Sunday, August 9, 2009

For as with all Magic Patsys . . .


Obama the "Magic Negro": The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man.
By David Ehrenstein, March 19, 2007

The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia.

. . . The senator's famously stem-winding stump speeches have been drawing huge crowds to hear him talk of uniting rather than dividing. A praiseworthy goal. Consequently, even the mild criticisms thrown his way have been waved away, "magically." He used to smoke, but now he doesn't; he racked up a bunch of delinquent parking tickets, but he paid them all back with an apology. And hey, is looking good in a bathing suit a bad thing?

. . . Like a comic-book superhero, Obama is there to help, out of the sheer goodness of a heart we need not know or understand. For as with all Magic Negroes, the less real he seems, the more desirable he becomes. If he were real, white America couldn't project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him.


The god that failed
Richard Crossman, ed.

As told by Richard Wright: [page 108] I had attended but a few meetings [of the Communist John Reed Club] before I realized that a bitter factional fight was in progress between two groups of members of the club . . . Then came a strange development.

The Left Front group [i.e., the writers of the club publication Left Front] [page 109] declared that the incumbent leadership did not reflect the wishes of the club. A special meeting was called and a motion was made to re-elect an executive secretary. When nominations were made for the office, my name was included. I declined the nomination, telling the members that I was too ignorant of their aims to be seriously considered. The debate lasted all night. A vote was taken in the early hours of the morning by a show of hands, and I was elected.

Later I learned what had happened: the writers of the club had decided to use me to oust the painters, who were Party members, from the leadership of the club.

Without my knowledge and consent, they confronted the members of the Party with a Negro, knowing that it would be difficult for Communists to refuse to vote for a man representing the largest single racial minority in the nation, inasmuch as Negro equality was one of the main tenets of Communism.

The Patsy
film (1964)

When a famous comedian dies, his managers are desperate to find a replacement to be their "meal ticket." The Jerry Lewis character is The Patsy they select to make into the next superstar.

Lewis' new managers use their power to open doors for him, but he doesn't seem to have the magic they are looking for. They fire him right before his appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

When Lewis becomes a sensation, his managers step back into the picture to continue pulling the strings.

Eric Henderson film review (Slant Magazine, 2004): While Errand Boy seemed to be making the argument that any schlub can be plucked from the most random of places and groomed and tamed and promoted to the mass audience and become a star, The Patsy's essential modification is that it presents the antithetical case wherein no amount of physical training, cosmetic aid or underground whisper campaigns can hide the true nature and limitations of a would-be.



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