Ace of Spades HQ

September 04, 2008

If You Talk Too Much About Obama Being A "Community Organizer" It Just Might Be Racist
— DrewM

The list of things it's allowable to talk about concerning Barack Obama might be getting smaller.

The four mocking mentions last night of Barack Obama's service as a "community organizer" have ignited a metapshereic debate about whether the term has racial connotations.
...But community organizers tend to work with poorer folks, and there's some chatter among Democrats that it's a subtle way to highlight Obama's urbanity. Some Obama aides see it as a knock against the poor and their material needs.
I think it's a cultural trope, like when Rudy Giuliani (lacking, I might add, any sense of irony or awareness of his own life), referred last night to Obama's "cosmopolitan" background. It stirs up resentments. It makes elite Republicans feel comfortable with themselves. The audience repeatedly laughed; they got the joke. The question is: what was the joke?

Um, the joke is that Obama constantly cites his time as a 'community organizer' as one of the main points of his resume. Now that we aren't in the middle of a Democratic primary where people are impressed with that nothing burger of a job description, it's becoming a punchline because in the real world being a 'community organizer' has nothing to do with being President. There's also the little fact that we only hear about how that's the job he had, not what (if anything) he accomplished while doing it.

As The Weekly Standard Blog points out, Palin got her start as a community organizer of a sort. She just didn't get paid for it and she certainly hasn't listed it as a point of experience in her campaign to be Vice President.

Isn't it amazing how when things work for Obama they are find and dandy but the second someone dares to turn that talking point around there's a lot of soul search about whether or not it suddenly has "racial connotations"?

By election day the only things you will be allowed to say about Obama without fear of "racial connotations" will be that he is a Senator and believes in Hope and Change. Go beyond that at your own peril.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:46 PM | Comments (41)
Post contains 384 words, total size 2 kb.

1 How about "Utter Joke"?

Posted by: Wilhelm Klink at September 04, 2008 01:49 PM (GGhvX)

2 Funny, there's also that little matter of 'community organizer' being an appointed rather than an elected position...

Posted by: Alice H at September 04, 2008 01:52 PM (jRtPb)

"Obama's urbanity"

Urbanity?

I give up. I. just. give. the. fuck. up. Really. How's about "negritude?" Maybe a bit out of fashion, but more honest, no?

Posted by: notropis at September 04, 2008 01:54 PM (o8TTN)

Many communities have folks who help "organize" them - municipal government, PTA, church groups, boy scouts, unions, neighborhood watch, recreation commissions, etc.

Obama, on the other hand got paid to do this - it wasn't an adjunct to his real job - it was his freaking job. He was paid to be a communist agitator - and to register folks to vote (regardless of party, right?).

What a freaking joke - let's mock it some more.

Posted by: Holdfast at September 04, 2008 01:54 PM (Gzb30)

5 Econopundit knows about these community organizers.

I mean, just think about what he could fucking possibly do to make money...what, bingo games? Free lunches, fixing up beater bikes for kids?

Shit.

http://www.econopundit.com/

Posted by: Senator Rev. Dr. E Buzz Miller at September 04, 2008 01:57 PM (vFeQi)

6 Some Obama aides see it as a knock against the poor and their material needs.

Enough said....

K

Posted by: Kestrel at September 04, 2008 01:59 PM (gBnKJ)

7 It's racist because it implies only "Urban" people need "organizers" to "organize" their communities.

Typical Whitey people seem to do just fine without such organizers.
Never seen one. Never met one. Never needed one.

Posted by: Cunningloaf at September 04, 2008 02:03 PM (gIbto)

8 Ahem. It is racist to suggest that something might not be racist.

Posted by: eman at September 04, 2008 02:03 PM (6VBMO)

Let me ask again: WHO THE FUCK WAS PAYING HIM? I've never heard, but I damn well would like to know who they were, where their money came from, and what their agenda was.

You'd think that the 'media' would have illuminated that, wouldn't you?

Posted by: Stinky Esposito at September 04, 2008 02:08 PM (MMC8r)

10 I got this community, see? And they's these righteous doodz who go block to block and make sure they's plenty of Bolivian for the right price, see? And I makes sure they's organized. I is one muthafuckin' righteous patriot, see? I looks after my homes. Word.

