleep in an ad - and he 'could not help but think' of the Ku Klux Klan. He saw a mother in the middle of the night - and he 'couldn?t help but think' of Birth of a Nation. But when he fails to assess the things he can?t help but think, he produces deeply unintelligent work. When you're making our society?s most serious charge, you really can?t wait till the final paragraph to say that you might have it wrong."

I thought that the phrase in boldface summarises the use of the race card by the O people in this campaign.

Note that blogger Taylor Marsh specifically pointed out that the child in the ad is actually...black. (Mentioned in Wolcott's piece.)

MORE AT http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/blogs/wolcott/2008/03/now-that-everyb.html


Edited to add link and comment!

[libbygurl]

1. Axelrod's race-baiting strategy works, alas.

:kick:

[susankh4]

2. It sure does....

he's a genius. And he uses it for ill.

Very dangerous man.

[Sadie5]

3. There is still time to stop the race baiting

I have seen several posts here about the HRC campaign and race baiting. It makes me sick. Anyone who remembers the Clinton's know very well that he assigned more Black cabinet posts than any other president. I am surprised at the # of Afro Americans who are going gaga over Obama. Just as I can't figure out why a certain percentage of Afro Americans are Republican.Can't they remember the good prosperous years under the Clinton's? Those years when wages were high and the middle class for the first time included Afro Americans.

[Justyce]

6. As far as the republican thing, I would imagine it's for the same reason

so many working class people are republican -- just uninformed or single-issue voters. It always amazes me to see struggling working people vote republican & then complain about the economy. The churches are to blame a lot too -- so many of them encourage their members to vote republican based on anti-abortion and anti-gay issues. The church my daughter attends pushes voting republican. I personally feel like if they want to push politics, then they don't need to have a tax-exempt church status.

And anyone who can call the Clintons racist really needs their head examined. Another thing that's frustrating is so many of the crazies on this site don't understand that this primary is very close, and in the real world, Obama supporters don't outnumber HRC supporters by 90% like they do on this site... Also, consider this -- how many times has the majority of DUers backed a winner?

[rodeodance]

7. have you ever read "what's the matter with Kansas"? i read it a while ago-

goes into detail--why do people vote against their economic interests.
or at least it asks that question.




so many working class people are republican -- just uninformed or single-issue voters. It always amazes me to see struggling working people vote republican & then complain about the economy. The churches are to blame a lot too --

[Justyce]

8. No, I haven't. I'll have to check that out -- thanks

[rodeodance]

9. I think yo will like it.

[rodeodance]

4. REC

[zabet]

5. Summarizes it perfectly.

"that every incident in the world must be given a racial reading."

If you walk around with a huge
magnifying glass looking for
racism in every nuance and aspect
of conversation and life, you will
surely find it because much of it
is subject to interpretation. People
who look for it, find it. And those
carrying the big magnifying glasses,
well they start the fires, like a kid
burning ants.

I do think the racism by Obama, calling
for black support and black votes and
calling attention to it, will backfire
on him in the long run. If he makes it
the forefront issue in how he measures
everything, he will have an image like
Al Sharpton before it is all over.
Many African-Americans will tell you right
quick, Al don't speak for them even though
he thinks he does. Another effect will
be the larger than expected 'old white
racist' voter turn out if he is the nominee.
I live in NC and I hear it on a regular basis
from older white Dem voters, how they will
not under any circumstances vote for Obama,
they will write in, stay home, or vote McCain
because they fear Obama will make a race issue
out of any negative press he gets.
That is the downfall of political correctness,
it censors people from expressing their feelings.
It takes away true freedom of speech.

[NastyRiffraff]

10. Wolcott hits it out of the park again

I love him. And he manages to work Sully in, too:

But, as Taylor Marsh notes with a triumphant glee that echoes across the mountains, there is a black child in the ad, though I doubt this data will do much to douse Andrew Sullivan's gothic rendering of the ad's disturbing undertones: "yes, plenty of Latina and white women may harbor inchoate fears about black men at large in the middle of the night," he writes with the assurance of someone pulling his guesswork out of his ass--"I do know the Clintons are perfectly capable of subliminal or subtextual use of bigotry and racial fear."

He does have a way with words!

[robbedvoter]

11. When every problem you see looks like a nail, the only tool is a hammer "Political speech is racist"

basically every factual criticism of BO - drug use, lack of experience, phony opposition to war = racism.
You can only worship him - failure to do so = racism

There's a part in Barett's analysis - Limbaugh chapter that is significant:

"Rush Limbaugh predicted on January 28—shortly after the South Carolina primary and before Super Tuesday—that Clinton ads would make Obama "appear darker than he is," alluding to Time magazine's infamous O.J. Simpson cover. He even repeatedly likened Bill Clinton to the notorious public-safety commissioner and Klansman Bull Connor, branding the ex-president "Bull Clinton."
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0811,374100,374100,2.html/2

[rodeodance]

12. If this village voice piece is posted out there--i would go with sub-title in the subject line

[rodeodance]

13. I think our gal is lots of trouble--esp with now KO broadcast last evening--!!