Obama: "Magic Negro"

So says David Ehrenstein, who I remember reading back in the days of the old "Fray" on Slate.  He was kind of nutty, then, and obviously he hasn't changed, much.

Ehrenstein's article concludes:

Like a comic-book superhero, Obama is there to help, out of the sheer goodness of a heart we need not know or understand. For as with all Magic Negroes, the less real he seems, the more desirable he becomes. If he were real, white America couldn't project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him.

I guess that Ehrenstein would be pleased if whites embraced a more "challenging" black figure, like an Al Sharpton.  But Sharpton is an example of what one might call the "Magic Bufoon."

Addendum:  I don't want to be too flip, because I think that David has touched on something here that's worth discussing.  While I'm not an Obama supporter, some people close to me are.  I think that it's fair to suggest that there may be some white guilt at the core of their support of Obama, but I think that it's more than that.  I think that most whites really want to see black people do well, and that, for many, Obama embodies this wish. 

Perhaps that is just a proxy for seeking absolution from white guilt, but David is being terribly unfair in alleging that whites would support Obama out of a racist impulse.  I think that David's barbs illustrate why the relationship between blacks and white liberals continues to be an uneasy one.

Update:  It's probably telling that I have had so few occasions to write the word "negro" in my lifetime that, like Dan Quayle's "potatoe", I misspelled it in the heading of this post.  That's now been corrected.

MORE:  Ace is (probably legitimately) claiming credit for coining the term on the old Fray.  I used to lurk at the Fray and enjoyed Ace's exchanges with Ehrenstein at the time.

Comments

[Jonathan]

I think that it's fair to suggest that there may be some white guilt at the core of their support of Obama, but I think that it's more than that. I think that most whites really want to see black people do well, and that, for many, Obama embodies this wish.

I think this statement is true. But there is another issue under the surface here, namely, Obama's apparent honesty as compared to the flagrantly corrupt Hillary Clinton. The Clintons' corruption has been a major and IMO very destructive subtext of recent Democratic politics. Perhaps if someone like Obama replaces the Clintons as Democratic standard bearer the Democrats will be able to acknowledge and transcend the corruption of the Clinton period. I'm not holding my breath but I think the positive popular response to Obama is a good sign, in part for this reason.

I am impressed by Obama's political skill so far. I don't think I agree with many of his positions, but his deft attacks on Hillary Clinton suggest that he may be more than the inexperienced lightweight he initially appeared to be. Time will tell.