Stereotypes

"Given Obama's racial background," writes Brendan Nyhan, "the danger is that these attacks will be used to trigger ugly racial stereotypes about him, particularly once Republicans shift from bong jokes to talking about cocaine, which Obama admitted to trying in his first book."

I dunno about this. It seems to me that if you have an African-American candidate whose admitted to past cocaine use, that attacking him for past cocaine use is less an appeal to ugly racial stereotypes than a straightforward attack on his past drug use. An appeal to ugly racial stereotypes would be implying that a black candidate must have used cocaine in the past because, hey, that's what those people do. I don't personally have any problem with the idea that of a president who used cocaine in the past (though, admittedly, the George W. Bush experience hasn't been very pleasant) but insofar as some voters do have a problem with it, they're entitled to have a problem with it irrespective of the candidate's race.

Comments

Totally! What kind of oversensitive chicken little is it who would think white folks would have a problem with a black guy being President?

And then think how oversensitive the person must be to think that white folks would attempt to *cover up* their racism by running with a cocaine-cover.

White folks would never do that. White folks must be given the benefit of the doubt. Until they say "nigger", plausible deniability reigns.

rofl!

Posted by sherifffruitfly | May 30, 2007 4:04 PM

Here's how it will roll out: some wingnut pond-scum will say 'Obama smoked crack in college'; Obama will come out and say 'it wasn't crack', and those who didn't know about it before will hear it splashed over the network news.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | May 30, 2007 4:10 PM

will be used to trigger ugly racial stereotypes about him, particularly once Republicans shift from bong jokes to talking about cocaine,

Give me a break. It's clearly an attempt to remind black voters, so potentially important in the primaries, that Obama has a white mother. If he'd wanted to traffic in African-American druggie stereotypes, McCain would have referenced crack.

Posted by SomeCallMeTim | May 30, 2007 4:14 PM

but wouldn't the racial part come in where people care because a black candidate used drugs, but don't care about a white candidate?

Posted by Kathleen | May 30, 2007 4:16 PM

He didn't say that there aren't white folks who would have a problem with a black president. That segment may cloak their racism in disdain for drug use, but that doesn't mean anyone who has disdain for his drug use is racist.

They went after Kerry for his purple hearts, they'll probably go after Obama for giving up smoking. Shows he's a quitter.

Posted by crack | May 30, 2007 4:19 PM

Just wait til it comes out that his nickname in college was "Bogart"

Posted by Ethel-to-Tilly | May 30, 2007 4:26 PM

I think the "ugly racial stereotypes" should just be rephrased as "constant references to Marion Barry", to make it more clear what the Republican plan will be.

Posted by Cryptic Ned | May 30, 2007 4:28 PM

Matt, are you on crack today?

"Triggering" ugly racial stereotypes is not the same as appealing to them explicitly. You're totally high if you think the Republicans who will certainly harp on Obama's dabbling in cocaine (after ignoring Bush's regular abuse) aren't doing it in part for racial reasons. You're also high if you think anyone in America can fully separate attitudes about drug use from the reality of racism.

Posted by Antid Oto | May 30, 2007 4:53 PM

Did McCain ever allude to the stories about Bush's recreational drug use?

Posted by Duvall | May 30, 2007 5:07 PM

Matt's got a point, but the problem is that the imperfect minority person will be punished where the imperfect white person is given a break. I have no doubt that most people who mention Obama's use of cocaine in explaining their failure to vote for him will be people who voted for Bush.

Posted by MDtoMN | May 30, 2007 5:07 PM

You will find out that people who had no problem with George "Spoons" Bush as president will think Obama's cocaine use is a disqualifyer. And that will be racism . . .

Posted by rea | May 30, 2007 5:10 PM

It's conceivable that this is a case where the ugly racial stereotypes will actually innoculate Obama against the Cocaine issue. If, as the stereotype would go, "black people are drug users" then the fact that Obama did cocaine is unsurprising. As we know, an awful lot of politics isn't about measuring up to a uniform standard, but exceeding or failing the expectations of the candidate in question, and in the minds of a racist, Obama's blackness might lower the bar for drug use much in the way that George Bush's reputation as a party animal lowered the bar for his past behavior and innoculated him against his own past drug use.

On the other hand, the idea that "of course rich people get expensive haircuts" certainly hasn't innoculated Edwards against the $400 haircut meme, so maybe I'm full of it.

Posted by Galen | May 30, 2007 5:19 PM

What's going on with Matt here? He seems to think that the context for the McCain staffer's "bong" comment is the distinction between "reasonable" concern about a candidate's past cocaine use and "unreasonable" racial stereotyping.

How naive.

The immediate context for the "bong" comment is that conservative activists devote a lot of their energy to insulting Democrats. Everybody on the right wants to be the next Coulter or Malkin. Everybody wants to formulate the key insult that frames a Democrat in the negative light that dogged Kerry once he had been tagged as a "flip-flopper." And the key for the McCain staffer is that right-wingers want to be seen as playing the insult game as a way to establish or reinforce their conservative bonafides. What the anonymous staffer was doing was trying to increase John McCain's standing among right-wing activists by insulting Barack Obama.

