Obama makes reference to the "typical white person."

Doodsmack

Member
:
2002 Protege ES
Interesting quote from Obama on the campaign trail yesterday, which I'm sure some of you have heard of. In reference to his major speech on race, in which he described his grandmother's occasional racist remarks, Obama said the following:

"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, but that she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know - there's a reaction in her that's been bred into our experiences that don't go away and sometimes come out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through..."

Now, I'm sure there are arguments and counterarguments as to whether we should make a big deal out of this quote. But there's one thing that I don't think anyone can possibly deny: if Hillary or McCain had made reference to the "typical black person," the nation would be in uproar. And that would be the end of the campaign, period.

I should mention that Obama's campaign has attempted to clarify Obama's statement by saying that he was merely referring to the prevailing attitudes of his grandmother's generation - not every single white person. That is a cop-out if I've ever heard one. Obama used the present tense and specifically stated, "our experiences...nature of race in our society." It is a stretch to read the past tense into these statements...he was without a doubt referring to present-day white people, implying that they are all afraid of black people.

Double standard?
 
I can not wait for elections so these threads can stop!(gun)(gun)(deadhorse



There are typical every color people. Get thicker skin or stay home.
 
Yikes, Talk about opening up a can of worms...

The one thing you have to realize is that what you are seeing is a reverse minority. In the world of Political Correctness, you are allowed to insult the majority to appeal to the minority. It works this way in every aspect of politics. Race, Religion, Sex, you name it. Just look at "One nation under God..." Nevermind that the majority religion in America is Christian (~78%), every year we hear about taking "under God" out of the pledge of allegiance. We need to appeal to the minority, even if it offends/effects the majority. Affirmitive action. Nevermind the fact that you get a 3.9 GPA, you lose your spot in Harvard to a kid with a 3.4 just because he is native american and you are white.

I definitely think that something needs to be done to help as many people as you can. (in the case of affirmitive action) But isnt that the point of HBCUs, NAACP, and other racially secluded organizations? Not saying that are bad, just that I always thought that was what they were for.

Now I totally agree with the fact that blacks have had a rough gig. But look at every society in the world. Every one has had it rough at one point. One point that I find interesting is blacks want to bring up slavery. But see if any of them know about the Irish slaves. The Irish slaves used to have to do the work that the owners didnt want the black slaves doing because the black slaves were "worth something."
So what is the difference between the 2? The Irish slaves have let it go and blended into society. The blacks have not.

In the end people will always be focused one something to set themselves apart from another. Its just that black and white has been the most recent one in our society. Coming up strong though is religion. Soon it will be Muslims saying they deserve retribution checks.

Also, has anyone seen the column on ESPN about Lebron James cover of Vogue? check it out. It kind of ties in to this. Maybe the reason he was on the cover of Vogue in basketball attire is because...I dont know.. He PLAYS BASKETBALL?!
 
Ya'll are crazy...I'm black and I don't think I'm scary at all. Unless you ask my children.

I think we (all) are too damn sensitive...but at the same time some people have been through some dragic stuff. I'm just a walking contradiction. I'm done now...
 
i think his pasture dude is completely screwing up his campaign. And he is letting it happen.
 
Interesting quote from Obama

"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, but that she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know - there's a reaction in her that's been bred into our experiences that don't go away and sometimes come out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through..."

That version is running around on the right wing web sites, for instance here:
http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/q=MDg1MTk0YjQ2YjI1ZDBhNDYzMTA4Y2NhMDA4ZWRlOWU=

However, it appears to be an intentional misquote, dropping two key words and applying the most inflammatory possible punctuation. What he actually said (at least, this is how it sounds to me, and there is an audio link here too)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/taylor-marsh/obama-grandmother-typic_b_92601.html
was:

The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person who, uh, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know there's a reaction that's been been bred into our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through it

Ignore the punctuation, he was clearly putting the sentence together as he spoke it (hence the "uh" pause). I believe the construct was intended to be:

she is a typical (white person who if she ...).

Here is a shorter equivalent construct without the racial tension thrown in to muddy sentiments: He is a typical dog who is afraid of the rain. Most dogs are not afraid of the rain. The sentence says that those dogs who are afraid of the rain share a set of behaviors or other characteristics, and the particular dog that is referred to belongs in that restricted group.

Had he to do it over again Obama would most likely have avoided the word "typical", that always rubs people the wrong way. That pales in comparison to the quotes which drop the "who" and "uh" so that a period could be placed after "white person", converting what was supposed to be a nuanced classification of people like his grandmother into a broad categorization of white people in general. He clearly included "who" in the preceding phrase, but the misquote could hardly have ended the sentence with ".... typical white people who." So they had to drop the who in order to mangle the meaning. To borrow a phrase: typical.

Sometimes English sucks for communication, especially in cases where punctuation would change the sense of a sentence, and when it is spoken, one cannot always infer the intended punctuation. See Lynne Truss's book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" for innumerable examples of what happens when punctuation is misapplied.
 
So, did you post this 'cause you're a typical Hillary supporter or a typical republican? ;)
 
unity_globe_smaller.jpg
 
Back