Tweet
They really shouldn’t keep Tweety up past his bedtime.
Chris Matthews on Obama: “I forgot he was black tonight for an Hour” |
|
| By: twolf1 Wednesday January 27, 2010 7:51 pm | |
Chris Matthews on Obama: “I forgot he was black tonight for an Hour” |
|
| By: twolf1 Wednesday January 27, 2010 7:51 pm | |
They really shouldn’t keep Tweety up past his bedtime.
Help the Occupy Supply Fund continue to support more than 60 occupations across the country!
$205,937.00 RAISED
$192,393.71 SPENT
Last updated 2/20
100% of donations committed to the occupations served by Occupy Supply
About MyFDL
MyFDL is the community site of progressive political blog Firedoglake. Anyone can participate by writing a diary, commenting on others’ diaries, or joining groups to find other people in your area. Content posted to MyFDL is the opinion of the author alone, and should not be attributed to Firedoglake.
News. Community. Activism.
Firedoglake is a member-supported organization.
Help us continue our work for as little as $45/year.
29 Comments
*Big Sigh*
Tweety’s home voicemail filled, declining new messages.
I will try again later.
Kisses to the wife, Chris.
Because what, he was clean and articulate? Moran.
Wow…he really said that? That’s really bad. And Chris is supposed to be liberal? I don’t think so.
He said he forgot he was black right before he marveled about how it felt to be watching him and thinking he was black. So Chris is contrasting this with the usual, when he’d be thinking about the color of Obama’s skin with the frequency most men think about sex. Every 3rd word out of Matthews’ mouth – tribalism, old school politics, whatever, is a reference to race. Mr. Potato Head sucks.
Tweety was just testing out his material for the WH Correspondents Dinner. Apparently he missed the announcement the gig has already been awarded to some other comedic hack.
I thought what he said was really absorbing. Why for a second there I forgot he was a paid off media whore commentator for corporate America. I think he is really growing into the role.
ROFL!
He just kept on digging too…! ;-)
WTF…?
Tweety said that because he’s racially colorblind. But he’s totally not racist – he even has a black friend.
OMFG. Could the be perhaps what is really wrong with this country?
Chris is an example of “SUPER WHITE PRIVILEGE”. He has no clue. They really need to give him some classes on race relations. Ugh.
You got it. They are clueless.
Barbara Bush meet Tweetybird.
Color me unsurprised. Tweety is a white male of a certain age (apologies to those here in a similar age bracket; not everyone is the same) who simply doesn’t get it. He’s so cushioned in his little privileged white guy old boys network world that he thinks making statements like this make him relevant or “in touch” or something. Matthews is such a tool. I rarely ever watch his show. He loves to suck up to rightwing @$$holes, so that’s all anyone needs to know about him.
I don’t see why you’re getting upset over this. This is what post racial means. He stopped being the first black president and just became the president. He’s validating what Obama has been going for this whole time.
That’s a big change in a man’s mind. It means race is less of an issue. It means he’s accepting a black man as president.
This is a foolish thing to get upset over and it gives the left a bad name.
shame on all of you.
I am BLACK and I assure you I was offended by that statement. Would he had said I forget that Bush was White after listening to a speech?
It’s basically saying Obama doesn’t fit HIS stereotype of a blackperson for that hour. Further if race wasn’t an issue why bring it up? When white presidents speak who goes around dissecting their race?
Black folks are not an oddity that you can say wow, he is so civilized, I forget he was black and think that is acceptable.
Fuck Tweety and the condescending horse he rode in on.
No the SHAME is on you Inquisitr!
I took it completely differently.
And while I am not black myself, I’ve spoken to a number of different people, and they all didn’t seem to have a problem.
So no, shame on you for being such a nit pick and missing what he was actually saying.
@23
No you’re completely missing the point. he IS just like you. That’s what Matthews was saying. He didn’t see race anymore, he was passed it, he just saw a guy.
If you can’t see what that’s not a bad statement I pity you.
For one whole hour Matthews saw a person and not a color. Then after that hour, back to business as usual.
Hmmm … so you and Tweety are not racists because you have black acquaintances? Notice I didn’t say friends! BTW the fact that you are not black definitely should have been your first clue to shut-the-fuck-up and understand how the aggrieved party (black folks) may feel.
I am nit-picking because some white dude thinks Obama isn’t white for an hour because he sounded Presidential? I am suppose to be cool with Tweety saying?
I repeat “Black folks are not an oddity that you can say, wow … he is so civilized, I forget he was black” That shit is unacceptable, period regardless of the intent.
