I wrote this post in March of 2007. Given GOP candidate Chip Saltsman’s decision to distribute Rush Limbaugh radio show humor to colleagues, I thought ‘A magic negro?’ was worth revisiting. As always, I’d appreciate your comments.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times published a highly offensive, overly simplistic piece about Barack Obama. Titled “Obama, the Magical Negro”, it makes no difference that the author, David Ehrenstein, is African American. Ehrenstein doesn’t get it. The term ‘magic Negro’ was coined in the 1950’s to describe a particular kind of black presence in film and literature. The ‘magic Negro’, or what Spike Lee calls the ‘super duper magical Negro’, sometimes has special powers that serve to enlighten or make better their white counterparts. At the end of the story, the ‘magic Negro’ dies or disappears while the white characters go on, enlightened and enriched in some way. John Coffey in Stephen King’s The Green Mile and Whoopi Goldberg’s character in Ghost are two clear examples of this idea.

Why then would Ehrenstein apply this term to a real, live, viable black presidential candidate? I don’t know. Ehrenstein posits that a key part of Obama’s campaign strategy is to be seen as non-confrontational and likable. Well, to indulge in vernacular, I say, “DUH”. At this point on the campaign trail it is sound strategy for every candidate to be perceived as likeable and non-threatening. Both Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are twisting themselves like pretzels to be perceived as likeable and non-threatening; whatever that actually means.

Ehrenstein seems to think that Barack Obama is perceived to be safe by ‘white America’. No way, it’s not that simple. The hard truth is that for many in America, particularly in the middle of the country and in parts of the south, there is no such thing as a non-threatening black man. We don’t hear about hate mail or death threats endured by Obama and his family. But don’t you think those threats are coming at a rate only the great Hank Aaron might comprehend?

I am so sick of individual black people judging the ‘blackness’ of other black people. It is simply a waste of time and energy that we, as a community, can ill afford.