White Pundits: Make Some Black Friends Before Opining on Obama Effect

To save us all from further excruciating meditations on the meaning of Barack Obama's capture of the Presidency to blacks, pundits like Maureen Dowd, Roger Cohen, and Frank Rich of the New York Times and syndicated opinionator, Kathleen Parker should be forced at pencil point to make some black friends.

This may be the deep background white pundits need to enable them to analyze Obama's win without sounding like, well, Archie Bunker. News flash for Roger Cohen and Kathleen Parker: black people will tell anyone willing to listen that they don't ever, ever, want to hear or read stories about your black nanny, no matter how much you loved these women who were forced to leave their own children to look after you. I mean it, keep your black nanny stories to yourself.

Dear Frank Rich, trying to explain Obama's rise through a 41 year-old movie about bigotry (Guess Who's Coming To Dinner) is as relevant as refracting gay marriage in California through Quentin Crisp's The Naked Civil Servant, a 41 year-old movie about homophobia.

In her Nov 8, '08 column, Dowd attempted to elucidate the stunning new history of our young country by talking about what Obama meant to African Americans.

By paragraph 3, Dowd, who clearly doesn't have any black friends of her own, is forced to rely on white strangers interrogating black people about their feelings on Obama's victory.

In Dowd's DC, white people don't know any black people except "a black waitress at a chic soul food restaurant," "a black bartender at the Bombay Club," and "a black UPS delivery guy." How is it possible that the only black people in Dowd's DC are in the hospitality and service trades? Couldn't she find a black lawyer, political scientist, or poet in all of DC?

After several paragraphs of this, she debates the pros and cons of asking the "black patron at a downtown restaurant or a movie or the Kennedy Center," how they feel. Would it be condescending, she wonders.

Finally, just when we begin to think that Maureen Dowd is really Archie Bunker wearing very red lipstick, she decides to prove us all wrong by reaching out to the black friends in her own life. She writes, "I heard my cute black mailman talking in an excited voice outside my house Friday, so I decided I should go ask him how he was feeling about everything, the absolute amazement of the first black president."

Comments

[Tanyars5]

that article was funny........

[SaulBloodworth]

She's so right .- this all reminds me of that Seinfeld episode when George is dragging his exterminator to a dinner with his boss to prove that he has black friends.

[blastit]

continued from the first [part)


The black church served as a social center and meeting place for civic functions as well as a provider of welfare and education, thats because historically because of slavery , segregation and Jim Crow most black were excluded from institutions that would have fulfilled those needs, many blacks have centered their community and life around the black church. If more white people would embrace their history they would have a better understanding of how past actions have affected black Americans. Although what Rev, Wright said was taken out of context by the Right, nothing he said was untrue or unusual..most black people were like why are they making a fuss out of something so normal and mudane.

[zepfan81]

That's what I thought. Even my white Southern friends laughed when the journalists were talking about, "Black liberation theology." They were like, "What? I thought most old black preachers were like that." It's funny, I'm originally from small town Arkansas and even the most ignorant people down here are familiar with other cultures that surround them. I think it's because we HAVE to deal with one another on a regular basis. Our "inner cities" are our town squares.

[blastit]

What white people don't seem to know about black people in this country could fill a book, the utter clulessness is astounding, espeacially condsidering that we've lived together in this country since its inception. Its really very annoying how clueless many white people are..we are exspected to know everything about you, but when it comes to us you guys are just clueless. Take African American history for example...its really simple just American history , its just another side of American history that is also the history of whites in this country but its one that they really don't want to deal with or acknowlege to much because its not a good history and it doesn't paint them in the best light so they tend to ignore it , but by ignoring there own part in that history they also deny themselves racial healing not just for us but for themselves as well, its our history.

One of the most glaring examples of whites Americans cluelessness was the Rev Wright Debacle. Anyone who knows anything about AA know that the black church has always been diffrent and not just in it liturgy or fevor of singing and preaching ...................

continued..........

[hellifiknow]

I read the Maureen Dowd column referenced here and I can't believe she won a Pulitzer. That particular column is only one example of her inane writing. I imagine her mailman went home and laughed about that to his friends, if he even remembered it, as that probably happened to him more than a few times on his route.

I can't speak for all black people and wouldn't try. However, I can probably say that most of us are used to the implied racism that shows up in these kinds of columns. What do the black people think? What do you care? I don't really give a damn what anyone thinks about the new President, just happy he's the President. I can watch CNN or Fox News if I want to know what "the white people" think. Or I could just ask someone white if it comes up in a natural conversation. I think that's what most black people would find useful. Asking me about how I feel about the election while I'm in the midst of doing my job is probably just going to have me think you're as stupid as Maureen Dowd. But should we strike up a conversation, if we don't already know each other and it comes up, that's fine. OK? And don't assume we all think the same, because you might come up on that 3% of black folks who voted Republican. But it's unlikely if you're talking to your mailman.