Posted by: George Orwell at September 04, 2008 02:10 PM (AZGON)

Shit, that job was just like a gardeners. Growing those lib votes in convienient little plots. Just add some free cheese to fertilize and water with some WIC milk and grape juice from the local Aldi's store and they're ready for harvest. Plus, just like plants, they thrive when you talk to them, so slick vocab and emphatic communication skills are a must.

Posted by: LF Mayor at September 04, 2008 02:11 PM (AkPCZ)

12 This is a community. Sort of. Ace organized it. Sort of. Ace for President? Sort of not.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at September 04, 2008 02:14 PM (R7LgM)

13 Um, let me take a stab at this. This is "racist" because, maybe....the idiot was completely let off the hook for actually being a racist? See, blacks long ago imposed their own form of sharia law: any disagreements are due solely to racism. It worked because most whites are scared stiff of blacks, and desperately do not want to be labeled with the dreaded "R" word. It continues today, but could have been cut off at the knees had any of the "conservative" talking heads had the guts to call a man who dedicated a large portion of his and his family's life and money to a white-hating segregationist, what he IS: a racist. Instead, we are actually arguing about his "policy" proposals, for God's sake. Of course everyone who is against him is a racist. Of course...

Posted by: JS at September 04, 2008 02:15 PM (HbRCz)

14 Notropis: I believe that "negritize" is a legitimate term in social sciences. It's more often applied to the racist idea of flushing away those who, for whatever reason, don't make the cut to get into what some call the Power Elite (code-named "white" as opposed to all those who didn't make the cut being code-named "black"). I don't find this to be racist, as the idea of a Man/Superman dichotomy based on genetics is a fallacy and easy to disprove. But to use that terminology in the Media in order to IMPLY that Elitism is by definition racism is disingenuous and smarmy, in my opinion. When there is actually a subspecies named Homo sapiens ludens, then we can discuss Master Races, but for now just read The Glass Bead Game and fantasize that classism is racism.

Posted by: timbacker at September 04, 2008 02:20 PM (4gKQm)

15 I guess I'm a neighborhood organizer. I organize a neighborhood beer fest every year. Maybe I can run as an Independent! I'll promise a case of beer in every fridge! I gots the xperiance, jess ax me!

Posted by: BillyBob at September 04, 2008 02:24 PM (v9vTw)

Also, I think the joke is that most people really don't know what a "community organizer" does or is. I can't say that I really have a good grasp on that. It sounds like one of those make-work positions that has no real responsibility or accountability. How can you tell if your community has been appropriately organized? And, if it has, aren't you out of a job? (Yeah, right...)

Posted by: Jason at September 04, 2008 02:30 PM (sV0Yw)

17 So a Jew, A Chinaman and a Community Organizer walk into a bar........

Posted by: Kasper Hauser at September 04, 2008 02:35 PM (qcmxH)

18 Senate=World's Greatest Deliberative Body
World's Greatest Deliberative Body=Elite
Elite=Uppity

Clearly referring to Obama as a Senator is using code words. You racist!!!

Posted by: Heorot at September 04, 2008 02:37 PM (tJTKX)

I wrote and edited a policy and procedure manual for my department once.

When can I expect my pulitzer?

To deny me the pulitzer is to deny all the hardworking policy and procedure bureaucrats in America. We deserve our turn!

C'mon guys, it's our turn.

Guys?

Buncha dumb honkeys anyway.

Posted by: Hadlowe at September 04, 2008 02:40 PM (zK1MQ)

This might interest ACE readers...check out this link re: ACORN in Cuyahoga County (OHIO...CLE)...what's that guy's name who worked for them in Chicago...Oblammo?...Ohmigosh?...just can't remember...

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/08/cuyahoga_board_probes_voter_re.html

Posted by: billygoat at September 04, 2008 02:48 PM (vlmzk)

21 No. Senator is a Title, just as Prince of Orange, or Queen de jure of France is a Title. The objection is to using the words white and black in that manner. To dichotomitize classes and call it a racial differentiation is intellectually inept. No biologist or anthropologist would divide Homo sapiens sapiens into sub-subspecies. Particularly not according to the class-culture rules of a plutocracy. The matter is not racial, and using racially loaded terminology is inflammatory and blinkered. Anyway, to those of us who live out here in the horrible horrible Great Soup, "Black" means a gangster.

Posted by: timbacker at September 04, 2008 02:51 PM (4gKQm)

22 I give up. I. just. give. the. fuck. up. Really. How's about "negritude?" Maybe a bit out of fashion, but more honest, no?

