Fox News’ Todd Starnes got the racial vapors when Larry Wilmore closed out his White House Correspondents’ dinner remarks by saying, “Yo, Barry, you did it, my n***a, you did it.”
Anyone with half a brain could tell that Wilmore meant his comment as a tribute to the country’s first African American president. But Starnes thought it was “race baiting.” He tweeted last night:
Earlier today, I wrote about this for Liberal America:
If you are suspicious about the nature of Starnes’ racial sensitivity, you should be. This is a guy who has made a Fox News career out of bigotry. He has accused the Obama administration of “orchestrating” civil unrest in Ferguson, called him the “Race-Baiter in Chief,” and complained that a woman of Indian descent was not American enough to be Miss America in 2013.
Personally, I found Wilmore’s remarks disappointing. He seemed to be trying to emulate Stephen Colbert’s historic performance. But Colbert used biting humor to make some very serious and sophisticated commentary about how the Washington press corps had almost completely turned into Bush lapdogs. Wilmore, on the other hand, had no over-arching message that I could discern. His goal seemed to be to spray as many targets as possible with comic insults for their own sake.
But the one portion of Wilmore's comments that I did find affecting was the part at the end, about how much a black presidency meant to him:
Thank you for being a good sport, Mr. President, but all jokes aside, let me just say how much it means for me to be here tonight. I’ve always joked that I voted for the president because he’s black. And people say, “Well, do you agree with his policies?” And I always said, “I agree with the policy that he’s black.” I said, “As long as he keeps being black, I’m good.” They’d say, “What about Iraq?” “Is he still black?”
But behind that joke is a humble appreciation for the historical implications for what your presidency means.
When I was a kid, I lived in a country where people couldn’t accept a black quarterback. Now think about that. A black man was thought by his mere color not good enough to lead a football team — and now, to live in your time, Mr. President, when a black man can lead the entire free world.
Words alone do me no justice. So, Mr. President, if i’m going to keep it 100: Yo, Barry, you did it, my n—-. You did it.
In my Liberal America post, I predicted that Starnes would not be the last Fox host to be trolling Whitmore. Sure enough, Juan Williams just happened to show up on Fox News Sunday today where he condemned Wilmore’s "my n***a" as “embarrassing” and “degrading.” I doubt Williams will be the last one, either.
Watch Wilmore’s full remarks below, from last night’s 2016 White House Correspondents’ dinner.
I’m pleasantly surprised. I suspected Starnes was laying the groundwork for FOX’s pundits to go off in the standard right-wing direction these discussions tend to go off on at the fair and balanced network.
Michael,
I get the mainstream conventional wisdom that people can denigrate themselves if the term fits whether for humor, culture, bonding, or pride but others can’t. However, I find it to be hypocritical. It also begs the question from the bigots and haters if they can why can’t I? So it’s a slippery slope to cite a cliche.
I get people who suffered as the target of some term think they’ve earned the right to use it but is it a right one should exercise?
Worse, we’ve created this bizarre lexicon when there’s a proper context for someone to use the word outside of the group it applies to they have to refer to it by initial. So, strangely, it’s okay for outsiders to use it by inference. Like somehow indirectly by initial referring to the word is okay but using the word itself – even in a non-offensive context – is harmful and wrong.
The funny thing – and I don’t mean to offend anyone – when you said “c-word” my first impression was you were linking a woman’s editorial claiming it’s okay for her to refer to herself and other women as “c-nts” but not men. I didn’t think of “cripple”. So do we have two c-words that aren’t mentionable directly? 👍
In the context of Larry Wilmore, I get he used the n-word to articulate his bond to our President. However, it’s such a lightening rod it’s obscured his real message of Obama’s historic presidency and its historic meaning and Obama’s inspiration to millions. People are sadly just buzzing “Did you hear he used the n-word.” Unaware of the entire context.
Surprisingly, O’Reilly and Krauthammer defended Wilmore tonight. I hope to be able to post about it tomorrow.
Regarding the so-called ‘n-word’ the politics around it are ridiculous for which I mostly blame liberals. It’s like “Harry Potter” where you can’t say Voldemort’s name.
I get that the word has a long, vicious history and there’s rarely places where it’s usage is warranted but we’ve ended up in this strange reality where its okay for blacks to use it.. Which lead to these awkward and uncomfortable moments like here with Larry. Plus, it opens the door for right-wingers like Starnes to pounce. I’m only surprised he didn’t bash black culture (eg, rap music) or scream reverse racism.
I get Larry’s context but like the rest of his act it lacked polish and was poorly thought out. Unfortunately, it overshadows the text you quoted which proceeded it. Folks will be so obsessed over “nigga” they’ll lose the meaning of all the rest.
