Obama a "Magic Negro"?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein19mar19,0,5335087.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

from the article:

AS EVERY CARBON-BASED life form on this planet surely knows, Barack Obama, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois, is running for president. Since making his announcement, there has been no end of commentary about him in all quarters — musing over his charisma and the prospect he offers of being the first African American to be elected to the White House.

But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro."

The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro .

As an Obama supporter, I honestly don't know what to say...

Mouth-gaping, eyes-bulging, mind-boggling...just plain SHOCKED!!! Not only that someone would write this, but...my god!!!...it even got printed!!!

Come to think of it, I think I feel sick.

I fully understand the context of the term. As used in the discussion of film-making, it is an appropriate and undeniable term for a character we all recognize (unfortunately this character is also quite often "the token black guy" who everyone loves, but unfortunately dies before the end of the movie.)

But to take THAT phrase and project it onto a candidate for President of the United States is demeaning and just plain rascist, IMHO. Not just to Obama, I think white people should be offended as well, if they truly understand the meaning of the terminology.

Are you not shocked? And if not, why not???

this particular character type is pretty well documented in the world of film studies. I've never written about it myself, I am familiar with the concept. I think you're wrong about this character type as a token figure who dies... the "magical negro" almost never dies in a film. EG the Homer figure on the flat car in O Brother Where Art Thou... I think that the heroic but doomed minority is a different stereotype altogether (often seen in Latina characters in action movies).

Since seeing the article, I read it again, and then did some research on DE. He seems to have valid film studies credits and is well known for his research on gay issues in film. I think he's probably not trying to offend.

Perhaps the op ed piece is simply poorly written and he's claiming:

a) Obama's appeal is partially due to an incipient racism in white voters who interpret him as an archetypal character

b) Obama is a smart man and is using (a) for political gain. EG Arnold Schwartzenegger did little to distance his gubnatorial campaign from his film career, adopting catchphrases from his films etc.

I think that the piece could have been better written, but if DE's point was (a), then he's probably right. If it's (b), then DE is being awfully cynical--and as an Obama supporter, i wouldn't want to think that it was true.

the "token black guy" who is beloved but dies is *not* a Magical Negro. The Magical Negro exists purely for the benefit of white protagonists, and simply walks away when his job is done. His death rarely occurs; he simply ceases to be important once he's fixed the white protagonist's problems.

I don't think it's demeaning or racist when used in this context. Rather, I think, it's pointing out a subtle bit of racism that has already been projected onto Mr. Obama. It sounds to me like the article is claiming that part of Mr. Obama's appeal is how many whites see him fitting the Magical Negro archetype, and throw their support behind him because of it. It shouldn't be offensive to Mr. Obama, it should be offensive to those who support him.

I'm not really that shocked. While I've loved me some Obama since he first won the nomination for our Senate seat, I've always been slightly mystified at how popular he is, and I am sure his race has some part of it. Personally, I don't buy the "Magical Negro" line at all, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone were to buy into it.

Which people use to identify, associate with, and identify as "token black" public figures in REALITY.

Obama is dangerously coasting on such acclaim instead of challenging it and subverting it, and becoming a threatening figure to people who saw him as a "cultural bridge" who could be relied on somehow to be the only black person in his administration, like the most recent Mayors of DC.

If the "Obama Magic Negro" phenomenon can lasso enough subconscious white guilt to get himself more votes from the center-right "but-some-of-my-best-friends-are-black" quasi-racists out there, then let 'er rip, I say.

(Assuming that there IS such a thing as subconscious white guilt and that the Magic Negro archetype actually exists.)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=504275&mesg_id=504275

I tell ya', I'm shocked!

in one day's broadcast...

I bet the term rolled off his tongue like...ummm...help me out here...

:thumbsup:

How does one analyze a presidential candidate without mentioning in anyway his or her policy positions?

-

"The purpose of the President of the Galaxy is not to make decisions but to distract people from the decisionmakers." --HHGTTG

is that it's periodically incoherent and I think that makes it seem way more racist than the author probably intended. Not that it being even a little bit racist is okay. But I'm no longer sure what I think.

bromide, I stop reading.

In large part because life entails a carbon base.

...transparent racism and social astigmatism against single African American women with children receiving welfare assistance. It was Reagan's "magical negro" and a complete fabrication designed to shock and awe his followers.

