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People misunderstood "first black President"- from the woman that coined it

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Ichingcarpenter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 10:35 AM
Original message
People misunderstood "first black President"- from the woman that coined it
Edited on Thu May-08-08 10:39 AM by Ichingcarpenter




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



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.


edited for link: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1738303,00.html
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NightWatcher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 10:36 AM
Response to Original message
1. nevermind
Edited on Thu May-08-08 10:48 AM by NightWatcher
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Lady-Damai Donating Member (756 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 10:47 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. Toni Morrison
Edited on Thu May-08-08 10:57 AM by Lady-Damai


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NightWatcher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 10:48 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. thanks, brain fart here
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Lady-Damai Donating Member (756 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 10:54 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. its ok....i get brain farts whenever old folks are involved too......
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gabby garcia Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 10:39 AM
Response to Original message
2. beautiful!
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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highplainsdem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 11:12 AM
Response to Original message
6. This is what she actually said, in the New Yorker, October 1998.
Courtesy of a Wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison

which led me to this:

http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/clinton/morrison.html


African-American men seemed to understand it right away. Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to disappear, when the President's body, his privacy, his unpoliced sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was metaphorically seized and bodysearched, who could gainsay these black men who knew whereof they spoke? The message was clear "No matter how smart you are, how hard you work, how much coin you earn for us, we will put you in your place or put you out of the place you have somehow, albeit with our permission, achieved. You will be fired from your job, sent away in disgrace, and--who knows?--maybe sentenced and jailed to boot. In short, unless you do as we say (i.e., assimilate at once), your expletives belong to us."

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Ichingcarpenter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 11:14 AM
Response to Reply #6
9. Thanks for giving us the background and links n/t
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highplainsdem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 11:15 AM
Response to Reply #6
10. Please note that Morrison said she heard that from others,
that "white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President."

Just want to set the record straight and provide the actual quote.
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Ichingcarpenter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 11:12 AM
Response to Original message
7. I had forgotten who said this years ago
Edited on Thu May-08-08 11:14 AM by Ichingcarpenter
I just wanted to set the story straight for history.

Grammar update
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 11:13 AM
Response to Reply #7
8. Nicely done. n/t
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Terran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 11:18 AM
Response to Original message
11. Wow, I never knew that was the whole context
That's a far more profound observation than I ever took it to be. Thanks for that (and the poster who provided the entire quote).
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highplainsdem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu May-08-08 11:39 AM
Response to Reply #11
12. I provided the entire quote because context is important, and also
because I think her current take on what she wrote then downplays just what she said in 1998. I believe what she wrote in 1998, especially where she said she heard this first from others, does emphasize black sympathy for and solidarity with Bill Clinton, and NOT just because he was under investigation.

I well remember what tremendous support the Clintons had from the African-American community, and their support of civil rights, and I don't want that forgotten because the current race has a candidate they favor more running against Hillary.

I can also understand what Morrison said about the investigations Bill Clinton was subjected to strengthening the sense in the black community that he was, despite his skin color, one of their own, the first black president.
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