Posted on 12/29/2008 10:16:38 AM PST by lewisglad
Parody author defends 'Barack the Magic Negro' December 29, 2008 12:35 EST
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- The Memphis author of the musical parody "Barack the Magic Negro" says he isn't surprised the song has gotten some people upset.
Author Paul Shanklin describes the song as political satire and says it's supposed to be provocative.
The song, which is sung to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon, has drawn attention and criticism since Chip Saltsman -- the former head of the Republican Party in Tennessee -- sent out a CD with the song on it as Christmas presents.
Saltsman managed Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign and is now running for chairman of the Republican National Committee.
The song questions whether Obama is "authentically" black and intimates white voters wouldn't have voted for him if he had been from "the hood."
(Excerpt) Read more at wztv.com ...
You could not be more wrong. Songs do not hurt the GOP. The GOP meandering to the middle to appease a bunch of ill informed voters hurts the GOP. The template for successful elections was created in 1980 and 1984. We have not done anything like it since.
Even Newt coming out critical of the parody shows more difficulty with the party. As conservatives we do not need to look for the electorate to move to us, we need to move the electorate to our side....
There would be no controversy if there was no song. Now we have a stupid meaningless problem that will convince many we really are a racist party-good job Rush and RNC.
Based on your position here, I would like to see your previous comments isolating and criticizing the serious and hateful language used by the left against conservatives, Christians, white males, Southerners, etc before you convince me of anything.
a black man is president, this has neutralized much of the race baiter arguments.
This faux controversity is just an effort to give Obama the race baiter imunity totem ala survivor island.
I don’t like the song. I think it will convince a fair number of people that the GOP is racist. That being said even if you have a right to do something-free speech-doesn’t mean you should. This song has been floating around for a while. It’s not the song, it’s the fact the RNC got caught passing the song around. At best the song is an inside joke which most voters won’t understand. They will think the GOP is racist. Why do this to yourself. It was irresponsible for any member of the RNC to have anything to do with this stupid song.
Baloney.
I dislike this sort of thing in any situation. In my own party, it is intolerable because we are supposed to be better than this. Also, this is not a conservative principle-it’s a stupid song which should not have been played on Rush’s show in my opinion. Certainly the RNC should have stayed away from it.
That’s what’s so hilarious about this “scandal”, or would
be if the media actually reported on it. As the lyrics
clearly say, the song’s theme comes from the LA Times.
It also includes the infamous Joe Biden material about
Obama being “articulate” and “clean”. If they’re unhappy,
it should be with the LA Times, Joe Biden, and others
who the song was quoting. This is yet another example of
the fact that the mainstream media does zero background
checking or reporting for stories and simply reports
things as if there were no objective facts to reveal or
explain.
You want to move conservatism away from our history and principles into some morphed version of Democrat compromise politics. Forget the song parody for a moment...I see your equivocation logic on other issues and I would debate virtually all of them. So would most others here...and have, as I've seen for myself.
Don’t those egg shells hurt your dainty toes?
Michelle Malkin sez.
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/12/29/gag-worthy/
Gag-worthy: Bipartisan indignance over “Barack the Magic Negro” parody
By Michelle Malkin • December 29, 2008 01:16 PM
This is all a set up to for the launch of the Fairness Doctrine which will knock Rush off the radio by implying that he is a racist. Look for more of this crap as Liberals build their case that Rush and other talk show hosts need to be silenced because of their racism. Remember Imus????
While I don't think it's always racist (context matters), I agree that it should be assumed that any use of that term by a conservative will be assumed to be racist. But, if the MSM was doing it's job, they'd point that that Shanklin was making fun of Obama being called that by a left-wing LA Times columnist, as the song lyrics quite clearly state and nearly all of Rush Limbaugh's listeners are well aware of. The song also calls him "articulate", "bright", "clean", and "nice-looking" which can also be considered racist in context and would be, if it weren't for the fact that it was Joe Biden who called Barack Obama those things, which is what the song is making fun of. The song is a spot-on and hilarious spoof of things that the left wing was saying about Obama during the primaries if you understand the context but without the context or actually looking at the lyrics of the song (which nobody seems to be talking aout in the MSM for obvious reasons), it just looks like another example of Republicans being racist.
Thankfully Rush doesn’t take advise from you. It’s one of Paul’a funniest parodies. You go ahead and “be better than this”, just like McCain tried to do. The rest of us will try and win elections.
Isn’t “negro” the spanish word for “black”?
Conservatives have to get over this tendency to believe that we “can all get along” if we stop “offending” others with words. The people who tell us what is ‘acceptable’ speech and what is not ‘acceptable’ speech are using their powers of persuasion to control us. We have to absorb that fact and not let their power over us continue.
Almost all of the lyrics of the song come from that article or other comments that people on the left made about Barack Obama. Seriously. And Limbaugh's listeners would know that. What the mainstream media is doing is screaming about a title out of context because it contains a word that sounds racist but they are failing to do their job by not reporting the context, proving yet again how biased they are.
That said, conservatives should expect that that be more careful about what they say and do in the public so that they don't make it so easy for the mainstream media to put together "conservatives are a bunch of racists" hit pieces. Republicans are already assumed to be racist and while there are some who will never believe otherwise, a little more care might help convince those who can be convinced that it's not true.
The problem being, of course, that the parody only works if you already know about those particular quotes. And, as you correctly point out, the MSM will not report on their origin.
Even so -- it just isn't a very funny effort.
Hey shut in, have you heard this:
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)??
It’s about time for you to get a grip!!
Hammer, meet nail. Well said, Aruanan!
Colonel, USAFR
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