<snip>

Myth: There are Welfare Queens driving Welfare Cadillacs.

Fact: Reagan made up this story.

Summary

Reagan's story of a Welfare Queen driving a Welfare Cadillac was apocryphal. Even so, there is no evidence that welfare cheating is a significant problem; besides, individual welfare payments are too small for recipients to live well.

Conservative politicians have a talent for telling memorable anecdotes that capture the essence of their beliefs on any particular issue. One of the most enduring of these came from Ronald Reagan on the subject of welfare. He cited a Chicago "Welfare Queen" who had ripped off $150,000 from the government, using 80 aliases, 30 addresses, a dozen social security cards, and four fictional dead husbands. The country was outraged; Reagan dutifully promised to roll back welfare; and ever since, the "Welfare Queen" driving her "Welfare Cadillac" has become permanently lodged in American political folklore.

Unfortunately, like most great conservative anecdotes, it wasn't really true. The media searched for this welfare cheat in the hopes of interviewing her, and discovered that she didn't even exist.

As a bit of class warfare, however, it was brilliant. It diverted public attention from insider traders in their limousines to Welfare Queens in their Cadillacs, even though the former were stealing thousands of times more from the American people than the latter. Just one example of the cost of white collar crime would become apparent a few years later, when President Bush bailed out the Savings & Loans industry with $500 billion of the taxpayer's money -- enough to fund 20 years of federal AFDC.

Questions of class warfare aside, there is no evidence that there is a significant problem with welfare cheating. In 1991 less than 5 percent of all welfare benefits went to persons who were not entitled to them, and this figure includes errors committed by the welfare agency. (1)

<MORE on lie here> http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-welfarequeen.htm

It's really badly written, but I think what he's saying is that:

white america is so inherently racist that it interpret's Obama as a stock character type that it is used to seeing in film...

At least, that's what I think he might have been trying to say.

That of the "poisoning, chiseling, decietful outsider"
who lives off the fat of hard-working, ethnically pure
citizenry.

Anthropologists have found that this stereotype is
attested to throughout the globe in tribal or civilized
societies wherever a persecuted minority attempts to do
well for itself. Especially when an (usually aboriginal)
group has special rights to make up for the theft of
their land or cultural oppression, as in the case of
the pygmy Twa peoples in Africa.

Related to this archetype is the archetype of mass
immigrant groups, who regardless of origin are
always, by some genetic cultural trait posessed
by all humans, identified by the natives as
(a) dirty; (b) crafty; (c) have large families.

than tongue in cheek in writing this.

Obama is not a work of fiction - and listening to his speeches, I would like them if they were given by anyone.

The way fiction and news are blended by today's media, I think that this is a comment on the media rather than a comment on Obama.

Stephen King is an author who is a self-admitted abuser of the Magic Negro stereotype.

Barack Obama, like any public figure, is a prisoner of his reputation,
asnd his reputation is shaped by judgements every bit as shallow as the
stereotypes other public figures eventually devolve into -- becoming
either parodies of themselves or mere examples of an ancient archetype
in the popular imagination (in Obama's case, the Magic Negro; in Hillary's
case, the conniving evil stepmother/grasping and hubristic jilted lover;
in Dean's case, the eccentric, naive man of letters who is incapable of
attending to practical affairs.)

These are false stereotypes promoted by the media, which knows how to tell a story.

In Obama's case, he is coasting solely on his Magic Negro reputation to
justify people's sheer amazement that a black man can be "so articulate".

He hasn't given anyone an objective reason, hasn't brought black and
white together, hasn't endorsed progressive policies such as removing
all US troops from Iraq, rolling back Bush and Clinton's free trade bills, or universal nonprofit healthcare, instead of fascist mandated HMO-care (What's next, mandated purchase of other for-profit goods? No potential for graft there.) Doesn't mean he won't, but I'm not holding my breath for a "principled statesman" or an "RFK moment".

I had a student in my office last week and she was terribly frustrated by his first biography wherein he basically says nothing at all.

Personally, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt... as Hillary's VP.

So should we rename the 'magic bullet' to the 'magic negro bullet'? So white people can still stay scared of blacks and not feel quite as guilty? I know, we can make it into a TV reality show and call it the 'magic negro bullet hour' and have black folks yell at the camera for an hour. Should keep us scared and subservient to the Establishment. :eyes:

I think snarky is code for racist.

