Sorry..that last part should read:

I’m wit folks who say we shouldn’t throw around the word racist. I get that. But we also SHOULDN'T throw around denials that people can behave in racist ways. It works both ways.

Part of the issue is that people think being called racist is worse than actually being racist, so much so that it's almost impossible to get people to have any real dialogue about what being a racist is or what a racist act is.

I think (white) Americans resent being called a racist because it comes across like something that they can't change. This is wrong. One can do a racist thing and not necessarily hate black people. But we have to be honest about the fact that we live in a culture that priveleges whiteness and devalues and dehumanizes blackness. And that we don't always know how what we do and say might be perceived.

That uncertainty makes white folks uncomfortable. i get that. But the best way to work through that is not to assume that its not true and be defiant. Because all you are doing is asserting your hegemony and stopping the conversation.

The decision to run this cover is not racist in that purely white liberal sense that says because i"m a white liberal i can't be racist and so to be offended by anything i do or say is irrational. This is problematic. I think we have to be honest about the fact that the image just doesn't work as satire because there are people who think like this.

THe problem with white liberals is that they are incapable of understanding that people do think differently than they do. They think this is satire because they get it. But racism in the minds of the folks who propogate these images on the right is very irrational. It is exaggerated. They see this image and they think "yes, this is who the Obamas are".

WHy? Because white people, esp. white racists, no so very little about black people and they believe that black people are SO different as to be completely foreign. That is scary to them. If you don't believe me check out how completely confused white people are by Michelle and Barack givin each other pound. It was a collective moment of white ignorace into the bonding rituals of black folks. That isn't racist, but it does indicate the level to which there is still a divide. Moments like this should be instructive.

I'm wit folks who say we shouldn't throw around the word racist. I get that. But we also should throw around denials that people can behave in racist ways. It works both ways.

Do people here really live in such a cloud as to deny that Michelle Obama has a deep resentment and dislike for white people?!? Reverse racism has such an emotional hold, doesn't it... so when you'll talk about the racist whitey, grab a mirror to see what bigotry looks like.

The white trendy elitist liberals at the magazine were truly so proud of themselves for lampooning the "bad white racist" whites. This was even after the last so-called gaffe over the Obama assassinated-cover from elsewhere about a month or two ago. This is too rich, they are called "racist" themselves. But that's the totally intractable nature of the double-standard that rules everything in this upside down country.

Oh, and next shall be an endless series of excuses and rationalizations over why Jesse shouldn't be boycotted for using the so-called N-word.

But rule #1 in the modern west (as on this blog) is always: white is wrong. Now that's not racism, is it? Nooooooo.... it's reverse-racism, which is a phrase that never even appears on tv...

as if it doesn't even exist.

Yes! Nez, I agree. Precise thinking and language really matter in analysis of gaffes like this one.

In all issues, really.

But where can we find the time???

i'm so sick of the word "racist" being the determining factor in judgment on a word, a phrase, a picture, a person. people see it as a hard line and if you can just wriggle your way onto one side of it, all is cooool. i dont give a shit if someone calls this cover "racist" or "magoofhiclatizter". the fact is is it was made by a stupid person with a dull mind and it causes harm by tapping into many scary bedtime stories told by the dominant culture that poses them as superior due to their pale appearance and others as dangerous subversive criminals due to their darkness, and in the process, validates those who may not call themselves "racist" but who sure are.

done.

"I don’t think the cover is racist. I think it’s stupid and ineffective."

Indubitably.

I don't get it? what satire? just wait till after labor day and the skeletons
come out to play!

Hi Dre, everyone! I don't think the cover is racist. I think it's stupid and ineffective.

Hi Carm,

Opposite of some folks I've spoken to or other blogs I've read, I'm not as critical of the New Yorker for releasing this cover. I don't think it's racist at all. Instead, what bothers me most about them (and other white liberal types who claim the title of an elite intellectual) is how their "satire" will provide fodder for other people by playing into their racist fears. I guess at the end of the day that's just as bad as being racist themselves.

Obama should sue "The New Yorker." This is raw racism! For "The New Yorker" to illustrate without explanation their failed attempt at satire only leads to a smear attack against Obama. Their "high standards" fell completely head first into the dumpster. This was true absurdity!I can't believe a magazine of this stature could stoop so low! The raw racism confronting Obama is going to be hard to beat.