Letters to the Editor
stackey-dackey
Published Letters: 324 Editor's Choice: 8
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Calling Michelle Obama Barack's Baby Mama is Inaccurate
[Read the article: Baby mama drama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thats what I find offensive. She is his wife, not his baby mama. Saying that Fox news (which certainly has access to a dictionary) didn't know what the meaning of the term is ridiculous. Its in the Oxford English Dictionary for Chrissakes!
I too, like someone on another thread, worked at a television station in the newsroom and every chyron was checked by the segment producer. The Director saw it, the Producer, everyone sees the chyron and I can't imagine none of them thought a fair amount of people might get offended by the comment?
Of course they new it would offend people and THATS why they did it. I betcha there is some sort of memo going around Fox News that says they will increase their ratings by getting their viewership into a racewar with those dang p.c. dems who don't let white men use the n-word anymore or lynch folks anymore.
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I agree with you AKA Smith
[Read the article: Baby mama drama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I personally get really offended when I hear a black man, like Harry Belafonte, using a term like "house nigger" etc. Especially since "house niggers" didn't really have much of a choice. They weren't all informing on their darker cousins out in the fields; some of them were looking out for them. However, I think Harry Belafonte comes from an older generation and there were probably blacks who worked against civil rights (or spoke out against desegration.) and their own liberation to get in good with whites. I don't think that was the case for Colin Powell. I hate that he sold a bill of goods to the U.N. and I hate the Bush administration for putting him in that situation.
I also hate it when people use the term Uncle Tom, as well. Not just because my father was Uncle Tom to all of his nieces and nephews, but because it reenforces the whole idea that black people should all have the same politics and to deviate from orthodoxy is to not be black anymore.
I hate Condoleeza Rice's politics. I think she's pretty much an awful person, but that doesn't mean I don't feel some semblance of pride that a black woman is the friggin Secretary of State. She's still black, though. The same goes for Clarence Thomas (shudder...god I hate him) and Colin Powell. Though I think Alan Keyes should seriously get his black card revoked. I might bring it up at the next meeting. (hahah)
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What do you think Obama should do?
[Read the article: What's wrong with Obama's FightTheSmears.com]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm just interested. Do you think the problem with the site is the way it is designed and the way users are supposed to interact with it?
Or is it the whole concept which is flawed?
Do you have a better idea how he should combat all of the misinformation out there?
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@Kufir
[Read the article: What's wrong with Obama's FightTheSmears.com]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You'd think Christians would be dancing in the streets about Obama's conversion. It shows that that the heathen dark-skinned horde can still be redeemed by washing his sins away with the blood of our savior, Jesus Christ. And those heathens who don't should be killed because they are intransigent sinners; they have been exposed to the truth but refuse to realize that they worship a false God and a false Prophet. But Obama (probably because of his white blood) threw off the chains of Muslim devil worshippers; Christ won! Whoo Hoo!
And Kufir, why would a Christian like you care about the traditions of these heathens, anyway? They are wrong and possibly evil to boot. A Christian is any person who accepts Jesus Christ into his heart; in the one true religion it doesn't matter who your father was.
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Reading some of the letters here...
[Read the article: My failed lesbian romance]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I guess I'm happy I don't publish any of the crappy short stories I write. You guys are brutal. And I'm sensitive and can't take criticism well. And because I'm a masochist so I couldn't help reading these sort of letters and I would cry and cry and cry.
In this day and age, everyone is a critic and beleives their opinion is worth knowing. Unfortunately, they themselves don't have the skill to actually engage with texts, movies, or any piece of art like a true critic would. It is all mockery and tearing the writer down for being I guess, stupid enough, to write something they don't like. It takes real talent to be critical and say negative things without coming off like an asshole; maybe thats why our mothers and fathers tell us if you can't say anything good we should shut our traps. But, to each his or her own, I suppose.
I personally liked the tone of essay. The lightheartedness adds an almost tragi-comedic aspect to the writing. I actually smiled when she sat down on the bench and started crying because she saw another little girl crying; it kind of reminded me of a Diane Keaton movie. The distance between the narrator and narrated makes you feel like there's this older and wiser Ann Bauer who is looking back and laughing at her younger selve's horrifically bad choices. I thought that was sort of neat. I'm sick of the overwrought and the overdramatic; the fact is that the times when I've cried the hardest I always end up falling on my ass laughing as well. Maybe thats just me.
I wonder if she was asked to write this story in particular or if this was excerpted; I've noticed that Salon, unfortunately, does a really bad job editing essays they get when its part of a larger memoir.
I really can't say anything too bad about this essay, though. Even so, I wouldn't read anything else from her; I'm completely against memoirs on principal. (principle) I agree with those who beleive that mining your personal relationships for stories is a teensy bit self indulgent.