It is a critical denunciation of a 200 year old archetype of the messianic, self-sacrificing, subservient black man, usually older than the protagonist, who has a "magical" impact on others.

This archetype has made its way into politics with the shoddy way
MLK has been treated, reduced to a "Magic Negro" figure, and now
Obama is coasting on white perception of him as an "articulate",
"magical", savior from what essentially remains, in their eyes,
a lower caste of people. The fact that he's the son of an African
goatherd would be a source of pride to some (imagine if your dad
was a Scottish highlander) but is a source of polite amusement to
most Americans for whom African heritage is not as valuable or
interesting as Scottish heritage.

Thanks, that is news to me.

The clearest example (and an example of how liberal authors
have wrestled with this mythical antebellum archetype and
tried to turn it into something honorific, sort of like the
"noble Indian") would be "N**** Jim" from Huckleberry Finn.
"Uncle Remus" too, I think is a prototypical example (since
his only function was to pass on magical African-American
folktales to white children) and Uncle Tom, in addition to
rather inaccurately being portrayed as an "Uncle Tom", is
actually a self-sacrificing "Magic Negro".

I think the phenomenon of the heroic but doomed "token minority"
is entirely separate... that person has free agency, but is tragically
bound, not by Greek hubris or moral calculus, but by "natural"
limits, enforced by the storyteller, on how high a person not
of "pure" blood can climb. Death is the most exalted state that
the exceptional, talented "token minority" can hope to attain
within the context of majority society.

Unless he retreats to rejoin his people and fade away into legend
rather than die, in which case he is not a "token minority" at all
but a "noble aborigine".

If his descendants survive long enough refusing to die nobly,
they might graduate from "noble aborigine" to "dirty, filthy immigrant/wanderer"

(barbarian/gypsy/philistine/jew/Irishman/you name it)

who are invariably stereotyped as (a) unhygenic, (b) crafty,
(c) from the "East" or "South" (or whatever direction the
wilderness is in) and (d) overly promiscuous.

This seems to be an ingrained stereotype because it is true
in all human populations and people get tossed in this category
the moment they are no longer acknowledged as "true aborigines"
and are instead lumped in with "outsiders".

If they survive this fate by being completely wiped out,
they can hope to graduate from "noble aborigine" to the
highest pinnacle of human psyhe, "little green/brown men"
who literally have magic powers and are guardians of the
land and/or left Earth to return to the stars. Another
seemingly ingrained product of our mythical imagination.
They are crafty, but usually in a good way, and are prone
to kidnapping people and knocking up maidens. I.e. they
no longer exist, except as identified with the spirit world,
or they are called angels, or elves, or aliens. Same really.

Related to the "token minority" and "noble aborigine", and
about the same social status, is the "Cleopatra figure" which
represents the hubris of female political power, usually
brought about by a widow, an evil stepmother figure who
manipulates her relatives, or a jilted lover. We see this
archetype playing out with perceptions of Hillary, whose
popular Jungian identity stems almost exclusively from
the fact that she was cuckolded, like Cleopatra, and refused
to throw herself on the fire, so to speak.

Women, unlike the noble but doomed minority, don't get to run
off and start a mythical kingdom of Amazons, like a female
version of the Kennedy family. Instead, societies where female
power is tolerated tend to be either matrilineal (where female
power is treated as a rare exception, but honored, since the
society was once matriarchal) or militarized societies where
women would, on occasion, be allowed to lead troops in combat
(Sparta, Zulu, some Celts, some Germanic tribes, Berbers, etc.)

These top me are the most fascinating cultural archetypes
that apply to ethnic minorities, current or former, because
they seem to go back 1000's of years, and they seem to be
ingrained. You can trace the evolution of human tolerance
for "the other" from "hated outsider" thru "tolerated minority"
to "heroic token who is a credit to his race" to "magic seer"
to "annihilated aborigine who died nobly but inevitably" to
"mythical elf".

He's definitely got "Kennedyesque" gravitas, i.e. a possibly not-so-liberal Democrat who can mobilize a coalition of people as a "savior" of some sort, on faith that his natural gravitas is matched by good ideas.

Of course, the Arthurian model only works if you are fighting for a doomed cause (in this case, independence of the Britons from Gemanic cultural domination, which took 500 years to subjugate the native population.)

