Why is Everything Obama Does Considered so, well, Exotic?

This is a column I originally wrote for the St. Petersburg Times a few days ago, about what I called the fist pound explained 'round the world.

When Barack Obama exchanged a playful touching of fists with wife Michelle before going on to announce his historic ascension as the Democratic party's first non-white nominee for president, he did much more than prove he's hipper than most of the political class in America.

He also inspired an explosion of mindless explanatory news stories.

Nevermind that athletes and black folks have been giving each other "dap" by touching fists for something like 30 years. Two characters even exchanged the greeting in Winona Ryder's seminal movie about angsty white teens, Heathers -- a film released nearly 20 years ago.

No matter. When Obama the phenom unleashes a bit of pop culture flash to the masses, the political media can't help but explain it to us; even when it's obvious we already know what it means.

So Time magazine gave us "A Brief History of the Fist Bump," nearly 600 words on the origin of the move just stiff enough to leave readers uncertain if they were joking.

The Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Washington Post and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also weighed in (though I loved writer Ta-Nehisi Coates' observation to the Post that, for bringing such black-isms to the political world, "Barack is like Black Folks 2.0.")

Cable news channels discussed the bump for days, with U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kay Bailey Hutchison painfully re-creating it on CNN.

And, of course, Fox News Channel anchor E.D. Hill stepped in it big-time when she seemed to suggest one interpretation of the move could be as a "terrorist fist jab." She has since, mercifully, apologized (Hill also lost her 11 a.m. show Tuesday in a move Fox News says is not related to the comment.)

Still, to prevent further confusion, perhaps we should go over a few more nuggets from black culture that Obama might reference as the campaign progresses.

"Brother" -- When black folks use this term to refer to another black person, they are not necessarily talking blood relations. The likely reference: a shorthand for the old-school term of affection, "Soul Brother."

"Diss" -- Shorthand for "disrespect," this is a term used when someone insults another, disparaging their status. So you might say John McCain's recent words about the Democratic candidate's lack of foreign policy experience were a serious diss to Obama.

The hand clinch leading into a one-armed embrace -- This is a move light years beyond the "closed-fisted high five" Obama brought to the nation June 3. Here, the clincher executes an open-ended hand clasp with his subject, then pulls the person in for a one-handed hug. For extra cool points, make your fingers snap with the subject as you end the hand clasp. Novices should not attempt this without a third party spotting.

"Whassup" -- Black folks stopped using this greeting when its widespread use in a Budweiser Super Bowl commercial made every Caucasian with ESPN sling it at their acquaintances of color. Still, if anyone can make its use cool again, Obama's the man.

In seriousness, his use of the dap seems much more about his generation -- blending ethnic cultures in a way some academics call "post racial." So it's odd that an action that has been mainstream for so long suddenly takes on an exotic quality because Obama does it.

The truth is, it's just a cool handshake.

I hope journalists learn to save the thumb-sucking explainer pieces for when they're really needed. Because Obama's appeal isn't in the exotic way he brings black culture to politics, but in the seemingly effortless way he navigates black and white culture, suggesting a comfortable common ground.

Comments

[meanguy]

exotic? hardly...calculated? exactly

[kgb999]

The thing that the MSM has added to the picture is that prior to this I had NEVER heard the gesture referred to as a "Fist Pound" - WTF?

[amantell]

I'm a white, Jewish, mid-30's male, and I do the fist pound regularly to express happiness with friends and colleagues alike. It's a great gesture and hardly exotic. Perhaps the disconnect between the media who've spent so much time scrutinizing Barack and Michelle's display of affection and the fist pound is caused by the dorkiness of the reporters.

[Sparty1]

Wow! As an AA female, I didn't know it was so unique being black. Now, I'm an 'exotic' person. I mean isn't that what they call animals and foods that one has never seen or experienced? It's really a sad time in our lives when we can't even have Barack on face value. They've got to come after him and play on people's fears. At first, he wasn't black enough and now he's the Columbia/Harvard educated thug that's coming for all the white women!

Kind of reminds me of Blazing Saddles, when the preacher said to the crowd "The new sheriff's a ni***r and everybody screamed in horror.

[ChewyToy22]

I feel sorry for those who swallow what the media says hook, line and sinker. Just a little bit of common sense would make it obvious how stupid the media is and how much ignorant people are preyed on.

I would hope they could find important things to talk about, things relevant to our existence, our future, but they waste so much time on things that are too unimportant to even be called trivial; total non-issues. I have gotten tired of watching these people make asses of themselves and having the audacity to think I have time to waste watching them do so.

I just feel sorry for people who actually fall for it.

