Friday, May 1, 2009

It's Called Walking


CNN recently had a story that was one part maddening, one part embarrassing, and one part just lame. It was a segment dedicated to President Barack Obama's "swagga." Yes, that's swagga with an "a" not an "er." Hands down one of the lamest segments I've seen on television.

Apparently, the Commander-in-Chief has a "swagga"--a cool kind of walk only black men can pull off. Yes, they even compared the President to 70's cult hero Shaft. Despite the conversation between the anchors excruciatingly detailed in the video, the segment also included an interview with several leaders of the African American community who talked about Obama's swagga. And, this group enlightened me on something, apparently only black folk like to hug which explains why the President is so huggy. Of course, the group did not attempt to explain why the two previous presidents also liked to hug.




Not only was the segment lame in every sense of the word, it is irresponsible. For the first time America has an African American president--do we really need to compare him or his walk to Shaft and play into racial stereotypes that some Americans may still be grappling with?

After the segment (which sucked a few precious minutes out of our lives), my wife turned to me and summed up all we needed to know about the President's "swagga": "It's called walking."

3 comments:

paleshorse said...

Raised by a single mom and loving grandparents while moving around the world...graduating from Columbia and Editor of the Harvard Law Review...A United States Senator...married to a stunning wife and father of two daughters...and at an age when a lot of guys are considering bagging their secretary and buying a convertible, he is leader of the free world.
yeah, he's got swagga, and deserves a strut. Hell, if I could do half that, I would walk like I was wearing iron chaps.

DC said...

Well said Palehorse. Nice to see you riding 'round these parts of the 'net...

Grumpy Abe said...

Save your breath, PA-Av. This is low-budget TV journalism that the front offices like because it fills time without reaching for the wallet.

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