Obama's No Minstrel

If laughter is the best medicine, then late night show writers are having a hard time filling the prescription. According to the New York Times, late night comedy shows are having a difficult time finding something funny about the Democratic Nominee-In-Waiting, Senator Barack Obama. Well America, I suggest these shows find new writers, as there are more than a few things, which I find absolutely hilarious about Obama. The problem is that these late night show writers want so badly to write a skit with Obama in a durag, long white tee, baggy jeans, and timbs, that they are missing Obama's funniest attributes. Well sorry guys, unlike those black-face painted, shucking and jivers who blazed the stage in the early 20^th century, and simultaneously degraded black people, Obama is not an entertaining minstrel.

In order to find Obama funny, you might have to think on a higher level of thought and away from the color line. So, perhaps you're wondering what it is that I find so funny about Obama. Well here's a few 1.) Obama's GQ-esque vanity (If he is elected president, he's going to be the sharpest dressed and most meticulously manicured U.S. President in history) 2.) Obama's I can heal the world Idealism (I read a piece of commentary a few weeks ago, which stated that Obama thinks he is going to heal the world, but even Jesus healed at most a few people at a time) 3.) Obama's shear lack of experience, (At least as it concerns, qualifications for being President of the United States). All of these attributes could very well be written into hilarious skits by the creative writer. Perhaps Obama is late to inauguration day (not because he's on CP time), but because he takes too long to get dressed, or Obama in the role of Neo in The Matrix Trilogy, (As he appears to be "The One"), or a skit based on things Obama didn't know the President had to do. Now, of course these would be horribly exaggerated, but they all draw on key attributes easily noticed about Obama, none of which play on the color of Obama's skin. I mean really, every single late night show on television harped on John Edwards when they found out he took longer to do his hair than his wife, but then I suppose suggesting that a black man could spend just as much time meticulously ensuring his physical appeal would be against some unwritten rule of stereotypes.

Indeed, with writers concerns about being perceived as racist causing them to pull back on Obama, they may be displaying true racism, in their lack of an ability to characterize a black man in the same manner that they would a white man with the same attributes. If Obama becomes the President of the United States, then either the late night shows are going to have to go off the air or begin criticizing Obama in the same way they would any of the other U.S. Presidents. The ability to laugh at one's leaders is important to the American fabric of life because it is the only thing that reminds us that they are not deities (as all rulers were considered in ancient times), but instead that they are human, which speaks to the very essence of a democracy, a government of, by, and for the people.