[John V. Moore provides this hilarious analysis of Fox News' Hip-Hop BBQ dog whistle vuvuzela1, complete with a Fresh Prince of Bel Air Hip Hop rating scale. The hell you say? Just read it. You'll laugh. Trust. John was gracious enough to permit me to repost. Thank you, John! -ABLxx]
Dog whistle racists throughout America, step the fuck aside, FOX NEWS has out classed all of you with today’s headline “Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ Didn’t Create Jobs” which is an article on the President Obama’s 50th Birthday celebration that was held at the White House on Thursday, August 4.
For the unenlightened, “dog whistle racism” as defined by the Center for Social Inclusion is “also known as symbolic racism – is political campaigning or policy-making that uses coded words and themes that appeal to conscious or subconscious racist concepts and frames.”
Given the demographics of the FOX NEWS audience and their perceived attitudes on race you can imagine the reaction that this dog whistle will elicit from that crowd.
This headline and accompanying photo are blatant examples of dog whistle racism. “Hip-Hop” is code for “Black people” even though many white folks like hip-hop music and many Black folks don’t. “BBQ” is another great code, which when used in combination with “Hip-Hop,” implies that there were bunch of Black folks doing what you’d expect Black folks to do and that the leads to a reinforcement of the “othering” tactic which has been used multiple times against President Obama.
By my estimation (based upon a pool report and my assumption that the President’s immediate family, including mother-in-law, attended) there were at least 49 guests and only 20 of them, less than 50%, were African American. However the photo accompanying the article featured four African American men, Charles Barkley, President Obama, Chris Rock and Jay-Z.
Yeah, there were at least 21 Black folks there, including some bonafide hip hop stars, but this was hardly a “hip hop BBQ.” Jay-Z was not working the grill, holding a 40 ounce and smoking a blunt as Barack and his boys (don’t get it twisted Pat Buchanan) were holding red plastic cups of gin and juice, while looking at the ladies in their Daisy Dukes dropping it like it was hot with Ice Cube’s “You can do it” blaring over the speakers in the Rose Garden. But with its framing, that? is what FOX NEWS wants you to believe.
A more appropriate headline would have been “Diverse group of friends join President Obama for White House 50th Birthday Cook Out.” A more appropriate accompanying photo would have included Nancy Pelosi, President Obama, Robert Gibbs and Gayle King.
But as long as FOX NEWS is telling the story that is not going to happen.
Even the reporting of the music played undermines the frame that FOX introduces with its headline.
“ … with dinner in the Rose Garden, accompanied by “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band. Then the First Lady and his daughters presented POTUS with a cake, and everyone moved into the East Room for performances that included R&B singer Ledisi, and Herbie Hancock. Stevie Wonder came up at the end and sang a medley ending in “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours.” DJ Cassidy played Motown, hip hop, and ’70s and ’80s R&B.”
Hip hop was played but so R&B, Motown and even given the presence of the Marine Band, I would dare suggest there was some John Philip Sousa bumping (hip hop term). Which prompts me to revise my headline one more time to “President Obama celebrates 50th Birthday Day with friends to the tunes of John Philip Sousa.”
Since FOX NEWS is making shit up let me join them in doing so. I decided to give this party a 2.52 rating on the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air Hip Hop (FPBAHH)” scale (which I just made up). A 5 rating equals the “Fresh Prince” himself (Will Smith) and 1 point equals “Carlton Banks” (Alfonso Ribeiro). A 2.52 FPBAHH ranking equals the father on the show, “Uncle Phil” (James Avery), who was a judge, lived in Bel Air but when he needed to knew how to get down.
My methodology (see guest list below): I gave each African American who attended a FPBAHH ranking, totaled them up and divided that figure by the number of reported/assumed AA attendees (minus Reggie Love who I assume was there but did not include). I gave careful thought (I really did) to each persons’ ranking. For example while Grant Hill is a Black male who has played in the NBA he went to Duke, so there is no way I could have ranked him higher than a 3. When it comes to the President’s daughters the Sidwell Friends/University of Chicago Lab School education really undermines their hip hop credentials as well. Even though Hill Harper graduated form Harvard Law with the President his 4 rating just feels right. POTUS gets a 5 just because as the first African American President he deserves it.
While my FPBAHH ranking is bullshit, so is FOX NEWS’s headline, accompanying graphic and the racist frame they are attempting and succeeding in introducing.
In a week that saw the President referred to as a “tar baby” and a “boy” FOX NEWS wins the week with its clever use of dog whistle racism. I do believe that Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-CO) and Pat Buchanan need to be taken to task for their comments but in my book its easier to give them the benefit of the doubt. FOX NEWS knew what it was doing and sadly the damage they have done will be much worse than the other two offenses.