Is the attack on Obama racial? Of course it's racial. The right's been working overtime to figure out ways to stignatize Obama's international version of blackness. First, it was playing on his middle name of Hussein and the fact that Obama rhymes with Osama. Then it was the accusations that Obama attended a madrassa in Indonesia. More recently, I've seen Slate's right-wing blogger Mickey Kaus cast aspersions on the preacher at Obama's church as "a black militant" kind of person. All of this is part of a group effort on the part of the right to figure out a way to make Barack Obama seem unappealing and repellant because he's black.

So is the "bong" comment by the McCain staffer.

Posted by Ric Caric | May 30, 2007 5:29 PM

Next thing you know, people will be crying racism if someone refers to Obama using Bush's nickname: Chimpy McCokespoon.

Posted by Al | May 30, 2007 5:29 PM

I heard that when he was in Iraq, John McCain couldn't tell the difference between his flack jacket and his Depends underwear.

I'm looking forward to throwing him a party for his 74th birthday this coming August. (Or was it 71st?)

I do hope people don't stereotype him just because he's old and senile. Maybe he shouldn't run because the last thing the elderly in this country need is the triggering of ugly stereotypes about their bowel habits. They already suffer from enough incontinence.

Posted by Jed Lewison | May 30, 2007 5:46 PM

Also, Matt, to ignore the spelling attack in the context of this is a bit silly. I don't see a real need to slam McCain as a racist (especially since it's unclear whether he's a bigger racist or a moron), but to argue that his attack was a justified, legitimate response to Obama's policy-based critique of McCain is one of the most absurd, mentally limp things one could do.

Obama: The fact that John McCain needed to wear a flack jacket and be surrounded by military while strolling through that market in Baghdad shows the situation on the ground is untenable and we must withdraw.

McCain: Obama can't tell difference between RPG and Bong and can't spell flak.

Merriam-Webster: Flack = flak

Me: McCain can't tell the difference between his flack jacket and his depends underwear.

Posted by Jed Lewison | May 30, 2007 5:52 PM

"You will find out that people who had no problem with George "Spoons" Bush as president will think Obama's cocaine use is a disqualifyer. And that will be racism . . ."

No, that will be partisanship, because the people you're talking about are Republicans. Unless they would hold a black Republican's drug use against him, it's not evidence of racism.

Posted by too many steves | May 30, 2007 5:55 PM

Antid Otto: What is the evidence for "Bush's regular abuse" of cocaine? As far as I've heard, the issue is about rumors that he used in the past plus a refusal on his part to confirm or deny. If there's evidence of "regular abuse" I never heard it, but would very much like to. Granted, I didn't dig into the issue much having more substantive reasons not to vote for the guy.

Posted by Led | May 30, 2007 6:01 PM

If you would read Obama's autobiography, his "Story of Race and Inheritance," you would see that Obama himself was the first to attribute his preppie drug use to his racial identity, writing that taking drugs was "something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind . . ."

Obama's Puhanhou School classmates, in contrast, in the many articles written by self-sacrificing reporters who spent the late winter in Obama's old tropical stomping grounds, seemed to find his explanation puzzlingly gratuitous. Many of them smoked dope on the beach, too, but they didn't need a racial identity crisis caused by the white power structure to justify their getting high. It was, like, Hawaii in the 1970s, you know? Maui Wowie, dude!

Posted by Steve Sailer | May 30, 2007 6:43 PM

I think Antid Oto gets this one right. Talking about cocaine use is a way of making Obama look less like the post-racial figure white people are happy with and more like one of those black people you don't want moving into your neighborhood.

Posted by Neil the Ethical Werewolf | May 30, 2007 6:49 PM

Led: Not really. My gut and my ass say so. In 1999 he said he hadn't used any illegal drugs since 1974 but wouldn't confirm or deny before that. Plus he has admitted to being an alcoholic until age 40, and people who abuse alcohol usually can't use other drugs without abusing them. But no direct evidence, no.

Steve Sailer: Go away.

Posted by Antid Oto | May 30, 2007 7:13 PM

I think it's a bit of a stretch. The wingers are more concerned about things like his stepdad being -tho not practicing- muslim and going to a school.
They are far more obsessed by muslims than drugs. the muslim religion is the new boogyman in their world.
And his race is big with them as well. One person who is a supporter got an email from someone pretending to be a supporter and mail a pic of a kkk guy with some nasty remark.
Anything to do with bigotry is more their style.

Posted by vwcat | May 30, 2007 10:35 PM

If he used coke in powder form and got away with it, doesn't that make him practically white? Stereotypical black behavior would be doing a harsh prison sentence for smoking an equivalent amount of crack. Feel free to throw in the Limbaugh/hillbilly heroin joke of your choice here.

Posted by Kevin Carson | May 31, 2007 12:58 AM

yeah, Kevin nails it, I think...this is the rich white private school kid drug of choice!

Posted by nick | May 31, 2007 1:10 AM

What Kevin said. If anything the stereotype of a coke (not crack) user is a WASP investment banker/stockbroker.

Posted by Ginger Yellow | May 31, 2007 5:51 AM

But as you've indirectly acknowledged already, it's not "irrespective of the candidate's race".

The same people willing to overlook GWB's much more extensive cocaine use completely are exactly the people who we can expect to be harping endlessly on Obama's youthful experimentation in this regard -- complete with dark racial innuendo and moralistic whining about "defining deviancy down". You can count on it.

Of course I'm biased -- I don't want Obama to be president so perhaps I'm arguing from a position of bad faith.

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