Obama Gives Ebony First Post-Election Interview, Photoshoot

So which magazine was the first to get a sit down interview and photo shoot with President-elect Barack Obama?

Ebony Magazine, which was visited by the president-elect at its Chicago offices in the Michigan Ave. headquarters building of its parent, Johnson Publishing Co.

That Obama would give his first magazine and photo session to Ebony seems fitting. The magazine was a pioneer in publishing in much the way Obama's a trailblazer in politics.

Evolved from Negro Digest, which was founded in 1942 by John Johnson, Ebony for decades was one of the few periodicals African-Americans could turn to for images and stories about black strivers and movers and shakers rarely ever seen in the mainstream media.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[ceasespin]

make the media more accountable
sign the fcc petition to introduce a "News Quality Rating System"
petition is at
http://ceasespin.org/fcc_petition/fcc_petition.php
or FixNewsNow.org

[jaydeedub]

0044

[JHCowboy]

What a refreshing thing for us. We actually have a very handsome man who is going to be our President. :)

[ApolloniaCreed]

Great! I love Ebony... looking forward to it.

[SeanGardner]

Its interesting that Obama would choose EBONY for his first post-election interview and photoshoot. EBONY put Barack and Michelle on the front cover of its February 2007 issue with the heading, "American Next First Couple". The magazine came out days before B-rock announcecd his candidacy. So in light of what has happened, that cover is a collector's item.

[MasterfullyInept]

Think the will sell many issues?
Good for JPC.They have long been a force in the Chicago business community, and a fine example of black entrepreneurship.

By the way the Chicago Sun Times had an article last week bragging about how it's cool to be from Chicago now.

I think their right.

Who'd a thunk we would ever had a COOL president?

[meleon]

I know people who never collected nothing but dust before who have now become crazy obsessed with obtaining Obama anything.

One person I know has focused on tee's while another newspapers where he's on the front, and another is collecting any magazine that he's on. I imagine it's like when Kennedy was president and it's lovely to see so much excitement.

[ckfan]

Brother man is rocking those shades. Damn!

[cutandpost]

yes he is

[walk0nwalls]

Damn skippy

[BellaFurie]

So, will Christopher Hitchens still maintain that Obama is not really "black"? I hope this news mellows his tin ear for cultural subtleties in the US, where he still seems to exist in the thick-skinned guise of a naughty English private schoolboy from a bygone era.

And, if Hitchens does persist in claiming that Obama is not really back, does he also insist then that Mallia and Sasha are not either?

[Fongenie]

What all did Christopher Hitchens' say?

[BellaFurie]

Fongenie, one example is right here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-tv/arianna-on-bbc-newsnight_b_141651.html
Hitchens has expounded this idea elsewhere, in links I've lost in the whirlwind of the past few weeks. But they should still be online. In his column for the Mirror in the UK, he carelessly described the American black slave heritage as "debased" in comparison with Obama's recent African bloodline.

I think Hitchens thinks that he is being helpfully educative and corrective. But he seems not to understand that most of the native black population of the US expects that they might have some white blood in their veins, yet still resoundingly counts themselves as black. Hitchens, whom I have admired and read for decades, now seems out of touch.

He seems to be straining towards a description of Obama as a new template, but is stuck in figuring out the blend he represents, seems mired in an argument from earlier this year or last year, which now seems decades away, that Obama is not black enough, without recognising that Obama has rewritten for the masses what black means, as Igg (above) describes.

[BellaFurie]

Do a Google News search: "christopher hitchens" black obama. I've noticed today that he's stirred a response.

[SoD1]

Hmm.. Actually, I believe what Christopher Hitchens means is what I personally recommend most obviously "mixed" Children : CHOSE, whatever you want to be whenever it suits YOU best!
Why follow and LIVE the insidious same rule that resembles the 5% Blood "Reinheit" of the Nazis, hmm?
Obama as well as his CHILREN are whatever they chose be, for the time be they chose it!

Considered that most of the American "native" Populace is in one or the other way "mixed", maybe you all should "chose' to do the same as well , hmm?!
See the "Irony" of "Race" in America now, hmm?
Best Regards!
SoD1

[kesiac]

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all pick and choose our race as individuals. We don't live in that type of society. Obama is black, and other mixed children are black because society deems them as that. Children of multi racial parentage have to deal discrimination because of the tone of their skin. Getting pulled over and arrested because of driving while black, getting passed over for jobs because of the color of their skin makes the reality of racism real to those with lighter skin color. These are small examples of what makes multi-racial children relate to their "blackness" more than their "whiteness". What you are saying is ideal, and one day we ALL will be judged by the content of our charachter. But that day has not come yet. I do believe though, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

[harriscrl3]

Obama being black is not only a choice its a requirement imposed on by society. He wouldnt be able to walk around saying I'm mixed or I'm white if he said the latter people would look at him like he is nuts even though a person takes the race of their mother the former people would say Oh he is somone who is mixed up and confused. Fortunately it worked out for Obama he is very comfortable being AA. But I will say this Obama's confidence comes from how he was raised. He was raised by his white mother and grandparents and you could see that he was someone who was loved. He was also raised in a diverse culture like Hawaii. He was exposed to diversity and he was loved and also he had first hand experience not only of his mother's struggle but of also abject poverty living in Indonesia it makes you fortunate and appreciate more what you have.

