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Username: Tonya
Post Number: 5726
Registered: 07-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 08, 2007 - 06:54 pm: | 
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...The Magical Styling of Obama
By Ricardo Hazell
June 7, 2007
*There are times when logic escapes the everyday American. If one needs evidence of this then they need only look at the individual that has been taking up residence in the White House since the year 2000, George W. Bush. His two-time election can be seen as a miracle or a cursed plague, depending upon your perspective.
But presidential hopeful Barak Obama will need more than a miracle to win the election in 2008. He's going to need more magic than Ervin Johnson, Disney World and David Copperfield combined.
Yes, he will have to be a "Magic Negro," as he was so called by a Los Angeles Times columnist and radio blowhard Rush Limbaugh as well. The latter even had someone write a song about Obama and his magical qualities. The song was filled with racial undertones and had a line that went something like "he's not quite Black, he's not quite White, then what is he?"
It was foul and an underhanded "joke" coming from the right and it is not the last such "joke" we will be hearing regarding Mr. Obama's ethnicity. But it would seem those pulling for Barak Obama to become more "Black" may be getting their wish. He has noticeably, and somewhat annoyingly, avoided the race issue during his speeches so his recent speech at Hampton University can be seen as, dare I say it, magical. That got me to thinking, can this be used to his advantage.
On Tuesday, June 5th, Mr. Obama addressed the Convocation Center at Hampton University with a speech that could have easily been culled from the memoirs of any civil rights leader. The first-term senator from Illinois told those in attendance that Black people displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and all over the country, are currently engaged in what Mr. Obama coined as a "quiet riot." "This administration was colorblind it its incompetence," Obama told the nearly 8,000 attendees, "but the poverty and the hopelessness was there long before the hurricane."
Wow, when was the last time a presidential hopeful had anything like that too say, if ever? "All the hurricane did was to pull the curtain back for all the world to see." Mr. Obama continued making comparisons between the time preceding the LA riots in 1992 and the current state of Black America in general.
"Those 'quiet riots' that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths," Obama said. "They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things are never going to get any better."
The Associated Press reported that Mr. Obama's speech was filled with evangelical fire and was peppered with scripture and religious speak, just like one would think a Black man running for president's speeches should be. But who was the speech really directed at? It is a well-known fact among politicians that Black people simply do not vote. Even when the stakes are as high as, say, voting George W. Bush out of office, most Black voters were a disappointing no show. So, while Mr. Barak Obama was preaching to a majority African American audience, he was actually talking to common Americans. Which leads me to my primary point; is Barak Obama trying to live up, or down, to the stereotype of the Magic Negro? What or who is the Magic Negro and why do I keep capitalizing it? The term has its origins in all forms of American media dating back to the late 1800s and possibly beyond. But was only recently personified back in 2001 when Spike Lee dismissed this story time tool while discussing film with students at Washington State University and Yale University.
So, what exactly is a Magic Negro you say? You need only dig into your video library or open a few books and you'll see him or her there, saving White folks from all sorts of disastrous situations. Wikepedia describes the Magic Negro as being: "in some way outwardly or inwardly disabled, either by discrimination, disability or social constraint," often a janitor or prisoner.[5] He has no past; he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist.[6] He is the black stereotype, "prone to criminality and laziness."[7] To counterbalance this, he has some sort of magical power, "rather vaguely defined but not the sort of thing one typically encounters."[6] They are patient and wise, often dispensing various words of wisdom, and are "closer to the earth."[3] The magical negro serves as a plot device to help the protagonist get out of trouble, typically through helping the white character recognize his own faults and overcome them.[3] In this way, the magical negro is similar to the Deus ex machina; a simple way for the protagonist to overcome an obstacle almost entirely through outside help. Although he has magical powers, his "magic is ostensibly directed toward helping and enlightening a white male character."[5] It is this feature of the magical negro that some people find most troubling. Although the character seems to be showing African-Americans in a positive light, he is still ultimately subordinate to whites. He is also regarded as an exception, allowing white America to "like individual black people but not black culture."[8]
We all have noticed the Magic Negro in films and in literature and may have pointed it out to a fellow film watcher or book reader. He is almost as prevalent as the Scared Black Guy and the Black Guy Who Shirks His Duties. Yes, the Magic Negro is branded onto the psyche of America and most don't even know it. Here are but a few of the many, many examples in American popular culture: Uncle Remus in the film "Song of the South", Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier) in "The Defiant Ones", Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers and Melvin Van Peebles) in "The Shining" film of 1977 and the TV mini-series of 1997, Mother Abigail (Ruby Dee) in "The Stand" mini-series of 1994 (Yes, Stephen King is all into this Magic Negro thing), Will Smith in "Bagger Vance" and even Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) of my favorite modern sci-fi franchise "The Matrix" trilogy. Dang! But this is only a very short list.
So, I wonder if Mr. Obama is familiar with the idea of the Magic Negro? As intelligent and well read an individual as he is, I am almost certain he is aware of the Magic Negro phenomenon. Can he use this common American plot device to write his own script to the White House? That remains to be seen. However, we can help write his success story by at least making an attempt at exercising our right to vote. Do African American's believe in the idea of the Magic Negro? I believe we did once, but not anymore. But Americans in general do. We cling to ideas that are introduced by one mass medium or another and several people have been elected to high office based upon those fictional ideas. Ronald Reagan was elected on those ideas of Wild Westerns, Arnold Schwarzenegger used the Terminator terminology often on his road to becoming California's governor and once during a film press junket at which I was present Will Smith stated that he would like to one day run for president. The prior examples given illustrate two things: that fictional concepts can get one elected and that at least one person is planning on using filmgoers' perception of his qualities as a vehicle to high office in the future. I admit unlike Ronald Reagan as "The Gipper" and Schwarzenegger as "The Terminator," the Magic Negro, while far more prevalent in Americana, is still a vague idea. "The Gipper" and "The Terminator" immediately garner some sort of response. But the Magic Negro requires some pondering.
Far fetched you say? Probably, but who would have thought Ronald Reagan would become present prior to 1979 and who would have ever thought Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to be governor of one of the largest states in the Union? Besides, a Black man as president of the United States? He's gonna have to be magical because it'll be a miracle if more than 35% of registered Black voters show up on election day and it'll be a miracle if they all vote for him. It'll be a miracle if there is not some sort of election fraud. It'll be a miracle if he wins the Democratic nomination and if he does that it'll be a miracle if he wins the state of Ohio. And if he wins? It'll be a miracle if he lives long enough to be inaugurated. He might as well ride this magic thing until the wheels fall off. Perhaps he should open his next speech with "My fellow Americans, pick a card, any card..."
Ricardo Hazell is a freelance writer based in Dallas, Texas. He can be reached at rick_hazell@yahoo.com
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