"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"
All right, the first post-election bobbles have occurred, let’s recap.
Friday, during his first press conference as the President-elect, Barack Obama made an off-hand remark about Nancy Reagan’s séances. His comment, "I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any seances," was only a misstep in that no human really ever expects his fellow man to be so utterly joyless as to suggest the quip is a knock on a presidential widow. Obama’s people immediately released a statement assuring everyone he was "sorry for the careless, off-handed remark."
The best one, though, came a day before – on Thursday – when Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, while meeting with President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia dropped this one-liner; "[Obama] has all the qualities to get along well with you: he’s young, handsome and suntanned…"
And with that the world roared! According to Associated Press and New York Times reports, the Italian press made as much of a deal about Berulsconi’s comment as they did of the news that the first Black President had been elected in the United States.
One Italian journalist remarked that Berlusconi made: "a miserable, vulgar and racist remark, for which he didn’t even have the courage to take responsibility or the dignity to apologize."
Dude, get over it. Since when is it vulgar to imply a guy is hot? Or, for that matter, why would anyone jump to the conclusion that being referred to as suntanned is racist? News flash: dark-skinned people tan, too. It’s November, I’m looking café-au-lait right now, check back with me in August and I’ll be more mocha latte. What’s the big deal?
Honestly, there are enough people out there trash-talking anyone who isn’t white to throw well-meaning defenders of brown-skinned dignity into the mix of slur spotters.
Berlusconi said it best, so I’ll give him the last word: [The Italian left is wrong about everything] "including their lack of a sense of humor. Too bad for them. God save us from imbeciles."
Amen! And now that we’ve gotten the ultra-sensitive silliness out of the way, on to more pressing matters.
Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com
Well it’s a better comment – than the email going around today…in which there’s a series of caricature faces of past presidents (all being white – of course)…including “obama’s” and the caption asks can you recognize the 44th president…or what rush limbough (sp?) mr. disco days dj…turned right wing political pundit…said over the radio a day or so ago about the economic crisis being “obama’s fault because of his left leaning policies…is he insane of just crazy…unfortunately the honeymoon never got started with obama…he will be attacked on everything he says and does or not do or change his mind about…the right wingers are about to get on the white million march bus and create chaos…the loyal opposition is about to take a leap of fate over their political abyss and try to ride their mare whose name is palin…they now thinks she’s the front runner to lead their cast of charters into a future victory…what obama needs to make sure is that in his first hundred days make some serious executive decisions…of course at the top of the list is the economy…the socialist take over of wall street…the possible rescue of the auto industry…and so on an so on…but he also has to look very deeply at an issue that was mostly forgotten when the stock market collapsed and john canceled his campaign…the issue of – hoy marchamos manana votamos – and we did…those of us who have been in the streets for immigration reform (not just in the biggest marches of our lifetime…but during our lifetime…) call upon the president elect…to declare an executive order to implement 245i a law under clinton that would keep families together…and to call for an immediate stop to all the raids…Illinois and cook county are one of the biggest culprits…so one little comment by a foreign dignitary should not shake up mr. obama…there’ll be plenty of shaking right here at home…
Posted by: servando... | November 13, 2008 at 03:01 PM
Esther!
How can a proud descendant from a suntanned Sicilian father not agree with you...? This obsession with skin tone has a long, tribal history. But the age of tribes has largely passed. Where the hell have the hyper-sensitive bigots been all these years? Oh I know -- busy being bigots!
Jack
Posted by: jack spatafora | November 13, 2008 at 02:26 PM