Barack Obama is getting in hot water after referring to his white grandmother as a “typical white person” who has fears of black men walking down the street. I don’t know about you, but if I saw a “typical black person,” like Barack, walking down the street, I’d be pretty scared.
Abstraction Reaction 
Obama’s critics repeat ad nauseum one single poorly chosen word instead of considering any thing else Obama has ever said .
This reminds me of when I was a sailor and one of my shipmates farted. Another shipmate then said “That is the most intellegent thing I have ever heard you say”
To which the first shipmate responded. ” I have said lots of intelligent things but this was the first one that you understood”
Those people who focus on that one badly chosen word should have paid attention when Obama said
“But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.
I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.
I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.”
I suspect that Obama’s critics connect better with BRAIN FARTS like
“They hate us because of our freedom “and
“If you are not with us you are against us”
When talking about Iraq ” I will never forget the lessons of 9/11″
Barack Obama called his Grandmother a ‘Typical White Person’. Now you can get it on Shirts, Stickers, Hats, Buttons, Mugs and More from TypicalWhitePerson.MyShirtSucks.com
Abstraction, yes. Funny, not so much.
Your site is aptly named:
“Abstraction is the process or result of generalization by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, typically in order to retain only information which is relevant for a particular purpose.”
And your purpose is?
Thanks for the comments “Noted.” I’m glad you are enjoying my blog!
So if I were to characterize the typical black man in America would I then have the likes of Al Sharpten and Jesse Jackson knocking down my doors. It was a racist comment or at very least an ignorant comment. It doesn’t show any intelligence on his part as far as being a person who can unite, it only goes to divide. And now should we have Americans believing that if we don’t elect this man based on his color then we will have riots in the streets the likes of LA? I’m not voting for him because he’s not white. I’m not voting for him because he has no experience with doing any of the things that he thinks he can do as president. His “politics” of increasing taxes and trying to take over private industry like he said he would do with fuel companies scares the crap out of me more than a little riot in the street.
DB
I know this makes me a racist, Obamaites, so save your breath, but I found that comment more objectionable than just about anything else. It isn’t one little comment. In a puff of air he dismisses an entire class of people. I would not do that to him. I do not refer casually or unthinkly to “typical black people.” I am offended when I have heard others do it. It is not less offensive because he is talking about white people. In his book he referred casually to white man as a cracker. I think this language comes a little too easy to him.
Oddly, I find the Wright thing blown wholly out of proportion and not enough being made of the “typical white person” remark.
Dumb blond
Did you listen to anything else Obama said?
Was his “brain fart” the only thing you understood?
Everyone makes a bad choice of words from time to time. God knows GW Bush does.
Are you sure that you want to throw out the baby with the washwater?
Or are you just looking for a pretext to criticize Obama?
If he had said ‘average’ would that have been better?
i think ‘average’ would have been better.
i think it might have been a poor choice of words, but i think we all know what he meant.
the ‘average’ white person would be afraid to walk down a street at night if they say a black person (mainly a man) coming.
true or not?
i think so
DB Reese
It was a racist comment or at very least an ignorant comment.
OH come one. it was not racist.
i’m starting to believe americans have forgotten what ‘racist’ means:-)
I’d be more scared of Ludacris. How are we to know that our nation’s hos are not in his area codes?
Gas Doc-
Are you sure that Obama simply misspoke? When Kerry misspoke over young people getting stuck in Iraq, did Mitt Romney let it go? Did Obama let it go when Romney, another accomplished orator, called Obama “Osama”? (The answer to the first is no, the answer to the second is yes, in case you’re not keeping track)
At the very least, regardless of whether or not what he said was racist, Obama is past the point in his life when he’s going to accidentally misspeak on something so important.
Anyone can choose one single word less than optimately from the point of view of how it can be perceived.
Does one less than optimally chosen word trump the many words that Obama has uttered?
Are those people who are so moved by this one word uncapable of understand complete sentences?
This reminds me of the guy that farts and a second guy who says “That is the most intelligent thing you have ever said”
The guy who farted then says “I have said plenty of intelligent things but this is the first time you understood something”
Gas Doc –
Are you insane? You already said that once, and you didn’t address a thing I said.
Jared,
(I apologize for repeating myself.)
1. The word prejudice refers to prejudgment: making a decision before becoming aware of the relevant facts of a case or event.
2. If and when someone characterizes someone as “typical” he (she) is attributing some attribute to someone else based on some unrelated trait.
3. Obama is deploring this behavior that is so widespread that even members of his own family exhibit this behavior.
4. Prejudice is a problem in the USA and elsewhere.
5. Obama gave a length speech on racial prejudice which has been generally considered to be a brilliant and historic . Those who are obsessed with Obama’s use of that single word “typical” and suggest that it is race baiting are apparently ignoring everything else Obama has said. In other words they are cherry picking.
6. Is it OK for people to continue to milk Obama’s use of the one word “typical” for all it is worth, but my characterization of this strawman argument by a vulgar metophore qualifies me as being crazy ?
I think the reason “typical white person” was even noticed is that he had just given a speech deploring racial division. (Yes, I read the entire speech. Some of it I agreed with completely. I think his characterization of America’s racial past is accurate.) I am not searching for reasons to dislike Obama. I had determined I would not support him over Clinton based on his Earl Butz-like environmental policy (grow corn for biofuel), his lack of substantive political experience in the Senate or as governor of a state, his speeches that say very little (the speech on race was an exception), and other things. I am not bothered by his association with Wright and I think the press is making a mountain out of a molehill. If Obama himself turns out to be Marxist, it will be a problem for him in the General Election, if he is the nominee, but I don’t believe he is a Marxist or a Black Nationalist. People who think that are making it up.
His comment using the word “typical” may have been a slip-up, in that he didn’t choose his words carefully, but it does show something about him, that he is no more post-racial than anybody else. For what my thoughts are worth…
Idiot! You know good and well, when he said that, he meant his grandmother was white but she felt the fear that a black man feels when walking the street! Keep it in perspective “Bitter McCain Supporter!” He lost get over it!