Sunday, January 10, 2010
Light skin, etc
There's something really odd about Reid's comment that occupies the entire news cycle today.
Reid said that Obama has an advantage because he's light skinned and doesn't speak with a Negro dialect. Advantage over whom? The only other black American who ran seriously for President was Jesse Jackson.
As you can see in this picture, both have the same skin color. Jackson's dialect is mainly Jamaican, not the standard American black dialect by any means. Neither man has typical Negroid (West African) facial features.
Several black members of Congress are more classically West African in looks and coloration ... eg Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who would be a far better President than any recent candidate of either race ... but I doubt that Reid was thinking of them.
Simplest explanation: Harry Reid is weird.
= = = = =
After more thinking, I've pinned it down. Like most of our elites, Reid never observes actual reality. His mental picture of American blacks is based on an old image, perhaps from 1940's movies.
At that time most American blacks were really black. Since then a lot of mixing has occurred, so we have a lot more "mutts" on both sides, a more varied spectrum of colors. This is a good thing biologically; mixtures are healthier and stronger than purebreds. But it clearly never penetrated Reid's cranium.
Reminds me of a commonly-held weird theory about homosexuality from the same era. The long-time New Yorker editor Harold Ross (a very similar character with a very similar name!) had many homosexuals on his staff, which is no surprise considering the makeup of the New York literary community. When somebody asked Ross how he handled the situation, he said "No, no, we don't have anybody like that around here. Amorphodites have both kinds of sex organs. I'd certainly recognize somebody like that!" ¶ 9:37 AM
Reid said that Obama has an advantage because he's light skinned and doesn't speak with a Negro dialect. Advantage over whom? The only other black American who ran seriously for President was Jesse Jackson.
As you can see in this picture, both have the same skin color. Jackson's dialect is mainly Jamaican, not the standard American black dialect by any means. Neither man has typical Negroid (West African) facial features.
Several black members of Congress are more classically West African in looks and coloration ... eg Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who would be a far better President than any recent candidate of either race ... but I doubt that Reid was thinking of them.
Simplest explanation: Harry Reid is weird.
= = = = =
After more thinking, I've pinned it down. Like most of our elites, Reid never observes actual reality. His mental picture of American blacks is based on an old image, perhaps from 1940's movies.
At that time most American blacks were really black. Since then a lot of mixing has occurred, so we have a lot more "mutts" on both sides, a more varied spectrum of colors. This is a good thing biologically; mixtures are healthier and stronger than purebreds. But it clearly never penetrated Reid's cranium.
Reminds me of a commonly-held weird theory about homosexuality from the same era. The long-time New Yorker editor Harold Ross (a very similar character with a very similar name!) had many homosexuals on his staff, which is no surprise considering the makeup of the New York literary community. When somebody asked Ross how he handled the situation, he said "No, no, we don't have anybody like that around here. Amorphodites have both kinds of sex organs. I'd certainly recognize somebody like that!" ¶ 9:37 AM
