"You're very cool...is it because you're black?" --Stephanopolous to Obama

[live love laugh]

It's summer rerun time and the Daily Show reran this clip not too long ago.

I'm not stupid but these questions are rattling around in my head and I want to know what somebody else thinks.

WHY did Stephanopolous ask that question?

What was he hoping to achieve?

Was that a racist question?

It burns me up just thinking about the whole setup. :grr:



Edit to add firebreathing.

[Maat]

That's very offensive.

That just shows what an empty-head Stephanoplous, the Media Shill, is ...

[Captain Hilts]

1. Can he play drums or basketball well too? Good grief!!!! nt

[Tunkamerica]

2. You're racist...is it because you're Greek?

[Cha]

3. Great retort from Obama to

stephenopolous.."NO, I'd be this COOL if I were White!~"

[Liberal Veteran]

4. The proper answer to George S. would have been....

You're very clueless. Is it because you're a moron?

[live love laugh]

5. He had to collect himself to answer, mustering up every bit of coolness he has. \

Hmmmmmm. My answer made me think: Barack's cool, maybe they want him to lose his cool.

[DemSoccerMom]

25. LOL. n/t

[BootinUp]

6. I think its borderline insulting, mostly just stupid

I thought Stephanopolous was a better interviewer than that. But perhaps there are idiotic Americans that find that question particularly relevant.

[illinoisprogressive]

7. I don't remember this. Is there a link or something?

[athena]

8. Obama handled it extremely well.

He said "That's interesting," and Stephanopoulos, realizing his mistake, cut in immediately and tried to change the question. Here is the exchange, from a transcript:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You have a very cool style when you're doing
those town meetings, when you're out on the campaign trail. And I
wonder, how much of that is tied to your race?

OBAMA: That's interesting.

STEPHANOPOULOS: One of your friends told the New Yorker Magazine
that "the mainstream is just not ready for a fire-breathing black
man." Did you turn down the temperature on purpose?

OBAMA: You know, I don't think it has to do with race. I think
it has to do with when I'm campaigning, I'm in a conversation. And
what I don't do when I'm campaigning is to try to press a lot of hot
buttons and use a lot of cheap applause lines, because I want people
to get a sense of how I think about this process.

[idgiehkt]

14. so steph meant 'cool' = even-tempered

in contrast to the 'fire and brim-stone' oratory of black activists/politicians who grew up being influenced by the church. He didn't mean cool like 'groovy'. The OP is kind of ambiguous and I totally mis-understood it.

Steph's second question was what he needed to lead with, then the comment about Obama's 'understated' delivery or some other less ambiguous word...the first question should never have been asked. The OP makes it sound like a "White men can't jump" kind of thing.

[nevergiveup]

9. It was so totally

inappropriate. Obama handled it well but I wish he would have just stared at George and not responded.

[AZBlue]

10. "You are very prejudiced. Is it because you're Greek?"

NO. I'm NOT advocating a slur like that....unless of course you've been subjected to an equally offensive and stupid comment. Of course, on Stephanobrainous, the intent of the comment would be completely lost. So sad.

[misanthrope]

16. Along those lines, what if Obama had brought up...

...the notorious reputation Greeks had in the ancient world for being rampant liars? Seem some Greek cultures didn't assign the same tabu to prevarication as in other Western societies and it was considered an acceptable form of one-upsmanship to make another person believe your legerdemain.

I heard an old story once wherein the king warring with a Greek city-state released a prisoner of war to return home with a message for his own leader under the promise the Greek would bring a response back. Supposedly, when the prisoner returned with the response, the opposing king laughed so hard at the idea that a Greek had kept his word, he fell from his throne and died.

Is this a fair assessment or stereotype? Of course not, but it's no less offensive than what Stephenopolous implied to Obama.

[originalpckelly]

11. What Obama should have said:

"You're a dumbass, is that because you're white?"

[jobycom]

12. First, the thread title isn't an exact quote. Second, it was an interesting question

very poorly phrased. Stephenopolous was trying to ask a somewhat insightful question about campaign strategy and American perceptions of race. He was trying to ask Obama if he was deliberately toning down the fiery, angry oratorical style Americans associate with African American politicians (Jackson, Sharpton, Mosley-Braun, Keyes, for example).

He didn't say "You're very cool, is it because you are black?" He said something like "You remain very cool on the campaign trail. Is that related to race?" After Obama seemed confused by the question, Stephenopolis further explained that he was asking if Obama was deliberately trying to maintain a calm image to counter the angry image of other African-American politicians. He seemed to be asking how much of Obama's demeanor was part of a political strategy to counter American perceptions and biases concerning race.

The problem is, in today's media, if you ask a question that takes more than one sentence to develop, your producer gets mad, assuming Americans are too fucking stupid to stick with a thought for longer than that, so Stephenopolous tried to get it all in on one line, and it sounded ridiculous. But he didn't ask if Obama was cool because he was black.

[JI7]

18. so he meant cool, as in calm , not cool as in popular

i still don't like Steph . but it's not as bad as i thought.

[live love laugh]

19. Even if he meant cool as in calm, even if he meant that Obama is not fiery

like other black politicians--that is racist. The question implies that blacks are all like whoever else Stephanopolous was comparing them to.

[jobycom]

23. I don't completely agree...

But I see your point. I'd argue, without a lot of conviction, that he was asking more about Obama's strategy versus the strategies of other black politicians, not meaning to imply that all black politicians are angry or fiery. There is still an implicit undercurrent that Obama is more acceptable to whites than past African American candidates because he is "cool" and they were "angry," and that says all kinds of nasty stuff about white attitudes and what whites think of as "good African Americans." If Stephenopolous is aware of that undercurrent (and I can't believe he isn't), he should make it explicit, or not address it at all. But he doesn't have the courage to be bold.

How someone so intelligent and so closely connected to one of the most exciting presidencies of recent times can be so completely banal, I'll never understand. He's like watching Mr. Rogers, only he seems unaware that his audience is much older than the Sweatered Wonder's.

[mitchum]

13. "You're a buttboy, George...is it because you're Greek?"....

would have been my reply
I guess that's one of the reasons i'm not running

[dsa]

15. I think you're all overreacting

And reading too much into Snuffy's words.

Nice :grr: effect though!

[krispos42]

17. Something like this happened to US Rep. Keith Ellison

Minnesota's 5th District. On the Glenn Beck flopshow. Asked Ellison (who's an American-born black and a Muslim convert) something to the effect of "How do we know you're not a terrorist?".

Ellison was very cool about this. He swore his Congressional Oath of Office on Thomas Jefferson's personal Koran to defuse all those "Christain" <sic> bigots on the Right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qur%27an_oath_controversy_of_the_110th_United_States_Congress
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Ellison_%28politician%29#Quran_Oath_Controversy_of_the_110th_United_States_Congress

[sakabatou]

20. ::headdesk::

[bdamomma]

21. what BS, or I would have said, Yea, I'm cool and clean!!!

and my color has nothing to do with it.

[npincus]

22. remember B*sh asked: "Does Brazil have black people?"

:rofl:

[JVS]

24. OMG