Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Aunt Jemima Clinton



Hillary Clinton has a tin ear. That was my first thought when I heard clips of her recent speeches, complete with phony southern drawl, given to a black audience in Selma, Alabama, over the weekend. She recited a Black hymn and, instead of just saying the words with whatever enthusiasm she found necessary, she gave it a "Black" emphasis which was as false as her lifetime fondness for the New York Yankees.

Few of us know what our voices really sound like to others. It is always a surprise to hear ourselves when recorded on an audio media; It usually sounds funny and somewhat embarrassing to those of us not used to hearing our own public utterances come back to haunt us. But we are mere mortals. We don't have Hollywood connections. Unless the Clintons burned this one particular bridge behind them, Harry and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason should have been available to coach and cue the junior Senator from New York (via a long stint in Arkansas and a longer one in Illinois) in her delivery. She either had no coaching, or it didn't "take." Listen to some of the clips available at Youtube right here.

For the record, it seemed to me that Obama felt it necessary to accentuate his blackness with a little exaggerated speech effects. The poor guy can't be either black or white enough to suit his aspirations.

This is just another example of Hillary's calculated candidacy. From her calm, cool, and collected appearance in her tastefully appointed livingroom to announce her candidacy, and request a chat, a dialog with us, to her ranting about the war to appease her liberal base, to this pandering to the Black people in Selma, she insults the intelligence of Black and White America alike. I am offended, even if the people she panders to are not.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Love the picture. Hillary wasn't in blackface was she? Remember she was our first "black" president's first "black" firstlady.