She’s White + Liberal, How Dare You Call Her Racist
I first learned of writer Lisa Solod Warren’s article, “Two Black Role Models Done In By Hubris” via Twitter yesterday.
I opted not to read it because forgive me, I didn’t feel like listening to a middle-aged white woman’s thoughts about how two purported uppity Negroes and their overinflated egos were doing a disservice to the little black boys across the country. What makes her so concerned anyway? Does Ms. Warren have a general understanding about the plight of black men or a yearning for attention and the chutzpah to write the sort of insidious piece that would surely get?
I’ll let you decide on your own as we move along.
This morning I read the article and I found it every bit as disingenuous and flat out insulting as one could expect. To be fair to Warren, if she were going to assail two black men for having egos she sure made wise choices.
As much as I hate to add any validity to this trite piece Barack Obama and Tiger Woods share noted arrogance to their personas. I know what you’re thinking and I’m with you: It is so surprising to find that a politician and an overpaid athlete come across as highly overconfident. Heavens to megatroid, next thing you’ll tell me is that blonds are more successful than brunets and that you just can’t trust a big butt and a smile.
Since we’ve given Ms. Warren what little credit she deserves we can go back to annihilating her piece.
First, Tiger Woods is not done. A reader emailed me (I’m so going to respond, I am sorry for taking so long) and inquired why hadn’t I written anything about him. Eh, I’ve been writing about the sordid details of his affair (and the one after that, and the one after that, and on and on) and quite frankly I’m bored out of my mind with it. I’ve never wanted to imagine Tiger, Tiger Woods, ya’ll naked making sweet pro-golfer love to some blond nor did I want to write about any controversy surrounding it. Shade notwithstanding Tiger’s actually goofed up on the good guy image he crafted for himself, but give him a few months, a nice sit down interview with Oprah, and a couple of major tournament wins and suddenly he’ll be the come back kid. Kobe PR game proper indeed.
Warren really loses me when she writes:
For Barack Obama the honeymoon is really over, even those who wanted to give him a chance are getting tired of what is not getting done, what was promised and reneged on. There is disappointment enough in both of them.
It is tragic when an icon falls. When a black icon stumbles the tragedy seems doubly problematic. Mike Tyson, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jackson were all at the tops of their fields before revelations that made them less palatable as heroes and less of a role model for young black men. They have all been partially rehabilitated but not without a huge cost.
And now while the news if full of Tiger Woods’ penchant for tawdry moments with women who can’t hold a candle to the physical beauty of his wife, the information we get on Obama, while far less salacious, is even more disillusioning. The expectations of real change that had people in tears a little over a year have been so thoroughly dashed that too many of his supporters feel betrayed by their naiveté; they feel, as I do, almost foolish for believing that the status quo could really be kicked out the door. Is it even possible for our national landscape to change?
Where do I even begin?
I am not completely satisfied with President Obama’s performance on a number of issues, but make no mistake that for the most part, he displayed what type of leader he would be during the campaign. And if people bothered to take the time to read about him (like Ryan Lizza’s New Yorker piece, “Making It”) you’ll see Barack Obama for who he is: Human A politician. He’s quite calculated, a little bit to much of a people pleaser than I’d like, and very much the “moderate” Democrat who often irks the hell out of me when it comes to progressive issues that I care deeply about.
So his behavior, while disappointing in some cases is not all that surprising. As far as the insinuation that he’s been “done in,” yeah I don’t follow. His poll numbers are down, but we’re broke, we’re at war, the line at the free clinic never ends, etc. They’ll go up, they’ll go down yet he’ll still get reelected. The GOP has no candidate and even if they managed to come up with one that party is too busy imploding to mount any real campaign. His pictures will still be stacked next to Jesus and Martin Luther the King in many an old person’s house.
Then she has the nerve to compare Tiger Woods to Obama while also bringing up a laundry list of fallen black entertainers and celebrities. Some who didn’t fall too hard, but we get what she’s arguing hence the backlash.
In some ways I’m too busy laughing to be that insulted. Like, “bless her heart, she definitely tried it.”
But do you know what does gets me?
When people suggested that her essay comes across as racist she hit back with this:
Wow. Isn’t it interesting that so many of you think this piece is racist. What a bunch of apologists. It is nothing of the sort. Both men HAVE been brought down by their own egos and both ARE role models for young black Americans. Those are facts and the unwilliingness to see this amazes me. Both Woods and Obama are brilliant and talented men, but they have, I think both begun to believe their own press. And that is when disaster strikes. Obama thought he would force reconciliation and stand back….. now we have a lousy health care bill (maybe) and a prolonged war, not to mention little no real leadership on gay rights or the environment, both of which he promised. Woods was the quiet nice guy who played the best golf in history. And now both his career and his life are in tatters… because he believed in his own ego.
