like his argument is that obama's experience of being black is limited because he's never had to undergo the same amount of suffering and prejudice that other blacks in this country have; he's always been a privileged son. this is what I would assume he said and he might have! it's not a quote after all so I'm gonna assume it's out of context.

article in full

i'm pretty sure obama has faced plenty of prejudice.  privileged or not, he's still brown which in america instantly equates you to being black.  it doesn't matter if your daddy's white or your mother, if your skin is brown and you have curly hair you are black.  there's no avoiding this.  being a influential member in a political system dominated by white people for the past 200+ years... this is an achievement even if money helped him through.  i probably would have boo'ed because the comment was completely in the left field.

there's still no exact quote and the outrage seems to be more general. no one mentions HE CALLED BARACK NOT BLACK? just HE INSULTED BARACK LIKE THIS?

I dunno BOONDOCKS has always been a relatively sharp show and in Return of the King Macgruder made Oprah the hypothetical president and you know come on. I'm hoping it's out of context!

ugh i'm trying to find exact quotes but coming up dry!

i agree with his statements in regards to remaining pessimistic.  the guy has only been president for 8 hours and he's still human this isn't the second coming people.

but i also understand that mcgruder is a satirist and a comedian and his entire "image" revolves around pushing buttons and challenging the status quo. 

hell, he got me.  i get so fucking irrational when mad BLIND FURY

aaaaaaand all news posts say the same thing!

i'll give him the benefit of the doubt because i laughed for 2 hours after watching the uncut BET episode

the thing is though is macgruder DOING anything? satirists push buttons but usually in their work. an off the cuff statement like this indicates either actual belief or that he's promoting something and getting attention.

a third season of boondocks is currently under production but other than that he makes a lot of public appearances

MAN GTFO WITH YOUR RATIONAL THINKING.  god damn you're the water to my campfire a nigga can't start a riot without the palidinians taking the charge

I remember hearing about this before tho, there are people who say you are only black if you are the descendant of a slave, otherwise you're just african-american. personally I think he can be black but I don't really understand the situation.

that inauguration poem was awful

edit: i feel bad because the poet is a very nice lady!! but i think it kind of left the entire audience going 'huh' for the next five minutes.

edit2: i read the transcript and it was much nicer on paper. much much nicer.

then it's not a matter of race but of class.

i'm not accusing him of racism i'm accusing him of being dumb.  he always carries himself as this supremely knowledgeable "in the know" political advocate and then just says something that i'd expect jessie jackson or a black panther to blurt out.

Are you suggesting that the Black Panther Party weren't "in the know"?

Are you suggesting that the Black Panther Party weren't "in the know"?

I'm suggesting that the fucking BLACK MAN in America still socially segregates itself.  There are dark skinned people who think we are black and dark skinned people who think we are African-American and they bicker about things like heritage and social standing because no two black people can agree on anything.  Ever.

Officially, if you are born in America you are American.  If you are born in Africa, you are African.  If you come from Africa to America, you are African American.  There is a literal schism in "black culture" (I put this in quotes because I use it tentatively) because we literally don't know how to define ourselves.  Calling a Colombian a Brazilian will likely start a fight even though they are from the same continent and border and each other.

BUT

Calling a native black American black OR African American is still socially acceptable EVEN THOUGH the person in question could probably trace their roots and find at least 3 generations of their family has also been born in America.

So some black people call themselves Black Americans while others find BLACK to be a pejorative offshoot of NEGRO/COLORED/NIGGER and embrace African-American despite not being African.  The whole problem strings from the fact that there is no common ground for which the modern black man can stand on.  IN A FLOWERY WORLD the correct term for a person born in United States should be based on their individual state of origin regardless of nationality but this isn't the case because Humans naturally need an identity they can connect with that separates them from everyone else.  Far be it for me, Mr. Uppercrust Highborn, to associate myself with the filthy interbreeding mutts of the common North American!

But this isn't reality.  In reality, if you are black you are black.  If I was an immigrant from Africa, I would check mark the black box when getting a license at the DMV; the same as the guy who's great great great great great great great grandparents where African slaves.  There are so very few black heroes this generation and all of the upstanding ones seemed to die out after the 60s.  Jessie Jackson is crazy and no liberal black person wants to associate with him.  Most rappers are either politically inept, socially inept, give a bad message or all of the above.  Black politicians are few and because politics are still supremely white, the whole "heritage" aspect is gone.

This is a milestone for the BLACK AMERICAN.  McGruder is cheapening it.  Rather than uniting every person in America born with a drop of African blood (which makes you black no matter how you argue it) we continue to segregate ourselves because "well, this guy's family came here from Batswana in the 80s so he's African-American... but not black but but but this kid who robs liquor stores and wastes his life is the descendant of slaves so he must be true black!"

Obama is the first black person that I can safely call a "hero" in my generation on the same level that MLK was to my parents (Jesus Christ civil rights was 50 years ago).  I don't expect him to lead pride rallies down the street with a fist in the air but the very fact that he is black and he is president means that the non-black side of America has learned to cope.  What's the deal with black America?

I get what you're saying and I'm not disagreeing with you, but I mean the Black Panther Party for Self Defense didn't really 'blurt out' any of that nonsense that McGruder is talking about. If anything they did a lot to unite and organize black communities.

You're right about jesse jackson though, that guy still hasn't learned when to just keep his mouth shut sometimes(i.e. "cut his nuts out","hymietown",etc.) But Obama on the same level as MLK??? Really?

I get where McGruder is coming from though, but there are a million better ways he could have articulated himself. There's a bit of a serious problem with the left, specifically among prominent or outspoken figures, on how to relate to the whole OBAMAMANIA phenomenon. I think there's a lot of bitterness about it too because the democratic party and the billion-dollar Obama PR campaign kinda swooped in at a time when there was pretty fertile ground for political organizing and effectively marginalized every issue or position outside of the pretty narrow limits of the presidential platform debates. Others have become more recently disillusioned with the man because of his administration selections and feel betrayed because they don't see the promised change. So what a lot of people like McGruder do is lash out on Obama's character, 'racial status', or whatever without taking into consideration things like the fact that a black man becoming president is a very big deal. Ultimately what they end up doing is undermining themselves and their positions in the eyes of everyone else.

In his speech, Obama said "Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath." Wasn't it actually forty-three, since Grover Cleveland had non-consecutive terms?

I'm just nitpicking, it doesn't matter, but how did nobody catch this? Or is there another explanation?

Yes the explanation for that is that the second grover cleveland was actually a clone injected with cylon blood that hiro nakamura had replaced the real grover cleveland with. The real grove cleveland was trapped in the time of the dinosaurs

time to take a toke of that hope bong

There have been 44 Presidents of the United States so far. 43 people who have taken the oath.

fixed. now you should get what he is saying.

he could have meant jefferson davis