Along with that chain email going around that Barack Obama is the Antichrist ( I kid you not)the infamous Michelle Obama “Whitey” video is is supposed to drop today. Conservative talk radio and bloggers have been going on and on about this infamous tape.
Indeed, rumors are swirling on the campaign trail that a new video will soon surface featuring Mrs. Obama appearing on a panel with radical speakers during which she makes more controversial statements. Wall Street Journal
The rumor sweeping the Internet, which I’m sure you’ve heard by now, is that there’s an explosive tape of Michelle Obama ranting about “whitey.” The rumor is being spread most aggressively by Larry Johnson, the former intelligence official who previously “broke” the story that Karl Rove was about to be indicted over the Valerie Plame case. “I learned over the weekend why the Republicans who have seen the tape of Michelle Obama ranting about ‘whitey describe it as ‘STUNNING,’ he writes. “I have not seen it but I have heard from five separate sources who have spoken directly with people who have seen the tape. It features Michelle Obama and Louis Farrakhan. They are sitting on a panel at Jeremiah Wright’s Church when Michelle makes her intemperate remarks. Whoops!!” HARPERS
Hillary/McCain supporters of the “sofa in the yard” variety have long dreamed of a magical trick to destroy Barack Obama’s candidacy — something that would transform the “post-racial candidate” into, of course, that thing racist whites are always dreaming of: racist blacks. The holy grail of this quest is a tape or video or some kind of recording that proves Michelle Obama is The (Black) Devil because she said “whitey,” which is a poisonous slur against whitey because it has kept whitey down for the whole 6,000 years of White Christian whitey’s existence. Wonkette
So the No Quarter Blog has been pushing this Michelle Obama “Whitey” tape. I have difficulty believing that if it existed the Clintons would not have already dropped it by now OR that the Obama campaign would not have already have been doing damage control with a pre mea culpa, but then again that campaign didn’t prepare for the Jeremiah Wright National Press Club Wild-out either and that was predicted a year in advance.
Even when Barack walked on water back in pre-Jeremiah Wright days ( y’all remember them?), Michelle has always taken hits in the press and from the right– Hits far harder than have ever been lobbed at her husband as she’s been branded “The Angry Black Woman.” There are times when they play more soundbytes of the “I’m Proud of My Country” speech than they do of the candidate. Or who can forget the “lynching party” comment that basically went ignored.
They might bang up Barack ( he can fend for himself), but there is a visceral dislike for Michelle Obama from some quarters and while they may have felt constrained from attacking her husband, they do not have that same restraint with Michelle.
So today is the day. Either the tape drops today or it doesn’t exist and a hoax. But it really doesn’t have to exist because it has done the same damage in that it reinforces this narrative out there about Michelle that she is somehow not a loyal American and is an angry Black woman moreso than her affable husband… WHATEVA!
Volunteer Michelle Media Monitors
This whole infamous tape stuff is just a sliver of what Michelle Obama is going to face in the media. So because I predict getting a flurry of emails from now until November, I am going to be proactive and start a separate Michelle Obama blog to track every article, blog post, youtube clip that pops up and provide you an opportunity to respond. Because if the past is any indicator, the campaign has no problem with her being turned into a verbal punching bag, I DO! IF you want to volunteer and want to post updates on the blog, send an email to the gmail account in the right sidebar. Its going to be a LONG hot SUMMER!
Whether you support her husband or not. Let’s be clear, any and every Black woman that walks in her footsteps can expect the same treatment so we might as well pull a Gandolf, draw a line in the stand and yell “THOU SHALL NOT PASS!” This ain’t about Barack, its about every professional Black woman that has had to smile on the days she didn’t want to for fear of being labeled ANGRY.
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24 comments ↓
Hey Gina. If this tape exists, wouldn’t Hillary have dropped it by now? The Clinton’s are worth 100million dollars…they’d pay plenty of that to have for such a tape. I have my concerns about Michelle. Although I respect her too, I think her views are more traditionally “militant” than her husbands…and that is Verrrry scary to white voters.
Anyhoo, pls. tell us more about Michelle monitoring. I would be interested.
Carmen D.
“They might bang up Barack ( he can fend for himself), but there is a visceral dislike for Michelle Obama from some quarters and while they may have felt constrained from attacking her husband, they do not have that same restraint with Michelle.”
That’s because Michelle is the long-term, historical, true Black American. Much more hated than an African immigrant ever will be. We Black Americans are the ones with the long history of oppression and fighting with racists in America, so Michelle truly represents “the despised” in their eyes, moreso than Barack. Thta’s why she is so heavily targeted.