When one writes about race one expects to get flack but the comments are absurd.
On Twitter, she wrote:
@JamesDDickson You would be surprised at the number of black people I know.
@JamesDDickson Hey….. that isn’t fair and you know it. You threw down the gauntlet. Seems anyone who speaks about race is a racist. BS
I hope all my new twitter followers wont be disappointed when they find out I am not a racist and am still a liberal democrat.
I am the naive one. I never expected the post in HuffPo yesterday to go viral. I’m not a racist but it will be hard to convince otherwise
These are all the typical responses you get from white liberals when called out on their shit.
“Me? Racist?! How dare you! I vote Democratic!”
I’m shocked she didn’t add, “And I loved Precious.”
Considering the history of the Democratic party decades ago and reflecting upon welfare reform, cuts in education and more black men going to jail than any other time in history under Bill Clinton’s administration, voting for the donkeys doesn’t make you any less of an ass when you write like one (or govern like one, for that matter).
Likewise for knowing some black people. All my skinfolk ain’t kinfolk, ya dig, Lisa?
And surely the classic, “Anyone who talks about race isn’t racist line” just had to be used.
To quote the great Eeyore, “Oh bother.”
Why do people who write or mouth off suspicious things throw that line out as a means to deflect from their own actions? It never works. Bringing up race doesn’t make you racist. Pointing to age old stereotypes about black men doesn’t make you racist necessarily, but hey, it sure gives people a reason to wonder.
There are some white liberals with not an inkling of racism in them. She could be one of them, but this article isn’t the most convincing. Ego is the failure of many men and women, and honestly at the core there’s a hint of truth to the notion that hubris has hurt both these men.
Yet did a white woman writing an article entitled “Two Black Role Models Done In By Hubris” really not expect people to take offense? How many articles about fallen “white heroes” have you read penned by minority writers? But she’s surprised? That’s not her naivete driving her apparent befuddlement. It’s her own hubris.
Caress Lepore
December 17, 2009 at 11:11 am
Great Article. I couldn’t have said it any better. Did she write an article like this that compared Bill Clinton to Boris Becker. The tennis player who had an affair with women that weren’t his wife. I’ll sit and wait.
Randy
December 17, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Lawdy Lawd….white Christians are even worse.
Honestly, most white people can’t give commentary on black people without sounding like a dumb ass because they don’t really know much about the difference btwn the two. They don’t think there IS a difference! And liberals…they’re so comfortable in their popularity, they think they can do no wrong. Uh….Wigga Please.
Like Malcolm said, I prefer the racists to the ones who smile in my face and give backhanded compliments while steadily begging money away from “urban” (read: poor) issues and into what’s popular and easy.
“I voted for Obama! I tried!” <- – - The attitude I was afraid his election would create. I wish I wasn't right on that.
Randy
December 17, 2009 at 2:31 pm
P to the S. – NO ONE cries ‘RACISM’ more than white people!!! How the tides and tables have turned….
KEiTH_ANDRE
December 17, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Wow. I really enjoyed this piece! Part of the reason I never comment on your posts is because you so often take the words right out of my mouth. I hear my voice in your writing and feel very much connected to your blog. Its inspiring and very much appreciated it. kudos to you sir…
Cooper
December 17, 2009 at 5:13 pm
When I spoke to you earlier this morning and told you I wanted to wait and comment, I really meant it, LOL. Not out of me being busy/incompetent, its just that I wanted to read her article again, then re- read your post and fully grasp the way you shut her and her ilk down. You took the words out my mouth. I know people of other races, few, but I know them. They listen to rap music and have black friends, yet they won’t hesitate calling someone “uppity” “arrogant” and the like. What irritates me about the mainstream media/failed 4th estate is how they always have this need to compile all black Americans into one viewpoint/stereotype. We are a myriad of colors, cultures, languages, and life experiences.
Also, I hated the writer’s comparison of Tiger and Obama. Just because they are multiracial men of color doesn’t mean that alike. Also, Obama is a much honorable man than Tiger given the recent circumstances. Plus, I never saw Tiger as black. He called himself Cablasian. Whatever that is.
Lastly, the ability for the media/failed 4th estate to call successful black men arrogant and uppity on an almost continual basis is not shocking, but quite aggravating. Most successful white men are seen as “innovative”"smart”"intelligent”"driven” while successful black men are seen as “aggressive”"lucky”"uppity.”
In a way, I’m glad she wrote this bullshit. Hopefully the world at large will see her faults and maybe reflect on their own when it comes to seeing people who are minorities as unique individuals instead of failed stereotypes
Randy
December 17, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Grr. Left a comment and now its gone.
The gist…..
White people who provide their *scoff*much needed *double-scoff* commentary on black people and “their ways” only expose privileged ignorance and the widened gulf between how whites and blacks see race relations in current society.
