David Ehrenstein Responds to New 'Barack the Magic Negro' Buzz

Once again, the song parody "Barack the Magic Negro" is back in the headlines and in the blogosphere. The song that played on Rush Limbaugh's show last year was part of a CD gift to Republicans from RNC chairman candidate Chip Saltsman. This raised g a new ire about what Republicans think of Obama, and about the merits of the song itself. Liberals call it racist and still demand Limbaugh's firing for playing it, while conservatives keep on mentioning that one of the liberals' own thought of the term first.

David Ehrenstein, a homosexual African American writer for many Los Angeles publications, got the ball rolling on the "Magic Negro" controversy with a column on the trend. Entitled "Obama the Magic Negro", Ehrenstein's column tried to discuss how white liberals were projecting the infamous "Magic Negro" stereotype on Obama all the way back in March 2007.

As a result of this, the song parody "Barack the Magic Negro" was cooked up and eventually played on Limbaugh's show. Even 18 months later, "Barack the Magic Negro" is not going away, and neither are conservatives trying to pin the original sin on Ehrenstein.

Ehrenstein responded to the latest controversy on his blog, attacking Republicans for still playing the song and passing it along as Christmas gifts.

"As everyone knows Whites feel no guilt about America's racist history whatsoever," Ehrenstein wrote. "All they care about is the appearance of politesse - the slimy veneer of "good manners."

"Clearly the Rep8blican party (racist to its very core) is "split" over what to do in the wake of having lost so much political capital."

However, Ehrenstein is not exactly a hard core Obama supporter these days, either. In October 2007, Ehrenstein attacked Obama for his handling of gay rights issues, and had even harsher words for his selection of Rick Warren to lead his inauguration prayer.

At the end of his blog post, Ehrenstein even says about Obama "as he's made clear thorugh Warrengate, he's certainly not MY President."

In addition to writing about gay issues, Ehrenstein has also written commentary and satire on the entertainment industry in his blogs and columns. He also wrote a book called Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1927-1997 back in 1998, in which he was threatened with a lawsuit for discussing Tom Cruise in the book.

For his left-leaning stance on gay and political issues, Republicans say that is why Ehrenstein wasn't condemned from the start for writing of Obama as a "Magic Negro", while Limbaugh, Saltsman and "Barack the Magic Negro" writer Paul Shanklin were.

That debate wasn't settled 18 months ago, so no matter what Ehrenstein and others say on the matter, that'll probably stay the same now as "Barack the Magic Negro" gets new buzz.

Sources

Los Angeles Times- "Obama the 'Magic Negro'" www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein19mar19,0,5335087.story

David E's Fablog- fablog.ehrensteinland.com/

Wikipedia- "David Ehrenstein" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ehrenstein