Guest List Black folk in bold
1. Al Sharpton FPBAHH Rating 3
2. Patrick Gaspard FPBAHH Rating 3
3. Robert Wold
4. Julius Genachowski
5. Nancy Pelosi
6. Paul Pelosi
7. Tim Geithner
8. Arne Ducan
9. Ron Kirk FPBAHH Rating1
10. Hillary Clinton
11. Eric Holder FPBAHH Rating 1
12. Katheleen Sebelius
13. Debbie Wasserman Shutlz
14. TIm Kaine
15. Anita Dunn
16. Bob Bauer
17. Robert Gibbs
18. Davd Axelrod
19. David Plouffe
20. Valerie Jarett FPBAHH Rating 1
21. Michael Stratumanis
22. Pete Rouse
23. Bill Daley
24. Alyssa Mastromonaco
25. Denis McDonough
26. John Brennan
27. Rahm Emanuel
28. Tina Tchen
29. Sam Kass
30. Julianna Smoot
31. Marty Nesbitt FPBAHH Rating 2
32. Eric Whitaker FPBAHH Rating 2
33. Linda Douglass
34. Jay-Z FPBAHH Rating 5
35. Hill Harper FPBAHH Rating 4
36. Charles Barkley FPBAHH Rating 3
37. Steve Harvey FPBAHH Rating 2
38. Tom Hanks
39. Rita Wilson
40. Grant Hill FPBAHH Rating 3
41. Gayle King FPBAHH Rating 1
42. Stevie Wonder FPBAHH Rating 3
43. Ledisi FPBAHH Rating 3
44. Barack Obama FPBAHH Rating 5
45. Michelle Obama FPBAHH Rating 3
46. Sasha Obama FPBAHH Rating 3
47. Malia Obama FPBAHH Rating 3
48. Marian Robinson FPBAHH Rating 1
49. Eleanor “Mama Kaye” Wilson FPBAHH Rating 1
1 ”vuvuzela” via of Oliver Willis.
[John V. Moore can be found on Twitter and at Windy City Watch]
Ha
I had a hilarious exchange with someone who John Cole retweeted into my feed. Apparently the guy’s tweet was intended as snark but he jumped all over me because I laughingly responded – to Cole, not him – that his tweet sounded like he took Cole for serious. Good times.
Bwhahaha, this is Fox defending their “hip-hop BBQ” headline.
So, by citing a Politico story as the inspiration for its silly headline, Faux Nooz is saying, essentially, “Well, Politico started it!” Got it. Idiots. Jeebus on a pogo stick! Man up, Faux! At least own your racism, as unoriginal as it is.
They also failed to mention that Charlie Daniels and his fiddle joined the likes of Jay-Z on stage in their rendition, The Devil Went Down To Brooklyn.
Nice post, ameliorates the rage a bit but Michelle O. should be ranked higher.
In all fairness, Michelle O. rates a 5 on the Claire Huxtable scale.
“President Obama and his A-list pals danced barefoot in the East Room on Thursday night, after dining in the dramatically lit Rose Garden to celebrate his milestone 50th birthday. Obama Foodorama was told by guests who attended the “fabulous” but “casual” five-hour barbecue for more than 200 people that the President “let down his hair” and literally danced for hours, finally leaving his own party shortly before midnight.
…
The night was balmy, and when dinner was done, a DJ spun dance tunes–”like at a Bar Mitzvah,” said one guest. The rug was rolled back in the East Room and the chairs pushed aside so guests could dance, led by the President and Mrs. Obama.
“‘I’m going to challenge you all to dance,’ the President said, and everyone did,” said the guest.
That’s when everyone’s shoes came off, and things kicked into high gear with the barefoot jammin’–the President himself reportedly danced for three full hour. Among other dances, guests did the Electric Slide, which impressed Chris Rock so much he tweeted about it:
“Just left the Presidents birthday party at the White House. Herbie Hancock played, Stevie Wonder sang and yes they did the electric slide. A great night.” Rock wrote (sic).
The President also led a huge Conga line around the East Room, pulling in everyone in his path, according to one observer. “He was chill, and like, ‘how you doin, man? Come dance!,’” reported one attendee. “He put everyone at ease.”
http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/2011/08/all-details-inside-president-obamas.html#more
Because nothing says hip-hop like the Electric Slide. Next we’ll be hearing about that other great hip-hop dance tune – the Macarena.
