What does that mean, anyway?

[sleigh]

Snagged from supergee:

Chris Matthews of MSNBC, commenting on the president's State of the Union address: "Yknow, I was trying to think about who he was tonight, and it's interesting. He is post-racial, by all appearances. I forgot he was black tonight for an hour..."

Uh... "post-racial"? To quote from the Princes Bride, I don't think that word means what you think it means, Chris. One could interpret what you just said as "Damn, he sounded as intelligent and articulate as a white guy. Ain't that amazing!" That's not post-racial, that's just flat-out racial.

Comments

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Not meaning to defend Chris Matthews, but it's a bit of a Catch-22. If we have an internal default in our culture of "white" as the "norm" and "articulate and intelligent" as the "norm" then you end up with everything sounding exactly as you've interpreted it.

There becomes no way to make the observation that in our culture, which still (collectively) sees and judges people by the color of their skin, here is a person who is demonstrating the falseness of that standard.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd agree entirely that I don't think Matthews intended the remark to be anything but complimentary. But the phrasing was clumsy. He could have said something along the lines of "I didn't think of the president as 'black' or 'white' or in terms of race at all; he is just 'the president'" But the marveling tone of "I forgot he was black for an hour" can't avoid the racist undertones.

[daedala.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I thought you did it just fine.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Harry Reid got in trouble for less. I don't think either deserve more than a grimace. But yes, Chris Matthews gets paid a lot to sling words, and he should be better at it.