Sybil on Tom Joyner speaking about Fox Tv referring to Michelle Obama as "Obama's Baby Mama" - why is it wrong? why is it right? Wrong because Fox appropriated black idiomatic speech in the wrong way--right because it's a free world. Fox -- with another example of how to get black speech wrong. How should "babymama" be used? Keep it for arguing in the street; wheeling an 'outside' baby into the beauty parlor as the other "babymama" is getting her weave tightened, and similar actions. Can anyone really place Michelle Obama in a situation like that? Media doesn't lump white people in the same group. Is McCain the same white as the whites meth producers who might live in a trailer?
3 comments:
brilliant!
"Baby Mama" My understanding of the term refers to a woman you have had child with that you are not married to, but because you do have a child with her are forced to communicate with and/or deal with on some level. Most of the time the man no longer wishes to be in a relationship with her, but those feelings are not recipricated. When this is the situation and the man has moved on perhaps to another relationship, he frequently experiences "baby mama drama". A young lady upset and doing everything in her power to let him know it thus sabatoging his current relationship as most women specifically state that they "don't want no baby mama drama" Fox used the term inappropiately. It was indeed free speech but also racial.
The "free speech" argument lacks credence. As a supposedly "fair and balanced" conveyor of fact and commentary, Fox elevates itself above the squalor of bigoted back alley slurs (or so one would hope). Had the expression "baby mama" been presented in some culturally attuned context it might be more difficult to fault the network. As it is, Fox's usage is far more analogous to libel than to free speech.
It is interesting to note that Fox's "baby mama" graphic preceded these comments by Michelle Malkin: "... as long as conservatives and critics of Michelle Obama ... stick to the substance of what she's saying ... it's all fair game... where backlash would come is if people make (sic) gratuitous and cheap shots at her that have (sic) nothing to do with the substance of what she's saying... "
Gratuitous and cheap, indeed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvZEZL2LmA8
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