Live by identity politics, die by identity politics.
Blogger Gene Demby assembled tweets demonstrating that many NPR listeners thought Michelle Obama’s lesbian heckler Ellen Sturtz was employing “white privilege” and the media coverage seemed racist.
When Michelle Obama squared off with a heckler at a private fundraiser last night, the racial context was hard to ignore: a white woman yelling at the country’s most visible black woman and that same black woman offering a pointed response.
The first lady has been enormously popular throughout her husband’s administration — nearly seven in 10 Americans say they think she’s doing a good job — and she’s an icon among black people as the first African American first lady.
@sweet_epiphany
it’s the responses of her response that draws my ire. Unsurprisingly, the media is painting FLOTUS as an “angry Black woman”.@diamonde
This incident further amplifies the inability of white feminist organizations to be inclusive.@dwhite10701
a lot of these so-called allies have no clue how pissed off black people are by the constant disrespect of the Obama’s.@anildash
I love public advocacy, but this was ineffective and particularly tone-deaf given that she was shouting down an AA woman.Over at The Huffington Post, historian Jim Downs really exaggerated the negative press treatment of Mrs. Obama, even as he eventually ruled in favor of the heckler:
As a historian of African-American history and gay liberation, this moment gives me serious pause. On one level, I recognize how this is a highly charged political throw down between two oppressed groups that rarely get the national microphone. I then worry about activists, regardless of their political stripes, disrespecting Mrs. Obama more than other first ladies. Unlike Laura Bush or even Nancy Reagan, the popular press in both the U.S. and throughout the world has caricatured Michelle Obama as a beast, as a slave, and, as an angry radical. I worry about how this cultural context enables and almost encourages this type of disavowal of the first lady.
For a historian, Downs is either incompetent or a liar when he opines that Left-pet-minorities are ignored or that Laura Bush wasn’t heckled or negatively portrayed. I won’t use the phrase “popular press” as Downs does, because his assertion is a flat-out lie. Like her husband, the press swoons over and fluffs Queen Michelle with all the adoring energy of a group of empty middle-school Heathers penning odes to Edward Cullen.
Otherwise, excuse my smirking while watching a radical Lefty like Michelle smacking down a fellow lefty for not being appropriately deferential to Her Anointed Mistress of State.
Pass the popcorn.
Inflated sense of personal entitlement — but if you say FLOTUS has it, they say you’re calling her the U word.
I must be one of the 3 out of 10 that say the only thing she’s doing a good job of is burning through taxpayer funded excursions and acting like a pompous ass.
without racism National Soros Radio would be lost
they made up a new blog so they could devote themselves more better to racism in anticipation of food stamp becoming an irrelevant lame duck scandal-ridden food stamp slut
they call it “code switch”
they say “code switch” refers to how black people talk differently when white people are around than when they are by themselves
all i know is it’s incredibly fucking tedious and puerile grad school type shit for to make their rich white people audience feel like they are knowing and with it
unreadable
“Dissing,” the new code for “racist.”
Michelle to the gay movement leadership:
“Okay, what we got here is a failure to communicate.
You uppity ungrateful homos, (YES! I said homos, and no lightning struck me. Nor will it. We on the high end of the left get to call you homos and worse whenever we feel like it. ) need to learn your place.
You shout down ‘Murica and the right? Good on ya.
You shout at the left? Pimp hand and the boot will be GLAD to teach you some manners. Listen, slip on this dunce cap, and we’ll explain it to you.
You get to chirp when WE point. Otherwise you clam the hell up. If anyone asks you if your are happy then you nod like a North Korean and Kim Jong Il’s funeral anniversary. In fact, nod harder. You get that wrong and you’ll spend some time out in the cold at the back of the line.
You think you’re a fancy special big shot now, since Howie Kurtz got fired? Wise up. Wise up fast.
You better not even THINK of squeaking, ’cause it won’t be grease you get, and you damned sure ain’t no wheel on this bus.
You little bitches are nothing but Sheehan’s all the way down. We made you and we’ll flush you when you start to smell.
Oh, and don’t think we’ll be there running interference for you when your little displays of ‘authroitah’ over hetero-normative flyover fuck-land start bring an organized messaging backlash and you start to seem kind of unpopular and shrill and bad for the kids. You burned your bridges so I hope you know how to swim. Now go practice begging for crumbs and scraps because the hispanics are eyeing your chair and they seem to collectively have more money and votes than you in 2014.”
“….the racial context was hard to ignore:” . No. No it wasn’t and I really didn’t think about it until now.
“…Ellen Sturtz was employing “white privilege”” insofar as attending an Obama event, I agree.
“nearly seven in 10 Americans say they think she’s doing a good job”
At what? Who elected, or hired her?
Nobody tells me anything.
We now have evidence that in Identity Politics Euchre, the Queen of African-American trumps the Queen of Gay. Just don’t get caught with the Jack of White Male Christian as your Right Bower, that’s a tough hand to win.
That’s because the Queen of Gay is a dude.
I will always be King of Pain.
McGehee, the King of Patriarchal Hegemony is a useless card to hold. Might as well have the Deuce of Traditional Marriage.
I don’t care much for what Michelle Obama has to say, but I applaud her for not putting up with uncivil behavior from this activist. People payed money to hear Michelle, not a rude interloper. Having Michelle Obama shouted down is no different than having Dr. Ben Carson shouted down.
At what? Who elected, or hired her?
I’ve often wondered this myself, Gulermo. She is rumored to be a terrible hostess, so she fails at her most important function as First Lady. I read yesterday that she is citing a conflict with the US-Sino summit in California and “her girls” (hers alone? One wonders) last week of the school year. The Chinese are not pleased at this disrespect to their leader and his wife who now has lost face. Bad news for US-Sino relations.
Pablo,
It certainly looks like CodePinko got paleo’s Obamo memo…
leigh,
Curiously (well, maybe not), most of the stories on the FLOTUS “snub” are in the British media.
Having Michelle Obama shouted down is no different than having Dr. Ben Carson shouted down.
That would be true if it were Tea Partiers shouting her down. The interesting thing here is that she’s fighting her erstwhile allies. As pala said above, “You get to chirp when WE point. Otherwise you clam the hell up!”
Yes, but when you heckle a white person, that is Speaking Truth To Power. When you heckle a black person, that is just calling them the n-word.
Oh, wait. That might only work when you’re asking questions about the IRS.
This was likely scripted as it is part of the organizing handbook. The gay-rights activist wasn’t necessarily scripted but by letting someone like that through security they would know what could be expected and FLOTUS had her script down cold to use for whatever words were flung by an activist.
The scripting is always to make the side of the Organizer seem powerful, popular, and confidently in charge, for the people of course.
Here’s how you do it with class.
Squid, I respectfully disagree. The tactic poisons the well, no matter who is speaking or what direction the attack comes from, authentic, flase flag, or otherwise.
I think it’s worth noting, charles, that it’s almost always the Left doing the poisoning. No matter that the person behind the podium is supposed to be on “their” side.