I know there are members of the GOP that believe due to the last election racism is somehow over, but I think it begs to be said that it actually is not and therefore sending a Christmas CD with the song, "Barack the Magic Negro" to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon" is in fact offensive and an embarrassing move for the GOP to support.
I would like to think that blatant and tacky uses of racial stereotyping won't rectify the devastated base of the GOP, but according to Politico.com, this might help perpetrator and RNC chair contender Chip Saltsman in his bid for the post. I don't think racism is going to work to win back the adoration of the Americans whose support they have lost. It is like the insecure bully on the schoolyard that makes stupid jokes behind your back, backtracks when caught by the principal and even issues a half-ass apology.
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I think it's clueless stunts like this that will work to split the Republican party. Some GOP members think this is no big deal - a "harmless joke" - while others recognize the inherent racism in this "joke" and are trying to distance themselves from that. If we end up with two, smaller, weaker republican parties, fine by me.
They just need to get it over with and rename their party to The RepubliKKKan party just so we're clear on that.
I hope there will be a similar "Dear David Ehrenstein and the LA Times" post criticizing his/their use of the phrase in the context of Obama a year and a half ago. Or maybe it's already there...I haven't searched the archives.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein19mar19,0,5335087.story?coll=la-opinion-center
Um, Samhita, the "apology" to which you linked was a satirical piece written by a comedian. The RNC made no such statement.
RNC chair Mike Duncan actually said, "The 2008 election was a wake-up call for Republicans to reach out and bring more people into our party. I am shocked and appalled that anyone would think this is appropriate as it clearly does not move us in the right direction.", but the RNC as a whole has not apologized or anything else, officially.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081227/pl_politico/16876
My own reaction to this whole story? Totally tasteless but unsurprising. The GOP has been the bastion of racists since the civil rights era.
Remember Ludacris and his Clinton is a Bitch song? DNC did not protest that and used Ludacris as a vote getter to boot!
FemiSex.com posted an excellent item on this yesterday, and called out the DNC for not having the grace of the RNC chairman --that is the RNC denouced this Puff racist song but the DNC was silent about the Bitch song.
here is a linK:
http://www.femisex.com/content/the-rnc-can-speak-out-against-racism-dnc-silent-on-sexism
not sure it this site protest the Clinton Bitch song???