Matthews was expressing his astonishment not for a whole hour taking the man’s race into account. What does he do the rest of the time? Perhaps we should cut him some slack and accept this as his personal epiphany. I do admit I loath his prejudices and that may keep me from accepting it as a true conversion.
Matthews is likely more malignantly narcissistic than purely racist.
I know we so desperately want to not be racist many of us blind ourselves to the obvious. At one time I thought that might be OK and would encourage it dying out. It has not. Currently racism is if less physically dangerous the memes are as if not more virulent in some of its memes.
The core however is not color but the practice, indeed a philosophy and political ideology, of hierarchical organization according to material characteristics, then judging individuals and groups as less deserving of respect etc.
That said: The US has a long history of considering color as one of those characteristics on which to judge. I actually think now it is more prevalent to see it on the basis of wealth. Winners and losers.
Look Chris Matthews tripped all over this statement. But he had a solid point that we have come some way, but clearly not far enough.
I wonder how many other blacks were offended by his statement.
Chris Matthews made a solid point last night and went where others are afraid to go
he made a solid point about people forgetting race. If you think this is not an issue then you have your head up where the sun does not shine.
I was just up in Steamboat Springs Colorado. A town I lived in 35 years ago. Years ago I was out cross country skiing on old abandoned ranch lands. Came up on an old barn went inside and there hung a dummy hung by a noose with KKK scrawled across the t shirt on the dummy. Took pictures,
On this trip I talked to the one black woman that I saw in town during my three days there. She has been there for close to a decade. Our conversation went deep. She told me one story about having three guys in a pick up truck follow her for miles. Pass her and then go slow and then she would pass and they would pass her again. Finally she went into a large dept store to report this odd behaviour, when she came out to wait for police “n*****” had been etched into the side of her car with keys. They were able to identify the men with store cameras that were focused on the parking lot. She had to push the sheriff to follow through with proscuting these racist This was just two years ago.
She then went onto tell me another another story of a young black man visiting in the region. He went into a bar in Meeker Colorado. Some young white women encouraged him to get up on the dance floor with them. he did so. When he left the bar five white guys were outside and beat the living day lights out of him and told him never to come back to their town and to stay with his own kind of women. This was three years ago.
If you think the Massachusetts upset is not partially due to the racism and sexism that is still alive in areas of Boston and other parts of Massachusetts you need to hit the streets in Boston and start asking some questions about racism. Former Ted Kennedy was able to keep the lid on this racism in Boston while he was Senator through his right on support for health care for all and his big white bought and paid for Irish Catholic ways. Lots of racism still alive in those Boston neighborhoods
If you think that Chris Matthews was out of line for bringing this up. That it is really different for many people to forget that Obama is black then you have your head up where the sun does not shine for sure.
There’s no question racism is alive and well in America.
The super rich white class are as racist as any southern good old boys.
The difference is they think they aren’t.
Tweety might have been making a point, but his delivery was rather indelicate.
“but his delivery was rather indelicate”
Tripped over his tongue. He has been there before.
Was amazed that none of the big MSM cheeses brought this factor up in the Coakley race. While she ran a bad campaign, she attended 19 public events, Brown attended 60 etc etc.
I think the big handsome white guy riding around Mass in a big truck said it all. Kennedy has been able to keep the lid on the racism that still exist around Boston and other parts of Mass. That lid has been taken off by his passing. This was a factor in that race along with Coakley being pro choice and running a bad campaign.
Read that the right wing talk show influence in Mass was huge lots of Coalkley bashing
I promise you racism is alive and well, now in all sections of the county.
No better proof than it’s supposed to be good to “forget” an African American is dark skinned.
Just why do you think these effete white guys have to have such big pickups and SUVs?
No one “forgot” he was black..I know that’s what tweety said but it’s not how he meant it.
It would have been betetr for him to say it didn’t matter….that it wasn’t a black president talking it was just the president.
That was how I took it and I see nothing wrong with that. It’s a really very weak argument, there’s worse you could say about him.
I agree that what we can hope for is to be like the rest of the civilized world and notice skin color just as we notice the color of one’s hair but place no particular hierarchical position or value on it.
But I am sorry you can’t put lipstick on the Matthews pig. He said and implied over and over that it was good to forget the man has dark skin. (and imagine he is “just like me” )
We all know Matthews is extremely conscious of ethnics, religious blocs, sex, race etc. He describes others as like me or not like me. At the best narcissism.
All white Americans are racist, just like you can’t get the tea out of the water (easily) once its been brewed, we’re steeped in racism just for growing up here.
The question is not so much whether or not any of us is racist, rather the critical question is “what are we doing about it?”
pardon the typos. ran out of editing time