[foreffectivegovernment]

The word "Exotic" was used to describe David Axelrod and he is not Black. Since he designed Barack Obama, maybe he used his own image. Maybe this will explain why the term is being used to describe Obama.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/magazine/01axelrod.t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
By BEN WALLACE-WELLS
Published: April 1, 2007
When the first major profile of Axelrod appeared in Chicago magazine in 1987, three years after he left a high-profile job as the lead political reporter for The Chicago Tribune to work as a political operative, the article ("Hatchet Man: The Rise of David Axelrod") began by comparing him to an "exotic rodent." Two decades later, there remains the matter of the comb-over and the damp mustache, but his looks seem less important now. In the last four years, Axelrod has helped steer campaigns for fully four of the Democrats now running for president " Obama, Clinton, John Edwards and Chris Dodd " and one who dropped out (Tom Vilsack); framed the messages for the new young governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick; and served as the chief political adviser for Representative Rahm Emanuel when the congressman helped orchestrate the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives last fall.

[rasthedestroyer]

Sen. O is a blackman who just so happens to see the world from a blackman's perspective. Sen. O is bi-racial who happens to see the world from a bi-racial perspective. Sen. O is a husband and father and son... Sen. O is a politician who happen to see the world as a Statesman.

[politicojunkie]

I couldn't have said it better. Thank you rathedestroyer.

[meanguy]

"sen O" is a con artist who happens to see the world from as con artists's persepective...sheep to be shorn

[cobobs]

I wished haters like meanguy were more exotic. Unfortunately, they are endemic.

[Tommygun264]

While the article in its own tongue-in-cheek way demonstrates how ridiculous some segments of the mainstream corporate media sound lately as they try to make everything about the Obamas seem alien and exotic by analyzing them in a cold, dry manner; it fails to address the heart of the issue head on. Perhaps Mr. Deggens prefers to allow the reader to come to their own conclusions as a matter of style, but I believe in this case we need to be blunt because the entire reason critics of the Obamas use buzz words like "exotic" and adopt a cold, dry, analytical tone is so they can get their darker, less socially acceptable message across without coming out and saying it. In fact they do it so well that many times the message is received by well-meaning people of the right-wing without their being fully conscious of the underlying message. To put it simply, the Republicans and their minions in the media pundit class are doing everything they can to make the Obamas seem "blacker", alien and mysterious in order to trigger a racist emotional reaction. They want to promote the fear that if Barack and Michelle Obama are permitted to achieve positions of power, white Americans will somehow be reduced to second class citizenship and we will return to the days of segregation, only this time it will be the African-Americans in charge and the whites will be gettng the short end of the stick.

[michaelgp72]

Well said Tommygub264!!!!

[AnotherTry]

You don't see how even responding is part of the problem, do you?

Keep playing their game and lose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzH6gAq6Wr0

[Sundialsvc4]

Well, Eric, it's all part of the same media-game that's been going on for more than two years. A marvelous distraction from "Impeachment is Off The Table." A grand bit of crowd psychology, carefully orchestrated and arranged.

The game is this: divide the country against itself, and feed each one of them a platitude that will polarize them against "the other" platitude, so that neither one of them will notice what the magician is doing with his other hand.

[GrainOSand]

Come on Mr. Deggans, you know why, we all know why. I am witnessing the most massive case of schizophrenia that one can witness via this process. We are not a racist country on the one hand, and attempts by media/pundit to lynch a candidate by innuendo, spin, and lie on the other. The need to survive is what keeps myths alive. Let us tiptoe and maybe they will not see us and we will not see them and we can live out our lives claiming equality, unity, and progress, while we remain unequal, divided, and regressive.

You just have to shake your head in amazement at the lunacy of the hypocritical denial that takes place. Do not tell me hate is love for I have seen hate enough to know it when I encounter it and no amount of disguise can hide it. Only the gullible, the guilty, and the goofy cannot see what is going on. There are no more questions. I am waiting on the answer; the undeniable answer and then I will wait again for the outcome of a nation being weighed in the balance for the quality of its soul. There are no more questions to ask Mr. Deggans. Is hate of fellow citizen the mandate or not? The question has already been framed we await the vote.

[wanttruth]

Great column. I enjoyed it alot. I love the fact that Obama seems comfortable in his own skin. He's trying to be true to himself and help others at the same time.

[midknightryder13]

Actually, hasn't this 'fist dap' been around since the late 1970's? I seem to remember a very popular brother/sister team who did this all the time. Now, what were their names again? Oh, that's right -- Zan and Jayna -- The WonderTwins! Talk about 'exotic' -- purple eyes and pointed ears. (Say it with me now..."WonderTwin Powers -- Activate!")

[NTO08]

To even waste time explaining such nonsense is really sad...

[midknightryder13]

Actually, I'm NOT 'explaining it', I'm RIDICULING it. Big difference.

[Arguman]

lol. yes. the Wonder Twins are terrorists

[Yohomegirl]

I think the best description of it is that it is the 'new high five'.

[jmundstuk]

It is this middle ground, the comfortable moving between black and white (socalled) cultures is part of Obama's huge appeal and what HRC did her darndest to destroy. Without black/white, male/female polarities, politics as we have known it for 20 years is done for.

[NTO08]

If that is the case, then why the sexist name calling during campaign?

[dawlishgal]

What "sexist name calling?" HC was the one who used "unelectable" as a euphemism for "being black." She is the one who said, "hardworking Americans, white Americans." What did Obama say that was sexist?

[TrixtersMom]

I agree 100%.