Thursday, January 29, 2009

Line of the Day: 2009-01-29

Here is a useful bit of information that we might reflect upon during the next four years: Barack Obama is the President, not the host of Soul Train.
-- Jelani Cobb

Long time ago, I saw some sitcom about which I can only remember one scene. A lesbian couple had a stopped-up kitchen sink, and were having no luck, restricting themselves to choices available through the Gay Yellow Pages, trying to get a plumber who could actually fix the problem. They finally hired a straight one, and had to go through no end of contortions to prevent being exiled by the rest of their community.

That was the first thing that came to mind when I found out about the "Negro Nitpicking Sweepstakes."

(h/t: Ta-Nehisi Coates)

2 comments:

ArtSparker said...

I've been thinking about a post for Michelle...I sometimes wonder if the job of the presidential wife is to be disapproved of, and with Obama in particular, there may be a certain amount of envy (Hey, he's not my boyfriend either).

bjkeefe said...

I sometimes wonder if the job of the presidential wife is to be disapproved of ...

LOL, sadly.

And yes, I agree -- it never fails to amaze me how much venom Michelle attracts, particularly from the PUMA types. (I don't have any expectations for male wingnuts, so I am less surprised, though no less dismayed, by stuff like this.)

I remember thinking similar thoughts from 1992-2000, about Hillary Clinton. Being "First Lady" does seem to have become a real anachronism, doesn't it?

I'm glad for Michelle's sake that the kids are the ages that they are -- she can always duck out of some tiresome ritual by prioritizing them.

I think that her most important role is going to be being herself, as lame as it sounds to say it. John McWhorter and others have said that the most important contribution that the Obama Administration will make towards improving race relations is just being in the White House for four or eight years and letting white America realize how non-scary black families turn out to be.

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