But most Americans don't think that way. They haven't seen much of Obama on the news (just ask Jay Leno, who did a jaywalking segment on women in public life). All they know is that he's the same sort of person they took MLK to be -- a "magic negro" who would serve as a mediator between black and white people, allowing them to imagine that by voting for Obama and/or celebrating MLK, we have solved our country's racial problems.

As for Hillary, however, she is improving her public speaking style, becoming more eloquent in public while continually moving to the right (she and her supporters are now arguing for a permanent US presence on the borders of Iraq) so I'm not sure gravitas will be enough.

Obama may need to jettison his centrist, utilitarian upbringing and become a populist like RFK did, if he hopes to maintain his "Kennedyesque" mystique.

Sometimes I think presidential elections are less about who the candidates actually are, and more about what archetype they symbolize to the American people. Bush & Reagan = cowboy, etc.

try to remind people of a positive archetype.

EG my dislike of John Edwards has way more to do with the stereotype he represents than anything else. Even I can see that much.

Edwards is obviously a Magical Redneck or Magical Southern Gentleman- A Southern White male, who despite his hertitage and background, manages to be tolerant and helps those beneath him. (see- Sheriff Andy Taylor, Atticus Finch, Huckeberry Finn, Col. Saunders, Slingblade, Bill Clinton, etc)

;)

Henry VI, part 2, act 4, scene 2 to be precise.

:hi:

It sounds simplistic & shallow, but I think that's right. People hate Hillary way beyond reason, not because of who she is, but what she symbolizes in people's minds (shrew, feminism, "career women", mother-in-law, etc.) The same goes for Edwards, who brings to mind the cliche of the "sleazy trial lawyer". Voters project their own issues onto any presidential candidate. Bushco was a master at manipulating these kinds of archetypes to create a calculated image of Bush that would appeal to most Americans (cowboy, family man, warrior hero:eyes:) Americans are only slowly starting to see through that mythology now. Archetypes are powerful stuff, and a candidate needs to hook into a good one before his opponents can create a negative one.

is it wrong to deliberately take advantage of such stereotypes if they are to your advantage?

Who would mediate between blacks and whites
and solve all racial problems by absolving us of our sins.

But MLK definitely took advantage of "good cop bad cop" tactics
in order to maximize the effectiveness of non-violent civil disobedience.

In negotiating with rulers, He pointed to more radical leaders who were willing to advocate violence, and said "apres moi, le deluge".

Gandhi did the same thing with Nehru and others, that MLK did with Malcolm X. Classic good cop/bad cop.

I'm not sure that's an archetype, but it's definitely a psychological ploy.

he's a black guy, or we're racist?

I thought we were racist when we refuse to vote for him (because he's a half black guy?)

Where does he stand on this issues? could be get this information please?

He's just like Edwards. I know all about Edwards' house and his wife's health, but finding information on where he stands on the issues can be tough. Likewise Obama, with his alleged madrassa schooling and his ability to speak well or not, and his Kenyan Daddy. What about the damn issues?

Likewise Hillary. Where does she stand on the issues? who gives a rat's behind that she's female?

It's the "magic" that makes turns you into a racist- not actual racism on your part before hand.

Magic is very mysterious & DANGEROUS- I suggest you avoid Obama's magical powers at all costs-or PRESTO- you are a racist!!!

He's black.

I am unaware of his back-ground.

He helps hapless white-folks like me out of binds- by making me see that my admiration for Obama is the result of movies I've never seen before. Sounds like fucking magic to me.

Edwards? Obviously a Magical Redneck (A Southern White male, who despite his hertitage, is tolerant and helps those beneath him- see- Sheriff Andy Taylor, Atticus Finch, Huckeberry Finn, Col. Saunders, etc)

Hillary? Why she's the Magical Mom from TV sitcoms and commericals- the one who always fixes whatever the idiot males of the household screw up.

Thank you for the article, Mr. Magic Negro- now I have to go talk to my black & white friends and co-workers to find out whether they are magical like you.

Who by his tolerance and down-to-earth charm (cf. Fred Thompson on Law and Order) proves that all Southern Gentlemen are fundamentally pure in upbringing, uncomplicated, and good at heart. I think you accurately identified that archetype.

