President Obama’s State of the Union address last night has spurred a variety of responses. Some are happy that he’s now focused on jobs and the economy, some feel disappointed that he’s all but abandoned health care reform, some feel he made excuses by saying change was never going to be easy, and some are encouraged by his hopefulness and determination regarding bipartisan cooperation in Congress. According to the New York Daily News, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews had an unique response, however: “I forgot he was black.” Check out the video:
Matthews called the President “post-racial” before saying, “I forgot he was black tonight for an hour. He’s gone a long way to become a leader of this country and past so much history in just a year or two. I mean it’s something we don’t even think about.”
He continued: “I was watching and I said, wait a minute, he’s an African-American guy in front of a bunch of other white people and there he is, President of the United States, and we’ve completely forgotten that tonight — completely forgotten it.”
It’s clear that Matthews didn’t mean to be offensive, but I find this remark even more insidious because of exactly that. This comment suggests that Obama’s race used to be an issue, that people like Matthews thought of Obama in a different way than they did of all white Presidents, even if it was subconscious. It almost seems like Matthews expected him to fail because of his race. What do you think?
I don’t think anyone expected Obama to fail because he was black, it simply shows that Chris thinks of Obama as a black president for the most part, and uses that belief to further propogate the belief that anyone who disagrees with Obama does so because he’s black, not because he’s a liar.