The racist-sexist smear campaign against Michelle Obama has begun. Last week, Fox News smeared Michelle Obama as Barack's "baby mama."
This week, Fox News gave us a preview of the racist-sexist smear that the repubs are planning for Michelle - painting her as just another one of those "angry black women." You know, one of those scary and dangerous "angry black women." The angry black woman who, along with her husband and their scary black liberationist preacher, wants revenge on "whitey." It's about fear and fear-mongering, pure and simple. And it must stop.
The smear occurred on Fox News Watch on Saturday, June 14. The topic of the panel discussion was "Is Michelle Obama the Next Media Target?" Conservative pundit Cal Thomas answered this question with a resounding and disturbing yes.
A transcript of the show is up on the Fox News website. Here are the relevant portions of the show.
The host of the show first brings up Michelle's statement about being proud of the United States for the first time and states that the media has already made up its mind about what kind of person Michelle Obama is. Cal Thomas then responds by demeaning Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Michelle Obama, "the angry black woman," in one horribly offensive sentence.
SCOTT: All right, Cal, you look at that cover. It seems like pretty powerful people in the media have already made up their mind about Michelle Obama and that's before the general election got under way.
CAL THOMAS: In this campaign, we are being asked to accept three things simultaneously, the first woman with a credible chance of being president, the first African-American with the chance to being president and, whoever Michelle Obama is going to be styled, the angry black woman, first lady? This is an awful lot.
If she's going to be out there talking about policy, being a surrogate for her husband, then, within certain boundaries, she is open for criticism and critiques just like any other political figure.
For Thomas, apparently it's hard enough for the American people to accept the possibliity of a woman president or a black president, but they also have to deal with the possibility of an "angry black woman" as First Lady. And this, for Thomas, "is an awful lot" for Americans to take.
If you thought that was bad, wait until you read Thomas' response to a comment by Jane Hall. Here, she notes that republicans will try to take down Obama by portraying Michelle as an angry black woman.
JANE HALL, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: I think one way that people who are going to try to defeat Obama is to somehow prove he's other — he's not one of us. If they can't prove he's a Muslim, then let's prove his wife is an angry black woman. I think it's going to get ugly. I don't think John McCain will sanction it. I think McCain — it's my opinion he will generally try...
Even though Hall wasn't suggesting that people ought to portray Michelle as an angry black woman, Cal Thomas seemed to take Jane Hall's statement as an endorsement of sorts, and here was his utterly reprehensible sexist and racist response to Hall:
THOMAS: I want to pick up on something that Jane said about the angry black woman. Look at the image of angry black women on television. Politically you have Maxine Waters of California, liberal Democrat. She's always angry every time she gets on television. Cynthia McKinney, another angry black woman. And who are the black women you see on the local news at night in cities all over the country. They're usually angry about something. They've had a son who has been shot in a drive-by shooting. They are angry at Bush. So you don't really have a profile of non-angry black women.
So now Thomas. in addition to smearing Obama, Hillary, and Michelle, smeared all black women as "angry black women," including such notable angry black women as Maxine Waters, who is "always angry every time she gets on television," and Cynthia McKinney, who is "just another angry black woman."
Apparently not satisfied with offending just those women, he goes on to smear black newscasters on local news broadcasts as angry black women who "are usually angry about something"; he smears angry black women whose sons have been killed in drive-by shootings; and then he notes matter of factly that black women "are angry at Bush." Since most black women are democrats, Thomas has just smeared millions of black women as "angry black women."
He concludes, based on his analysis, that there really is no such thing as a "non-angry black woman." After his comments elicit multiple responses from the other guests, Cal Thomas corrects himself. He acknowledges that not all black women on television are angry, and concedes that there is one happy black woman in the United States:
PINKERTON: Oprah Winfrey.
THOMAS: Oprah Winfrey. Yes, there you go, Oprah Winfrey.
When I saw the clip of Thomas' statement on Dan Abrams, my jaw just dropped. I know that racist and sexist baiting is nothing new for Fox News. But, I was appalled at the way Thomas obviously seemed to think that there was nothing wrong, nothing racist or sexist to argue that it is perfectly fine for the repubs to paint Michelle Obama as an "angry black woman" because, well, all black women are angry. Look at Maxine Waters!
What I'm also shocked about is that this disgusting statement was made on Saturday, and the first time I heard about it was on Dan Abram's show tonight. And he didn't provide any analysis or discussion of the statement. Why aren't all those people who denounced sexism during the primary race up in arms with this racist and sexist nonsense? Where are the diaries talking about the racial and gender bias of Fox News commentators?
We cannot let Cal Thomas' racist and sexist smears of Michelle Obama, Maxine Waters, Cynthia McKinney and millions of other black women escape without any scrutiny. If these kinds of racist and sexist attacks are tolerated now, Fox News will be emboldened to perpetuate and foster such attacks in the upcoming months.
We cannot let Michelle and Barack Obama get "willie hortoned" in the MSM media. We cannot let the MSM believe that it's perfectly objective and reasonable to debate whether or not Michelle Obama is angry black woman, whether or not there are any "non-angry black women" on television.
I'm not one for asking people to recommend my diary, but I believe that this issue is important enough for me to do so. Please recommend this diary and help to bring this issue to light. It's great that Hillary Clinton's campaign has raised awareness of sexism in the media. Now, let's make sure that awareness doesn't get lost during the general election.
UPDATE: Thanks to Angelesmartian for providing a link to the video.
Fox News Video - Michelle Obama slur
I have also pasted a link to the transcript below:
Fox News and Angry Black Women.