"Magic Mom" is not an archetype, however, it's what all women throughout history are percieved to be. I think Hillary is the "Cleopatra" archetype -- a jilted queen who is criticized for the hubris of thinking she could run the country better than her adulterous lover. The very model of literary double standards. For other examples, see Hatshepsut, Boudicca, and other female military leaders. The proper place of the female leader is to kill herself, according to the terms of this archetype. It is the only fit ending to her "hubris" in the popular imagination.

As per my other post on this subject, most literary and mythical archetypes dealing with racial minorities are also set up to explain away the continual decline or forced assimilation of people who are percieved as different. Ultimately, as with the case of the Hottentots, Aborigines, Native Americans, Polish Jews or the builders of Stonehenge, these people are subject to genocide and celebrated afterwards. "I come not to bury them but to praise them," the scholars and tale-tellers say afterwards, after the dirty work is done.

What I think the author is saying is that the film archetype is there for a reason. He sort of dances around it, but perhaps he is postulating white guilt? The Magical Negro is an un-threatening, kindly, healing character, sort of a more accessible Negro for white America, the person that white people can point to and say, "I like that person, therefore I am not racist." The author attributes Obama's popularity to this need, made manifest, writ large now in the scale of real life & presidential politics.

That's VERY interesting, not quite sure what to think about it.

The term is a literary one used for coding that first appeared in the 1950s. I can find no evidence that it is a sociology term, although I don't doubt that it has been used in that field. Sociology is known for its members inventing their own words, so I don't doubt that they would take a term used elsewhere to explain something that they theorize is in society.

The magical Negro is always a supporting character, one who has no story of their own, one who has magical powers and one that sole purpose is to serve/help the white lead character. For Obama to fit this category with people he will have to be seen as a character of no importance, who has no life other than his political one, and his sole purpose in life is to magically make life better for the person who sees him as such. If that is the way you see Barack, then forget the racist part because you are most of all an idiot.

Every African American character in plays, movies, and tv are not magical Negroes, only those that fit the above definition. No magical powers, not one. His own story line, not one. Lead character, not one. Some one with their own ambition to become something such as president, not one. I hope this should help some of you put this all in perspective.

and Obama supporter, let me say I understand the point of the article, but I still think it's bullshit.

Ronald Reagan, then, was the "magical conservative", Edwards, as some have already said, is the "magical cracker", etc.

I think some black people over here do have a problem with blacks that are appealing to white society... the author of this piece being one of them.

And you are Latin American,

Does that make you a "magical realist"? :D

Let's stick to Hollywood sensationalism, and leave the sociology for the grownups. Under this logic a white person could never perform an act of solidarity with a black person without reducing both themself and the black person to "white guilt" and "magic negro" status.

So what? Am I supposed to vote for Biden now? Is the guy working for Biden? Sounds to me like something ol' Joe would say.

If the author uses it as Jungian archetype than that explains why his thesis appears to support the status quo. I haven't found this term to have validity outside of cinema or in some instances of cultural stereotyping (especially on the left). But in this case I find it almost laughable. The only thing Obama has in common with the "magic negro" character is perhaps skin pigmentation. If anything he seems saavy enough to cut right through white liberal platitudes of race and get to the point. He is not a man with without a history, with magical powers, who comes in to save the day at the cost of his soul. Neither is he a down on his luck model citizen jumping in front of the bus for a white lady. Even if he were to jump in front of a bus for a white woman, after she offered him a silver token for his troubles, he wouldn't accept it.

The most important inclusion criteria for the concept "magic negro", a character created by a white author should be the most obvious validity problem. Yet people who imply something similar have the unfortunate tendency to use phrases like "sell out" "too white" and other phrases equally contemptable to "white guilt" activism. That is how this piece reads.

I guess with Obama's help, you think we've overcome all that racism that white liberals are always harping on about, then? Sort of like the invading barbarian marrying the princess of a dying royal house, Obama's unique lineage will provide a new popular storyline about the origins of our heritage. This is deep-seated, subconscious stuff that you're refusing to acknowledge.

An archetype is valid in any form of myth and literature and fiction, including mass media, which is largely a mythical fiction dedicated to stereotyping people in a certain way for mass consumption. If anything the horse race depicted in mass media is the closest thing to film. Film is not some unique separate form of communication from other forms of fictional storytelling, and neither is the MSM.