There’s been a lot of lament in the last few days about President
Obama’s unusual awkwardness and silence during the debate. Romney brought his “A” game, if putting on a
say-anything smarmy sales routine counts as such—which it does.
While I shared everyone’s consternation over President Obama’s
failure to come out swinging, I found myself much more upset with one particular
moment in the debate: when Romney says:
“Look, I have five boys. I’m used to people saying something that isn’t
always true and keep on saying it hoping ultimately I will believe it.”
So. Just to be sure
we have it straight. Mr. Romney claimed
that he is used to dealing with people like President Obama because Obama is a
lying “boy” just like Romney’s own sons.
Shocked, I sat bolt upright in my chair, asking myself, “Did
Romney just call President Obama a “boy?”
We have a long history of white people calling black men
“boy” in our country. The term evolved
during slavery as a way of emasculating black men. By calling them “boy,” and disavowing their
adulthood, slave owners robbed them of the intelligence, humanity and sexuality
of a grown man. As “boys,” black men had
no autonomy over their lives and no claim to their women. The black man’s status as a “boy” justified
his position as dependent and beholden to a master who claimed to take care of
him.
Like the “N” word, use of “boy” did not disappear with
emancipation. It remained a powerful
linguistic tool through Jim Crow and continues to pack a punch today.
If you watch President Obama as Romney delivers this line, there is a distinct reaction. He turns slightly towards Romney, lifts his
head abruptly and inhales through his nose.
For just a second, he exhibits the body language of a man rising to the
challenge of a physical fight. He’s
pissed.
Then he reigns it in under the
mask of an awkward smile.
Here stands our intelligent and principled president, admirably
keeping his composure while this big lying oaf disparages him with dripping condescension and a subtly delivered racial epithet.
I don’t think we can explain Romney’s allusion away as an
innocent reference to his kids. Let’s
give the man more credit than that.
Whether implicitly or explicitly, he understands the nuances of language
in American culture because he grew up here.
We all know the language. What
separates us is whether we choose to embrace or reject it.
People say Romney has no soul, no principles. He can’t seem to decide on which side of
anything he stands. Even his insinuation
that President Obama is no better than his own apparantly dishonest boys comes amid his own
whopper lies about taxes and healthcare.
(Apparently then, the apples didn’t fall far from the tree?)
I think in this moment, and perhaps against his will, the
real Romney seeps through the seams of his pressed and starched shirt. We've seen glimpses of this bully before. He is a guy who will do or say anything to get what he wants: a guy who put his dog on the car roof, and who cut off his
classmate’s hair; a guy who wrote off 47% of Americans when he thought no one was looking. And now, a guy who called his president a "boy" in hopes of getting a vote.
Overall, I think Jon Stewart says it best when he just calls it all, "Bullshit Mountain." Ridiculous on so many levels.
ReplyDeleteyou're so right. at least stewart can make us laugh through the stink of it!
DeleteSpeaking as an Obama supporter, I think you're reading too much into this.
ReplyDelete