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If Dahlia can stand one more conversation about the conversation, I thought the grace note of Barack Obama's March 17 epic conversation starter were his few words about his grandmother’s quiet bigotry. He was, as pundit Jon Stewart said the next evening, speaking to the electorate as adults. At the same time the remark reminded everyone why his particular heritage is so appealing to lead the effort for change. If you missed it, Stewart and Larry Wilmore had a hilarious sample conversation of their own. All that was before, as Dahlia wrote, the "dialogue" devolved into “the sort of conversation that always goes badly in the end.” I missed the example of Obama being blacklashed on by the Fox & Friends hosts on March 21 when Obama’s reference to the elderly woman who raised him as a “typical white person” in a radio interview was apparently edited to sound offensive while the morning show hosts imagined insult. The New York Observer gives a flavor here:
Can you say ‘typical white person’ if you’re white?” asked Mr. Doocy. Of course not, noted Ms. Carlson. There’s no way that Senator Hillary Clinton could use the phrase “typical black person,” they noted. “So there is a certain double standard in society,” said Ms. Carlson. And also: “I sort of take offense at that line: ‘typical white.’”
Oddly, Chris Wallace, who anchors Fox News Sunday, thought they weren’t “providing the full context” and thought their spin was “excessive.” Chris who can be a bit snappish, called his Fox colleagues on their zeal. Fortunately, he did so using the live 2-way camera they had set up to promote Wallace’s Sunday lineup so we can all hear.
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