[uheardme]

Modo writes like a highschool reporter. She must have done someone well to get a Pulitzer.

[alicetilden]

I am somewhat insulted by some of these comments. I am white and have always had friends who happen to be black. As a campaign volunteer, I made many new friends of all colors and ethnicity. We all shared our pride in this wonderful man. We all had one goal- to get Barack Obama the Presidency because we knew he was the best man hands down. As someone who watched the Civil Rights demonstrations as a child and prayed that the world would change, I am so proud of my country that the majority of the people were able to look past race to see the true goodness and hope that Barack Obama represents. As he said himself, he will be the President of all of us.

[zepfan81]

And honestly a lot of whites have confided in me that sometimes they don't know WHAT to say. It's like walking on eggshells. That's why a lot of whites simply avoid any discussion of race except around really close black friends.

[chronic]

Maybe its because those that you talk about may slip and say what they really think.

They're afraid of the after affect of what they might say.

[zepfan81]

Exactly! I want to know what they REALLY think. Hey are we going to improve race relationships if we can't be honest?

[Clairvoyance]

I think the point of the article/argument is that Dowd and others need to have black "friends," in order to espouse the virtues of their reactions. You can ask your "friend" a TRUE FRIEND anything. The way women do with their best girlfriends when they want to know the truth. But if you have to pretend like you understand by doing "drive-by" friend interactions with "the help," then your not qualified to write an article like you know.

[zepfan81]

Perhaps the point Ms. Parker was trying to make was how far we've come. She is from South Carolina and Florida and that's how she grew up. Perhaps the others were trying to show how blacks in the middle felt, not just the lawyers, doctors, business people at the top, or the inner city/delta people at the bottom. Just you "average" person. Why get all flustered?

[truestarr]

"there is no Black America, and no White America, there is only the United States of America."

Now seems like a good time to start moving forward and recognizing that President-elect Obama was elected by a majority of Americans, for a variety of reasons. His story resonated with many people, not just African-American people. His message of hope was for ALL of us. [even Native Americans' like me]

We, none of us, have "walked a mile" in every other man's shoes.

I understand your frustration with these writer's and how they offend you, but Obama now belongs to all of us.

Your African-American pride is offended, when someone says they "understand" your feelings, but by subtly saying that 'Whitey' just doesn't get it, is to again raise barriers we are trying to tear down.

We will ride along for the next four (to eight) years with the "HOPE" he gave to all of us.

We won't all explain things the same way, but we all are trying to walk in the same direction.

[fiftyseven]

I took Dowd's column to be completely tongue-in-cheek. The way she described white people asking black people how they felt about the election was a perfect illustration of how lame and clueless we whites can be. And she included herself -- I thought it was perfect.

[mrasgram]

The black nanny thing is a turn off my mother had to do that and leave her child my oldest brother at home my aunt had to be a nanny and maid for years these people rarely call her it is not the same.

[ohioan73]

Sorry if this is a double-post, but I dunno what happened to my original post.

LOL! Funny article.

I'll tell you what it means to me.

No matter how many useful inventions created by black scientists, how much we raise the bar in sports competition, and how much we laid the landscape for American music, there's something about that title "president" that validates the glory of being a black American.

What makes it even sweeter is the resistance from the bigots, the nay-sayers and the haters. They make it hard for us and force us to walk the line of excellence which knocks out the competition every time. Due to the "Black Tax" that states we must work twice as hard to get half as far, its very, very hard to beat the black guy. They asked for it so we brought it. Obama has lived his life just short of monkhood and he still has to answer for "associations". He doesn't cheat on his wife, he graduated TOP of his class and he is virtually perfect. This is not a compliment. Its what Obama MUST do. I give him much props for the sacrifice.

[LucyTBee]

What is going on with the italics?

Anyway, while I absolutely agree with author's point, I have to be nitpicky and point out that poets, having chosen a highly non-lucrative line of work, are often...bartenders, waitresses, and UPS delivery people. Being any of these things as a means of earning a living does not preclude one's being a poet, and thus, Dowd may have in fact spoken to a black poet---and been too clueless to ask whether she might define herself beyond her paid occupation.

Just sayin'.

[ThoughtAboutIt]

Obama, unlike most Black Americans, is truly an African-American in that he can trace his ancestry to a specific country in Africa and actually knows his family in Africa.

Even with Obama America has never elected a descendent of American slaves unless the rumors about our 26th President Warren G. Harding are true.

[NationalTreasure]

+Ms. Hamburg:

it amazes me that you are surprised about Dowd -- the siblings and Pat Buchannan and his siblings grew up together in in Washington and associate in the same bigoted circle of friends

regrettably these folks are unable to fathom the depts of their bigotry and racism

that Dowd lives and grew up in Washington -- a city with a population of approximately 23% whites and the rest African-Americans and other people of color yet does not have any African-American friends is telling