I prefer "banality," personally. It's not so open to NASCAR interpretations.

Posted by: Jacob the Elephant Mohel at September 04, 2008 02:58 PM (sUWlR)

23 As Steve over at Hog on Ice put it recently: "community organizer" is a modern term for what used to be known as a "ward heeler."

Posted by: Alex at September 04, 2008 02:58 PM (fgyj8)

Obama would be wise to lay off the "community organizer" meme, and Republicans would be smart to dig into it more (hey, the idiots opened the door -- isn't that the media's excuse for some of the junk they've been doing, and havne't stopped?).

"Community organizer" = "bag man for the mob" in Chicago

Seriously, the Republican party should start really looking into IL politics -- looking into Mr. Obama's record (hey, since he's got so much experience and all) -- to the extent that the hounds have been released on Gov. Palin at least.

Fair and balanced you know, turn about is fair play and all.

I believe Joe Biden's got some ties with Tony R. too. The rot up in Chi-town is deep and pungent; heck, just their policies, look at how IL has been doing under Obama, Blago & Assoc. and do the freaking math (my advice to the GOP).

Posted by: unknown jane at September 04, 2008 03:09 PM (/lvmU)

25 I'm pretty sure the community organizer is the guy that rates the megaphone at any noisy left wing protest.

Posted by: aubrey at September 04, 2008 03:15 PM (q/Z0+)

26 So are we going back to talking about his ears?

Posted by: HBob at September 04, 2008 03:21 PM (I0b5H)

IMAO has a very helpful FAQ about what a community "community organizer" does. Most helpful indeed.

link http://www.imao.us/

teaser

Q. What's a community organizer?
A. It's someone who organizes a community.

Q. And communities need organizing?
A. You think they organize themselves?

Q. I've lived in plenty of communities, and I don't remember any organizers.
A. The best community organizers seek no credit.

Q. Barack Obama seeks credit.
A. And the even better ones seek lots of credit!

Posted by: ArandomPerson at September 04, 2008 03:44 PM (2PwTK)

28 So now "community organizer" is in the same territory as a certain word that starts with "n" and rhymes with "bigger" - perfectly acceptable for a CO to use to refer to himself, and for a non-CO person of color to use to refer to a CO, but vile and racist when used by anyone else?

Let's just see how many voters buy that on November 4.

Posted by: Joshua at September 04, 2008 03:50 PM (MpX/t)

29 "metapshereic." gp no understand big word. gp smash.

Posted by: gp at September 04, 2008 04:10 PM (9OT+1)

30 Has anybody from those communties stepped up with evidence of the lasting benefits of BHO's organizing, or are we just talking about c.o.'s in the abstract?

Posted by: gp at September 04, 2008 04:13 PM (9OT+1)

sorta like this, Joshua?

So shut up Mutha Fkrs while I lay the ink

When i'm in Detroit, COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS fight in mink

when im in LA, COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS crash the doors

when im in Philly, its a sold out tour

with my humblest apologies to Ice T and a shout out to Body Count

Posted by: LF Mayor at September 04, 2008 04:17 PM (AkPCZ)

Can we call him a nagger?

Posted by: digitalbrownshirt at September 04, 2008 05:09 PM (25884)

33 It's simple really: Any mention of a fact that is negative about the golden one is racist. Of course, being called 'racist' is rapidly becoming a non-slur.

Posted by: rabidfox at September 04, 2008 06:09 PM (AIVrP)

34 Just so long as Rudi doesn't call him a "rootless cosmopolitan". That would be Stalin-speak for a Jewish person. The Left being stung by their own penchant for coede words: How sweet it is.

Posted by: Pigilito at September 04, 2008 07:02 PM (/ul/G)

35 Can we call him a cheap con man?

Posted by: Johanna Lapp at September 04, 2008 07:16 PM (E9Jrr)

36 Jesus was a community organizer; Pontius Pilate was a governor.

Posted by: Jerry at September 04, 2008 07:35 PM (sHyoM)

37 Some Obama aides see it as a knock against the poor and their material needs.

So now being an ACORN bagman is the next best thing to Mother Theresa?

Posted by: Rob Crawford at September 04, 2008 07:42 PM (Bpq+O)

38 Here is the real test ...

Do these folks look even predominately black ?

case closed

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