RNC Candidate Produces "Barack the Magic Negro" Song

Posted by Brian Fairbanks

 

If you think the historic and decisive victory of Barack Obama has dealt a death blow to this country's racial intolerance, you're going to want to see this...

Chip Saltsman, the genius who turned Mike Huckabee's win in the Iowa caucus to a triumphant defeat down the road, is running to be the head of the Republican National Committee. Since, as is the case with Sarah Palin, the vilest candidate should win here and, with the unfunny "parody" song he handed out to colleagues at Christmas and the huge uproar over the weekend, we would peg him as the new front runner for the job.

Here's a video someone made set to the song. Our second favorite, way less amusing, is here. There's nothing to say here except these people are incredibly sad... just sad...

...with caveats: 1) The video opens with Paul Shanklin, an Al Sharpton impersonator (more like "mocker"), letting everyone know this is closed captioned for the "thinking impared." Yes, that's how he spelled it. Oh, and there are no captions in the video whatsoever. 2) Even if the rest of the ignorant lyrics fail to turn you off, just keep reminding yourself that Saltsman is white and the use of the word "Negro," his defenders argue, is completely acceptable because he's "being funny." 3) The smack-yourself-in-the-forehead break in the song, which either Saltsman or Shanklin use to claim that people vote for Obama because "this is about justice"-- as if those tens of millions of votes were all because people feel sorry for the Civil Rights Era (yeah, tell that to the Jesse Jackson '84 and '88 campaigns, and to George Bush, who would be relieved to know it had nothing to do with him.

If the video gets pulled (it has been once already), please email us at scanner@nerve.com and we'll get another version up immediately.

 

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Comments

allfathersdotter said:

I feel physically ILL after watching that, I didn't even make it 'till the very end....

Physically. Ill.

December 29, 2008 3:26 PM

Daniel J Dwyer said:

The term in question, "magic negro", is really an unfortunate one. It's a very useful term in the fight against and understanding of racism. Shanklin's use of the term is clearly unacceptable, however, as is the message of his piece. David Ehrenstein, the first I know of to make the connection between Barack and the archetype of the magic negro, used the term quite appropriately, but even his usage begs the question of whether or not the term itself is unacceptable. When I first saw his piece, I had no idea that the term existed, and was thus shocked that the LA Times let anyone get away with using the word negro in a headline. I imagine most people would be similarly taken back, and think even those who use it properly should be smart enough to realize that it puts people off. There's got to be some better combination of words to get the idea across.

December 29, 2008 3:38 PM

About Brian Fairbanks

Brian Fairbanks, the Senior National Political Correspondent for Nerve, is a filmmaker living in Brooklyn or New Orleans, depending on the season. He is a heavily-armed advocate of gun control.

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