10 Questions for Toni Morrison (She quibbles about the First Black President)

Time ^ | 5/7/08 | Andrea Sachs

[Notwithstanding]

Do you regret referring to Bill Clinton as the first black President? People misunderstood that phrase. I was deploring the way in which President Clinton was being treated, vis-à-vis the sex scandal that was surrounding him. I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp. I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race.

[Notwithstanding]

Morrison clearly equivocates because she is embarrassed by the stupidity and non-prescient (aka woefully and by now demonstrably untrue) nature of what she said about x42 being the First Black President in 1998:

Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas.

http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/clinton/morrison.html

[Notwithstanding]

http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/clinton/morrison.html

[Notwithstanding]

Interesting to know if she thought the same was true of GWB, Karl Rove and the rest of the Bush admin as they were being convicted of crimes by the media and her leftwing ilk..

[Falcon4.0]

"Bill Clinton as the first black President?"

Sounds like "Racial Profiling" to me.

[Maceman]

Bill Clinton is (was) black, and Clarence Thomas is white.

Obama would be white if he were a conservative.

[Notwithstanding]

I wonder if she thinks B. Husein Obama is black enough, given that in 1998 she said that x42 was “Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime.”

[holden]

Hmmm.   There's a new one.   So, in Toni's mind, instincts attach to skin color or race.

HF

[pnh102]

You would think Toni Morrison of all people would know the age-old adage that words mean things. Surely she must have know that referring to Bill Clinton as the "first black president" would have some very serious negative connotations.

[popdonnelly]

These people are fools, plain and simple.

[Larebil]

“Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas”

So this is what they deem, the perfect black man/woman?

I would expect to see a racially insulting description on a KKK website.
Why they consistently vote dem is baffling.

[conservativeharleyguy]

So in other words, Bill Clinton was only "Black" because "the Man was out to get him". It's amazing what some people will say to justify their stupid comments. It was a dumb thing to say back then, and trying to find some way to duck out of it now just illustrates how little courage she actually has in her own convictions.

Isn't it convenient that she can say it today, with the benefit of ten years of hindsight.

That's not the story they told 10 years ago, is it?

Back then it was all about how "cool" he was. A Black co-worker at the time claimed to have voted for him because he smoked pot. He thought it meant he was "cooler", and that a pothead President would be more "laid back". No amount of reason about the highest office on Earth would ever convince him otherwise. To him, Clinton was just another "Brother". Small wonder no-one respects the President anymore.

It was that, plus his ability to connect with Black folks, and his deep understanding of "their issues" that they extolled back then.

Exactly when does all of this race-based whining end?

[kb2614]

Has anybody tried to read Toni Morrison?? Here is an example;

Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
Thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits
On a lurgid bee.
Groop, I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes
And hooptiously drangle me
With crinkly bindlewurdles,
Or I will rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon,
See if I don’t![1]

Thats right, Ladies and Gentlemen. Toni Morrison is a Vogon!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogon_poetry

[wideawake]

After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas.

Again, substitute "guitar-picking" for "saxophone-playing" and you have every trope of "white trash" in the classic Southern definition.

[LottieDah]

Toni Morrison is full of crap.

[twigs]

Excellent point. She is a fabulous writer, even if you don’t agree with what she writes. What I wouldn’t give to write like her!

[twigs]

Read her books, though, if you can stand them. I don’t like what she writes, but she can describe and paint word pictures with the best of writers.

[Niteranger68]

That’s like saying “even though she beats her kids, she’s a really good mother.”

[WayneS]

I’m glad she cleared that up.

Now, after all this time, I can finally get a good night’s sleep again.

[twigs]

It’s nothing like it.

[windcliff]

Check this poetry out.

[Niteranger68]

For me, a good writer must make sense (or at least be good enough for me to agree with them).

[count-your-change]

Warren G. Harding was called the first black president too. Of course at the time it wasn’t meant as a compliment.

[Xenalyte]

Good Lord above, Toni Morrison sucks.

I had the displeasure of having to teach “Song of Solomon” my final year in grad school. I hated it so much, I told my students how much I hated it ... and 16 of my 19 agreed with me.

Discussion on that one was shorter than recommended.

(But we had all kinds of fun trashing “The Thorn Birds” and “Gone with the Wind.”)

[onedoug]

I wouldn't give a hobbldibark
Had she writen moshlienkark
But that I'd look to oblexdimak
Yet give a mnad 'bout hokinshidak!

[windcliff]

Another lovely poem by Gertrude Snaoud.

[onedoug]

I think it’s “Shmaug”.

[Antoninus]

Toni Morrison is a two-bit hack writer whose semi-porn novels belong in a dumpster. Instead, they're read by high school students in some places.

Truly sad that anyone cares what this person thinks.

[Antoninus]

Excellent point. She is a fabulous writer, even if you don’t agree with what she writes. What I wouldn’t give to write like her!

You're kidding, right? I read one of her novels as a young person and even then, I knew I was dealing with a deeply disturbed author. The Bluest Eye contains graphic scenes of forced sex, rape, masturbation, incest, and other acts of extreme depravity.

I wish I had never read it.

[GOPJ]

Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas.

Yeah - and wasn't it Andrew Young who spoke of Clinton's promiscuous sexuality?

And what about lying under oath and the lack of respect for the law?

We knew what was meant by him being black. Now the change - it's how he was treated by "the man" that made him black? Gimme a break. Not buying it. Not for a minute.