I agree with Malcolm X when he said he preferred the deeply entrenched open racists to the liberals who say they want integration and then build ghettos and urban rot. Some liberal smile in your face, vote for Obama for his ‘articulate ways’, and shy away from any social justice issues that don’t have to do with 1) animals; 2) Africa or 3) the poor people who don’t question the institutions that put them there.
I wish we ALL could get a magical label that was a buffer between the immoral things we say/do and people’s criticism.
“How can I be racist/sexist/homophobic? I’m a liberal!”
:-\
Misty Knight
December 17, 2009 at 9:46 pm
That title induced such a deep , disgusted eyeroll. Neither of these men were brought down by “Hubris”
Obama’s greatest problem is that he is a Democrat,(those fuckers cant govern a Brownie meeting) and Tiger can’t keep his peen in his pants -like most rich, successful men with unlimited sticking options.
So the whole “Oh those uppity negra’s” rhetoric is cliche, and inaccurate, and a half-ass comparison.
You know I never thought that with Obama’s slipping approval ratings, and Tiger’s “Hoe Down”-some white folks might be getting a glimmer of satisfaction watching these 2 powerful, wildly successful men of color come under fire. Even if they can’t admit it.
Im not sure if this half-ass bitty is “Racist” but she sure is sub-par, and painfully uninspiring.
Boo.Bytch.Boo.
BonitaApplebum
December 18, 2009 at 10:22 pm
I loved this response ESPECIALLY the last line.
This woman wrote an article about two men brought down by their own egos and she is now seeing the backlash to her own ego giving her the balls to write this contrived and insulting article.
You and Sister Toldja shut this chick DOWN!
If only you could say this to her face, what a jackass!
BonitaApplebum
December 18, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Oh and I think this woman is very much overdue for a B. Scott -#Hoehaveaseat
uberVU - social comments
December 19, 2009 at 10:24 am
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by CoopISeeYou: http://www.thecynicalones.com/2009/12/17/shes-white-liberal-how-dare-you-call-her-racist/ —She’s comparing Obama to Tiger. How disgusting…
Michael
December 19, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Randy, I just noticed it went in the spam section. Don’t know why, but I approved both.
Thanks everyone for leaving feedback. I agree with all of your sentiments, ha ha @ ho, have a seat. She’d call me a misogynist if I co-signed.
Taco
December 19, 2009 at 3:14 pm
“Voting for the donkeys doesn’t make you any less of an ass when you write like one…”
Can I please get an “Amen” on this! Liberalism is such a huge tent. You can have entire cities that are liberal in their support of animal rights, environmentalism, and gay marriage. While I share their values, I still feel at odds in these communities because you hardly a black person in sight. They may believe in racial justice and helping the poor, in theory, but they live in some of country’s wealthiest, segregated communities–far removed from having to deal with the “great unwashed” in any real context. I’ve definitely come to realize that not all racists are conservative.
“I’m not a racist but it will be hard to convince otherwise.” Damn right! What did Warren expect when she chose to write a piece like this? She’d be surprised at how many white people would readily recognize the cultural insensitivity of that piece. Those that don’t see the big deal often tend to be–you guessed it–racist.
EshieMarie
December 20, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I always wondered why people say they’re not this and that without realizing themselves that they are saying things that are very telling of their subconscious. ex “both ARE role models for young BLACK Americans” as far as i’m concerned they are role models for everyone not just black people…especially since alot of black people don’t watch golf, or sad-to-say-it-but Politics…Don’t white, hispanic, asian, and pacific islanders wanna be presidents and golfers too?! SMH
Gypsy
December 26, 2009 at 10:28 pm
President Obama at this time is still more popular and has more polls support than Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton at this time in their Presidency.
Tiger Woods will still be rich and the best Golfer in the world, even with his scandal, which will eventually be behind him, after his first return win.
Gypsy
December 26, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Many of these wild-eyed Liberals who write these articles, have no idea how Government works.
1. If Obama had swung to the left and the “Socialist” branding by the Republicans had stuck, Congress would flee from every program he would propose.
2. Obama told the Nation prior to being elected that Afghanistan was a war he supported and must win.
3. If Obama went “far left” the vast middle of the country (Independents) would flock to the Republican party to save them from this Communist President.
ALSO, Where was the Left/Progressive when Obama was getting beaten up by the Lunatic Tea-Baggers and other Right-Wing Groups, if you want the President’s support you have to be willing to give him support/cover from people calling him Hit-ler and marching against him, instead these Left-Wing nuts sit back complaining that Obama isn’t handing them their agenda on a silver platter.
Obama has been in office only ONE YEAR and the Progressives want the world handed to them.
Obama’s biggest mistake was to run as a Democrat, if he was a Republican he would have the unwavering support of an organized party.