One of the reasons we know that Michelle Obama will be attacked as a woman, as well as an African American woman, is because of what the media and the Democrats unleashed upon Hillary Clinton. Though she is not gone, you’re right, attention will shift to smearing Michelle Obama and I have no doubt that it will be awful, as “they” have already indicated with rumours of this video. I have no doubt that neocons would be constitutionally unable to refrain from dumping such a video out into the public if it existed.
All feminists will come to the aid of Mrs. Obama, whether or not they were Clinton supporters. Most of them were as angry about the sexism as they were by the fact that she is not the Democratic nominee.
Glad you’ll be covering the Convention. I look forward to it.
I’ve been digging around for the articles on this supposed tape, and after a epiphany I feel kind of shameful: Why would I actually fall for the idea that a Harvard-educated, wealthy black woman, post-Y2K, would actually use the word “whitey”?
Are we really supposed to believe that a professional woman like Michelle Obama actually say the word “whitey”? They’re belittling her intelligence, and for a second there I almost bought into it.
Not some eloquent rant on race in America, not even “damn those Caucasians”. No, we’re supposed to believe that this woman took it back to Sanford & Son and referred to George Bush as “whitey”.
I am actually more a fan of Michelle than I am her husband. Since black women occupy a unique place in terms of racial and gender hierarchy, I predict the months ahead will be very difficult for her.
TO MCCAIN AND CLINTON CAMPS AND THE MEDIA: “LEAVE MICHELLE OBAMA ALONE!!!”
Gina, I concur. It is going to be a long hot summer.
As angry as Bill Hillary and the rest of those jokers are the infamous tape would have already been played looped made it to youtube and every where else – No Tape.
Scare Tactics of Old Politics the kind which sent Hillary home and is sending The Obama’s straight to The White House.
What little respect I had for HRC she squashed last night.
Dana,
You are absolutely right. SO maybe in addition to monitoring the media it will also monitor the Obama campaign’s response.
All I know is that it galls me that she appears to have NOBODY willing to defend her, including her husband and she appears to be willing to be a sacrificial lamb for the team.
I can’t put my finger on why exactly that annoys me yet.
You brought up a good point. Many minds are often better than one.
rekcognize said …”I’ve been digging around for the articles on this supposed tape, and after a epiphany I feel kind of shameful: Why would I actually fall for the idea that a Harvard-educated, wealthy black woman, post-Y2K, would actually use the word “whitey”?
That is the power of the rumor, it does not have to be true because of the notion that this Princeton and Harvard graduate is somehow a fire breathing radical, fits with the idea of this tape, thus you had MSM outlets who want people to think that they are credible, mentioning the existence of this tape.
Hi Gina – I deleted my comment before I realized you’d responded to it. I’ll re-post it again so that everyone else can see what you were replying to. Thanks for responding.
***
Gina, you say “this ain’t about Barack, its about every professional woman…” Ok, I hear that, and taking a stand as a black woman against the defamation of another powerful, visible black woman is a logical, reasonable thing to do.
However, it leaves something else undone: it leaves unaddressed the fact that the Obama campaign refuses to take a stand against overt or covert racism…even when its being directed against his own wife. By defending Obama’s wife, when his campaign should be doing so, is enabling Obama and all of his handlers to continue on with the ruse of a postracial America where racism is more of a nuisance than something that is institutional and endemic.
It seems to me that if Obama can’t defend black people or black institutions — or at the very least refuse to denounce and distance himself from them every time he’s forced to do so — he should at the very least be challenged by black voters, especially black women, to publicly defend his own wife. He should be aware that, as you say, she represents an entire class of professional black women, and to leave attacks against her unchallenged and unanswered is tantamount to doing the same for all black women.
However, he’ll never have to say a word and “sully” himself with such issues if everybody chooses to do his fighting for him…
Feminists are only interested in white women and the black community is only interested in black men so we black women have to defend ourselves. I hate the slings and arrows that are directed Michelle’s way and wish Barack would take a stronger stand in her defense. But I doubt he will because he hasn’t taken a strong stand on anything. I’m hoping he’ll have an “I paid for this microphone” moment during the general election to demonstrate he can stand his ground instead of running away and backpedaling all of the time.
“All I know is that it galls me that she appears to have NOBODY willing to defend her, including her husband “
It seems that, strategically speaking, the Obama campaign has decided you can not defend anything black (at least not too vigorously) and win.
By the way, it seems clear to me that the infamous “whitey” tape is a hoax. I don’t think it will ever “drop” because it doesn’t exist.
Feminists are only interested in white women and the black community is only interested in black men so we black women have to defend ourselves.
TRUE.
But I disagree with the notion that Barack has not defended Michelle. He did defend her on GMA with Robin Roberts (the now famous “lay off my wife.”
He is doing it in controlled environments. Short interviews that he can be reasonably sure won’t be edited out.