Carol

[lgg]

Obama is Black, ask the skin heads that wanted to whack him last week.
1. The idea that he might speak differently than most black people comes from the FACT that all non-Black Americans get the majority of information about how black people speak and act from the television. Why not ask the black person who works two cubicles over from you out for lunch and see for yourself how they speak?
2. Obama doesn't speak WHITE and he doesn't act white, he was educated at Harvard and was president of the Harvard Law Review how else is he supposed to speak and act? Think about it: If Obama speaks like a white person then what does Toby Keith speak like? A dufus, I know but really does that make him a dufus? NO it just makes him uneducated, and he's STILL white. The logic just doesn't play out, but here's another one for you, I know very well educated Indian's who have a very Hitchens like English accent, and they are darker than Obama and speak like Obama and Hitchens for that matter, does that make them white? NO! They were just educated in London, but they are still Indian. Get it? It's a stupid assertion that an educated demeanor and "good" English diction is somehow wholly the realm of white people. If only white people can sound and act educated then why not just say uneducated white people are actually black because they don't sound white? Lame.

[ejazzed1059]

SUPER COOL,SUPER SMOOTH...

[chewie2008]

cool.

[LouisRatz]

re-birth of cool

[SoD1]

Hmm.. Interesting "choice" I would see this more as a "Thank You" to his very first Supporters.
Sure the conservative "Anti-Multiculturalism" opposer but "Theocrazy" supporter would love to "reverse-use" President Obama's decision as "reverse Racism". Just that they "might" be forgetting a.) he is mixed, b.) that the average U.S. Mass Entertaining Media during the entire election was not very "objective" in case of Obama in the recent past. An Intelligent Person would naturally avoid such "Reality twisters" and set his focus on the ones he know for certain will not distort his Word. Ebony is one, Huffingtonpost and Link TV could clearly be another but this low numbers of objective Media necessitate a DIRECT informational Medium/Station/Program made by frequented and the Obama Administration and International independent entity. Sure it has to be about Domestic as well as about International News, what were you thinking.

[SoD1]

Oh Did I forgot to mention that it would also clearly bankrupt Fox Noise and all the other fatalistic moralistic Demagogues as 'political' "News" Media, hmm?
Well, now I did!

[tangelan]

Huh? What are you talking about? This topic wasn't even interesting. You're getting way too deep.

[Rice]

Barack did not have the confidence of the Black vote initially, so this is not a thank you to his "very first supporters". It is another interview of which many more will follow. Another mag for the collections of the masses. I for one will be very much looking forward to it. I have the same photo in a news paper clipping and it is Barack at his coolest and finest. i'd love to find the original to go next to my life sized cutout of him in my room.:-)

[SoD1]

Hmm.. fan and fanatism are close relatives! But I believe did get your sarcasm.

The magazine itself "Ebony" was meant with "his First supporters", not the "black" Population, which obviously not neccessary were the very first as you noticed.

Best Regards and enjoy your poster.

[toocoldout]

Actually Oprah was his first supporter. She endorsed him on Larry King & on her show in the fall of 2006 & put his book on the best-seller list.

[lioness99]

Spare me the fluff, and get to work on Progressive policies that will pull black people out of poverty.

REALITY CHECK: Just because Obama (one person) is president doesn't mean everything is okie-dokie, and we have all overcome. We should hold his feet to the fire more than anybody.

[SoD1]

Hmm partially can agree. But why him more than ANYbody? Why morethan Bush and Cheney?

Will you be willing to hold their "feet to the fire" as well, right NOW hmm?
Why or why not, 'friend"' ??

[lioness99]

Power concedes nothing without demand. Just because he's black doesn't mean anything, he said so himself. He's accountable just like any other president.

[LeftLeanWing]

I hope you're ready to walk barefoot on some coals yourself....

Obama states that it is WE who must make the CHANGE WE NEED.

So feet don't fail me now !

[lioness99]

I'm with that.

[nellie]

Spare me the fluff, and get to work on Progressive policies that will pull black people out of poverty.

-----------------------------------------

What a statement. As if the AA population were a single-faceted monolith.

[Sabreen60]

What an inane statement. Third grader, huh.

[deezblok]

I doubt that he has got this far on fluff. Holding his feet to the fire would require that you either become or continue to be active in civic society. I trust that you will work your hardest for your community, your schools, your family, your civic organizations etc. I hope that you're not going to sit on the ledge waiting to prance. Without a safety net you might just fall and crack your skull.

[Gasparilla]

I would at least take some of the comments on here with a grain of salt. i think there are some people looking to get racial arguments going on here.

[jaydeedub]

http://flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/sets/72157608716313371/show/

[StillIRise]

Bella. I have a personal question to ask you: Did you even vote for Barack Obama?? I have a strange feeling that you're the one "jumping on the O train," yet you're still harboring some deep resentment in respect the element of race that has overshadowed this election, whether it's the overwhelming black support that Obama enjoyed, or the fact that Obama happens to be black, or the symbolic meaning of his election, celebrated by all Americans, but uniquely so in the black community. Or is it all of the above or none of the above. I'm trying very hard to understand the premise for your argument, and the illogical rationale that you've attached to it. Obama is AMERICA'S President, not the president of black people or t of white people, not the president of Democrats or Republicans ... and so on. He is the president of those who supported him and those who did not, of those who jumped on board early on and those who came on board later. He's everyone's president, even those in the global community who've claimed him as their's as well. This is a time to celebrate, Bella ... not to divide.