Was Senator Biden's comments a "macacca moment"?

[Jo]

Senator Biden said the following about Barak Obama, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man.''

Do you take issue with what Biden said? Is the media making too much of it? Is this going to be an on going problem for him?

[Lori]

I think it was a stupid thing to say, and offensive and ignorant, but it doesn't necessarily change my opinion of him (not that I know enough about Biden to have an opinion anyway), because I've said stupid, offensive, and ignorant things without really thinking, and I wouldn't want someone's entire opinion of me to change because of that, especially because if I'd probably totally disavow what I'd said after I thought about it and realized what the words that came out of my mouth actually meant.

So I'd have to know more about him and his record on race relations before I really had an opinion. It's one thing to call someone "macacca" when you have a noose hanging in your office and a history of racist remarks and actions; it's another to make an offensive and ignorant comment when you've been committed throughout your career to racial equality. I think the media has too much of a tendency to jump on things people say without looking at the person's actions. I don't have any problem with the media making an issue of a candidate having a poor history with racial issues, which a comment may be a part of, but I do think that jumping on one comment (no matter who made it) is not especially productive.

[Jejune]

According to Daniel, the context of that quote was about the media story about Obama. He says that Biden wasn't saying that Obama IS the first articulate, clean African American candidate, but that the media story about him is that he is. And that makes a great deal of sense to me, actually. I don't love Senator Biden, but I don't think he's actually racist.

However, the way the media story is playing out, it's a macacca moment, sure. Ironically, if the point he was making was that the media story is more important than the real story.

It's reminding me of what happened to William Bennett (http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/30/bennett.comments/). I hate Bill Bennett, and I admit, part of me was pleased, but I thought the thing that he got in so much hot water for was taken out of context and misused. I think that he was saying that people could make an argument for that if they were looking only at statistics, and that that would not make sense.

Basically, the lesson seems to be that you should only speak in your own voice if you're in politics.

[Kristen]

So, basically, people are thinking he means that most African Americans are not mainstream, bright, clean, and nice-looking? I've seen some pretty dull, dirty, ugly white people before, myself.

It's not like there have never been articulate black men(or women) in positions of note before. I don't watch much TV, or keep up with news much, but I've always thought Colin Powell was. and that soldier who used to do press conferences...um, Vincent Brooks was his name, I think? He was very bright and well-spoken. Condoleeza Rice too.

Is all the fuss because the media is saying he's the first black presidential candidate to have these qualities?

'scuse my ignorance...I'm pretty bad about keeping up with political news!

[Jejune]

Kristen, what I heard was that he was saying Senator Obama's popularity was down to the media story about him, and that the media story was like a fairy tale, as though Obama was the first articulate, bright, clean, nice-looking black man ever to hold office, which of course is not true. And that was the point. That it's a storybook, not the truth. He was saying that all anyone knows about Obama is a fairytale.

And, to be honest, there's a stereotype of "articulate" that's fairly unpleasant, because it doesn't really mean articulate. Tavis Smiley is extremely articulate and well spoken, but he sounds black, and I think that when most white Americans refer to an "articulate" African American, they mean someone who sounds white. But again, I don't think that's what Biden meant. I think he meant that the media fawning and storybook coverage was working in Obama's favor, including in terms of stereotypes and quiet racism.

[Lori]

Basically, the lesson seems to be that you should only speak in your own voice if you're in politics.

That's also very similar to what happened with the Pope, another person I'm not particularly fond of, but who was called on for something he didn't actually say.

[gr8mommy]

I must be more naive than I thought, because when I first heard it I thought he meant 'clean' in the 'untouched by scandal' sense.