Typical White People are pissed at Barack Obama. So much so that they're ordering Typical White Person gear over at Cafe Press. Some outraged typical white people in Pennsylvania are venting here. Bloggers on the left and right are writing furiously about typical white persons.
Maybe the primary is giving me a sick sense of humor, but on one level I find all of this to be hilarious. For pretty well forever, Black people have had to listen to stories about typical Black people. The crazed or disreputable actions of one white person is never said to represent the entire group, until now. But it's a longstanding rule that the actions of one Black person represent the entire Black community, at least whenever the behavior is bad. (This rule also applies to women, gays and other minorities.) When a Black person is late for a meeting, it means that all Black people are always late for every freaking meeting.
So, yeah, I think the outrage over the perceived stereotyping of white people by Obama is hilarious. And I don't think Obama is a racist. I just think that he sometimes talks about white people the way white people sometimes talk about Black people. Obama may be half white, but the rule in America has always been that one drop of Black blood makes you totally Black.
Since white people don't like to be stereotyped anymore than Black people do, and since white people are the vast majority of the population, this is going to really hurt Obama.
There's no doubt about it, the Wright scandal has seriously damaged Obama's electability.
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