Toni Morrison: People Misunderstood Why She Called Bill Clinton First Black President

10 Questions for Toni Morrison
Wednesday, May. 07, 2008By ANDREA SACHS

She's won the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes and recently received the PEN/Borders Literary Service Award. A new collection of her nonfiction, What Moves at the Margin, is out now. Toni Morrison will now take your questions

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Do you regret referring to Bill Clinton as the first black President? —Justin Dews, Cambridge, Mass.

People misunderstood that phrase. I was deploring the way in which President Clinton was being treated, vis-à-vis the sex scandal that was surrounding him. I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp. I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race.

Why did you endorse Barack Obama for the presidency? —Chris Francis Lightbourne, Long Island, N.Y.

I thought about voting for Hillary at the beginning. I don't care that she is a woman. I need more than that. Neither his race, his gender, her race or her gender was enough. I needed something else, and the something else was his wisdom.

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http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1738303,00.html

Obama has more wisdom is quite the compliment.

for the context, Ms. Morrison. (And thanks, mod mom)

High praise indeed!

I always wondered about how that came to be.