He could easily keep Michelle behind the scenes much in the way McCain does with his non/partial-tax return releasing wife Cindy.
Instead, the Obamas are the most affectionate couple on the campaign trail.
And… The Dap.
Yeah, he defends her in my eyes – by keeping her front and center by his side.
To hesperis:
I agree with most of what you said, but I don’t think *All* feminists will come to the aid of Mrs. Obama. Most likely feminists of color will but these women are as rabid in their hatred towards Michelle as the media is to Senator Clinton.
This site among others has portrayed Michelle as either a bomb-planting terrorist or as an irresponsible child who has no sense of responsibility over the words she says so therefore she will cost the election for the Democrats. Somehow her ‘pride for her country’ remarks are worse than Bill Clinton standing in from of a black crowd and shaming them for not supporting Senator Clinton. We’re just too stupid to think on our own and we should remember the many things he (they) did for us.
btw, i’ve been reading this site since last June. I always wanted to do what you do but could never find the time.
Thank you.
MIsty said: “i’ve been reading this site since last June. I always wanted to do what you do but could never find the time. Thank you.”
I don’t have the time either. Thanks for reminding me of all the stuff I have to do :! That’s why I am starting a separate site for the summer. There is no way I will be able to keep up with the deluge of Michelle Obama complaints piling up in my email box. I am like the 911 for Black women or something.
IT helps that I actually like this on most days.
“All feminists will come to the aid of Mrs. Obama, whether or not they were Clinton supporters. Most of them were as angry about the sexism as they were by the fact that she is not the Democratic nominee.”
Don’t count on that. Last time I checked, I don’t remember too many feminists coming to Janet Jackson’s defense during the Superbowl incident, even though the mass hysteria over an exposed breast (while Justin’s bodice-ripping actions went unscathed) warranted their response.
In case you didn’t get the memo: black women really aren’t “women” for feminists to rally around, didn’t you know. [/sarcasm]
We’ve got Michelle’s back and will pull off the earrings and put on the gloves to do so!
They might bang up Barack ( he can fend for himself), but there is a visceral dislike for Michelle Obama from some quarters and while they may have felt constrained from attacking her husband, they do not have that same restraint with Michelle.”
That’s because Michelle is the long-term, historical, true Black American. Much more hated than an African immigrant ever will be. We Black Americans are the ones with the long history of oppression and fighting with racists in America, so Michelle truly represents “the despised” in their eyes, moreso than Barack. Thta’s why she is so heavily targeted.
Not that I don’t agree with that, but here’s my politically incorrect 2 cents:
a) Michelle Obama is a DARK Black woman
b) MIchelle Obama doesn’t seem to have the ‘bowing and scraping’ gene in her
c) You know, in a nanosecond, that Michelle Obama would go ‘ South Side’ on you….and White folk are ’scurred’ of that.
d) Michelle Obama doesn’t seem to be a ‘ grateful Negro’.
I think Michelle Obama can stand on her own. Once the media start digging up every comment/paper/public thought she’s expressed in the past she may become more vocal as well as her husband. They have to select their battles carefully. I’m sure she had thoughts/feelings about the Rev. Wright madness but decided to let her thoughts remain private for the most part. She’ll have plenty to deal with between now and November- perfect reasons for not adding the Clinton garbage that will be regurgitated over and over. As we saw earlier in the nomination race, there are plenty of people who have not forgiven Bill for his unfaithful behaviors nor Hilliary for her silence. We don’t need any more weight.
I’m happy to volunteer for the Michelle Media Watch (MMW)! Please let us know when you’re ready for us to respond to the new blog. I can’t wait…also, would you mind if we blogging sistren and brethern cross-post with the MMW blog, kinda like what we did with the NAACP/Sharpton/Dunbar Village action?
I don’t know why so many commenters here think Obama hasn’t defended his wife. They were both televised in an interview in May, where he said, “Lay Off My Wife.” This was followed by a very different kind of smile, the kind that says you’ll cross me on this and you’ll be sorry as hell.
http://youtube.com/
watch?v=Y7bI0RejI_E
I completely agree with what rikyrah said and I agree that there does seem to be a visceral hatred of Michelle. Black women feminists better call it out when it rears its ugly head because white feminists aren’t going to defend her. Obama won’t be able to do much except keep her out of the limelight.
I think Michelle needs to stand by her man and not do to many public speaking engagements until after he becomes president. Why, because every little word will be looked at and Barack does not need the distraction of defending his wife as well as defending his positions with McCain. WE know what she meat on the I am really proud of my country thing..but u know how the media is…Michelle, please just do the Cindy McCaiin and stand and smile…(just don’t be so stiff and keep wearing those pretty purple dresses)
For the Michelle Media Monitor:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-michelle11-2008jun11,0,3978235.story