Yeah. The fact that so many people (me included at times) spend so much time defining Obama's success as a triumph of race relations demonstrates that we can't see past race.

Around the time of the Bagger Vance movie, Chris Rock had a really funny skit on his TV show that was a preview for a fake movie called "Migger: The Magic N%&$er."

And yes, Rush Limbaugh fans, it can be funny when a black person makes that joke, while being considerably less funny when a white person makes the same joke.

It's a much less well-known movie, but the movie "The Four Feathers," the recent version of that movie that is, also has a fella like that.

Haggai--I thought the same thing. That Chris Rock Show fake trailer was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. If it's on youtube (and what isn't?), I highly recommend checking it out.

Or, since Clinton is hitting the skids, we can get the same identity politics treatment of race that we've been seeing on gender. Fortunately, Obama doesn't seem terribly invested in it, so it'll be a fixation of the academic left. The racism that he will face will be of the very real, but unsubtle variety. I think he'll overcome it.

It's a lot of well-meant racial pandering by victims of Stage 4 White Guilt. A goodly chunk of Obama's support so far clearly derives from it, despite his obvious real strengths that have nothing to do with skin color. Most successful candidates have some irrational or at least non-rational draw--JFK had youth and vigor, Carter folksiness, Clinton empathy. Whatever gets the boobs to vote for you.

of course these are complicated waters and still, and i'm not undercutting the basic thrust of kate's argument, but you know, the basic call-and-response oratorical pattern that obama excels in is rooted, in american terms, in the black baptist ministerial tradition, and there's nothing "limiting" about pointing that out. (i note american terms, because ultimately it's rooted in west african musical practices, but i digress.)

Quite honestly, what we are going through with both Barack and Hillary are better than I expected. I think the first time will always be the hardest. JFK went through this with his Catholicism, but it was a non-issue for Kerry. I may be overly optimistic, but I think both black and female candidates will find it a bit easier next time around.

Okay, but in this analogy, Obama should be a one-dimensional, secondary character to the white protagonist, over whom the emotional arc of the story is really draped. Who's whitey? It seems like the hole in the "magic negro" theory of the Obama campaign is that in this story, in the end, he actually becomes the president.

I don't know. I wouldn't entirely dismiss it. There is plenty of magical thinking in thinking that candidates are progressive due to their identity characteristics. While I think it's an unfair assessment of Obama himself, it's not like we haven't been fed that *notion* to exhaustion over this primary season.

...the basic call-and-response oratorical pattern that obama excels in is rooted, in american terms, in the black baptist ministerial tradition, and there's nothing "limiting" about pointing that out.

That pattern's been repeated ad infinitum in political speeches and popular music, though, so I think it has been used and has appeal to a far broader audience at this point.

I couldn't even read Kamiya's article today. Salon's political coverage-- at least in terms of full-lenth articles-- is just weird lately. (I'm half-hoping for Hillary Clinton to lose the primary soon so we get Sid Blumenthal back.)

Okay, but in this analogy, Obama should be a one-dimensional, secondary character to the white protagonist, over whom the emotional arc of the story is really draped. Who's whitey?

The long-suffering American public, perhaps?

People who deny that race is a major factor in the Barry Bonds situation really don't get this country.

Here's how it works: Many white folks have repressed guilt about racism, which when combined with the rampant negrophobia promoted by the media, causes us to crave Happy Black Men. An avuncular happy black man puts all of our guilt and fear to rest. That's why we prefer, say, jovial Ernie ("Let's play two") Banks to a surly black man like Bill Russell.

(This has been another edition of White People 101)

I don't know. Is it really so wrong to refer to "magic" when describing Obama's current position? I mean, it's not like he is a man with a career full of actual accomplishments. His entire national political career amounts to three years and a couple of days in the Senate, and I'm unaware of anything significant he has accomplished during those three years. And he apparently pushed one or two significant bills as a state rep.

Yet here he is, having just won the Iowa caucuses and seemingly poised to sweep to the Democratic nomination.

Sounds like there might be a little magic involved.

In two of your examples, the characters are direct allegories to religious figures.

While John Coffey is "seven-foot black man with mysterious healing powers" he's also J.C. - Jesus Christ. King's no philosopher, and The Green Mile's no "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", but a more charitable interpretation of what he was trying to convey would be that white (Christian) society is so blinded by Coffey's size and race that they couldn't see him for who he was. If you wish, you could interpret it as a story about how sometimes you can't see past your worldly concerns such that you recognize the hand of God - but at this point I'm verging on writing a Huckabee sermon on "vertical thinking".

As for Bagger Vance, his name is derived from "Bhagavad" (as in Bhagavad-Gita), so we're looking at the Hindu God Krishna as a golf pro.... And I'll stop talking now. ;-)