Obama: The Great Bamboozler

He's talking up people getting "bamboozled" again, cribbing dialog from the movie (but not apparently the life of) Malcolm X. (Neo-Neocon sets me straight; I always assumed the speech was drawn from reality.)

Good post, read it, I'll wait.

Here's my question. We conservatives are forever being accused of using "racial code words" and "blowing racist dog whistles," right?

Why is Obama allowed to reference by deliberate choice of key words a fictitious speech which is entirely -- en. tire. ly. -- about a conspiracy by evil white people to harm and keep down blacks?

Is this not a racial code word? No dog whistle here?

Here's the fictitious Malcolm X speech he keeps name-checking.

I’m gonna tell you like it really is. Every election year these politicians are sent up here to pacify us! They’re sent here and setup here by the White Man!

This is what they do!

They send drugs in Harlem down here to pacify us!

They send alcohol down here to pacify us!

They send prostitution down here to pacify us!

Why you can’t even get drugs in Harlem without the White Man’s permission!

You can’t get prostitution in Harlem without the White Man’s permission!

You can’t get gambling in Harlem without the White Man’s permission!

Every time you break the seal on that liquor bottle, that’s a Government seal you’re breaking!

Oh, I say and I say it again, ya been had!

Ya been took!

Ya been hoodwinked!

Bamboozled!

Led astray!

Run amok!

This is what He [the White Man] does…

How many times does this motherfucker get to drop the words "hoodwinked" and "bamboozled" before someone in the MFM notice he's making a very nasty subterranean racial appeal based on resentment, suspicion, conspiracy theory, and ultimately hatred?

Post-racial? Really?

Really.

By the Way: That's the only really good piece of writing I can recall Spike Lee ever doing. I love that bamboozled/led astray/run amok thing, especially because the last one don't even make no sense. That's what makes it great.

But -- aesthetic appreciation aside -- this is an explicitly rabble-rousing race-warring whitey-hating speech.

Why does Obama's mind keep going here?

The word "bamboozled" was all but gone from the English language (including among blacks, don't give me that crap) until Spike Lee revived it in this nice piece of writing.

That is the real etymology of the word as far as current usage -- as far as current conscienceness of the word, it began with this speech in Malcolm X. It had been a dead obscurity before that.

So why's Obama so smitten with the word? I'm always told how goddamned smart and educated he his; why does his mind keep running back to a bit of discarded street slang whenever he wants to talk about the whiter party at election time?

posted by Ace at 03:39 PM

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