Guess who else had a bbq? Reagan. My hubby worked for Tony Roma’s many years ago, and as Reagan was stumping through Ohio, the owner of Roma’s provided the food at his stop in Cleveland. They had ribs. Lots and lots of ribs.
About your rating system.
Grant Hill, a 3? Seriously? We happened to see him at Centennial Park during the Atlanta Olympics. Hubby was all, “Oh my gosh, that’s Grant Hill! Take a picture!”. I have to admit I wasn’t into basketball, so at that time I had no clue about Grant Hill. But this I did know – the energy surrounding him was absolutely electric, brilliant aura. No joke. You MUST give him a higher rating based on his energy and aura alone. Seriously.
Sir Charles gets only a 3, too? You’re tough, ABL! Many moons ago I frequently waited on Mr. Barkley and a couple other Sixers. In my most humble opinion, Mr. Barkley deserves extra points for always being nice to the waitress, because most people in that city were not. Yes, he deserves “nice to the waitress” points. Rare quality, that is. :)
About the Fox article, just when I think nothing can surprise me….
Remember when FOX had a cow because Skidmarks McCain held a cookout for his “base” filled with nothing but fawning media and his daughter Meghan blogged about it and took pics of folks from POLITICO having fun on his tire swing?
The real dog whistle message, which you appear to have missed, is right there in the article’s title… Americans are looking to Obama to DO SOMETHING TO CREATE JOBS. It’s our expectation. It’s why we watch the news. We think and read and see things in the context of “what is Obama doing to help Americans RIGHT NOW”… When you hire someone to do a job, and then you come back 2 hours later while they are doing the job, you are probably there to assess the quality and quantity of their work. You are NOT there to watch them celebrate their birthday. Nor golf, schmooze behind closed doors, nor campaign more than any other president in history (btw, 5X more campaigning than Bush ever did at/by this date in the re-election process). We want him to focus on policy that swings the financial pendulum back towards the benefit of the average American, not the elite bankers and insurance companies. It’s indulgent, opulent, and seemingly callous to the struggle that the average American is enduring because of the devaluation of our currency, and wholesale slaughter of industries including but not limited to, energy, transportation, and health care.
So I take it you feel that the few hours that this party took are the difference between where we are now and a recovery?
If we were so dependent on one man, even the President, to single handedly pull us out of recession by focusing on it so singularly that he can’t even take time out to celebrate his damn birthday, then we’re in much more serious shit than even the most pessimistic person will be willing to admit. Luckily there are a whole host of elected officials who are all responsible for this. Unfortunately, most of them just took a planned vacation for August, and some would apparently rather name post offices than do anything of consequence.
Campaigning is important too. In order to be able to achieve his goals it’s pretty clear he’s going to need to be around for a while longer, and after that hopefully another more or less like him. The most damaging thing to implementing the kinds of jobs programs he wants to do (extending unemployment benefits, extending the payroll tax cut, hopefully providing more stimulus when the government has the means to do so) would be to let a Republican take the White House and take the country in an entirely different and (in my opinion) wrong headed course. Now 5x more than Bush would probably be too much focus, but since you haven’t sourced your claim it’s kind of hard to dispute that now isn’t it?
Nothing to dispute… here are the facts from Politico… it’s even worse than I said! As of June 20, he was on pace for TEN TIMES the amount of fund raisers than Bush had had by the same time period. LOL
here’s the link: http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0611/kaching_fa0c7fd4-498f-4970-b51c-38e06897f41c.html
Good point about the White House single handedly being responsible for fixing everything. Point conceded. ?Obama shouldn’t be held responsible for our decline. It’s all bush’s fault. lol
“The White House doesn’t create jobs.” — Jay Carney (google that)
Jay Carney is #2 Press Secretary for Obama, and I agree with Jay and it makes me wonder why Pelosi and Obama were slapping each other on the back and holding press conferences saying they “saved or created” x-hundreds of thousands of jobs? Somebody’s full of political feces!!
And what’s changed since then? Citizen’s United. If he’s going to have compete with that, I’d rather he attend a bunch of fundraisers (bunch in this case being a massive 3% of his total days in office) than rely on unlimited corporate donations to compete with a candidate who almost assuredly be receiving many more of said corporate donations than he will. I realize I said 5x would be a bit much, but I didn’t realize it was 5x, or I guess 10x, of so little. So I guess you can be happy you educated me on that, but my opinion remains unchanged.
I didn’t say it was all Bush’s fault. In fact, I didn’t mention him at all, but now that you mention it, it makes sense seeing as the recession came in 2008, while Bush was President and Obama merely a candidate. He might even be able to do more to fix this mess, but some party has decided what’s best for the nation is to filibuster everything that’s even close to having his name attached.