Steele Slams Saltsman: ‘Magic Negro’ Stunt ‘Reinforces Negative Stereotype’ Of The GOP
Steele Slams Saltsman: ‘Magic Negro’ Stunt ‘Reinforces Negative Stereotype’ Of The GOP
Last month, the Hill reported that RNC chairman candidate Chip Saltsman sent out a Christmas greeting that contained a CD with the song “Barack the Magic Negro” on it. Several of Saltsman’s opponents were “shocked and appalled,” calling the move “in bad taste.” However, as the Hill later noted, “surprisingly,” the two African-American candidates for RNC chair — Ken Blackwell and Micheal Steele — had “been the easiest on Saltsman.”
Today, the candidates debated the future of the Party at the National Press Club and all agreed that the GOP needs to bring in more minorities. But in an interview with ThinkProgress after the debate, Steele said that Saltsman is detracting from this effort. He strongly criticized Saltsman’s decision to send out the “Magic Negro” song, saying “it doesn’t help at all” the GOP’s effort to bring in minorities to the party:
TP: A big theme on the panel today was how to get the GOP to embrace minority voters. Do you think that Mr. Saltsman’s CD that he released to the RNC members helps or hurts that effort?
STEELE: Oh it doesn’t help at all. Absolutely, it reinforces a negative stereotype of the party. [...] And so now we have a opportunity to step in the breach and clear that up and make sure that people appreciate and know that look, this is not representative of the party as a whole, this is not a direction that we want to go in or a system that we believe.
Watch it:
Some RNC members have said that Saltsman’s controversial Christmas greeting may have actually helped his candidacy for chairman. Politico reported that “some of those officials are rallying around the embattled Saltsman, with a few questioning whether the national media and his opponents are piling on.”
However, current RNC chair Mike Duncan disputed that notion today in a separate interview with ThinkProgress. “I disagree with them,” he said, adding that “we’re about addition as opposed to subtraction and bringing people into this Party and things that take away from that are bad for the Party.”
Indeed, during the debate, Saltsman himself said — without a hint of irony — that “we have done a very poor job in communicating any message from the Republican Party” to minority groups.
At today’s event, Steele appeared to have the most — or at least the most visible — supporters in the audience. People were holding signs and wearing Steele stickers and attendees loudly cheered after many of his answers. No other candidate had such a conspicuous turnout.
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Heh. One wonders how much you have to hate yourself in order to be an African-American (or gay) Republican...
January 5th, 2009 at 5:47 pmOxymorons:
black republican
gay republican
female republican
working class republican
patriotic republican
compassionate republican
black is close to the top of the list though, especially in these days of rampant republican bigogtry.
January 5th, 2009 at 5:50 pmFred - it'd be simpler and yet still correct if you just leave off the "oxy"...
January 5th, 2009 at 5:52 pmAll of these navel-gazing conferences are a waste of time. Historically, a party that loses a big game-changing long term election goes even further away from the middle on the next election cycle.
They're going to bet that Obama's going to screw everything up (fat chance) so that they don't have to go back to the drawing board in any substantive way. That means they won't really know whether they have to take the extreme plunge of reevaluating their political dogma until they see how 2012 works out. So as long as they can avoid actually reinventing themselves, they won't. And they won't know whether they can avoid it until the next major election cycle.
Until then, they might as well go nuts: spend the next 2 years complaining about political correctness and try to win the public over to the idea that Republicans can use racial slurs whenever they want. Also...
PALIN / WURZELBACHER 2012!!!
January 5th, 2009 at 5:52 pmIntelligent republican
January 5th, 2009 at 5:54 pmCommon-sense republican
Caring republican
Christian republican
It's cute how Steele spins this as a "negative stereotype," as if Republican racism weren't an earned, integral choice made by their party leaders for the past thirty years.
I think this guy's got Stockholm syndrome.
Either that or he's hoping to win the "Republican token lottery" - you know, like how Colin Powell and Clarence Thomas both got fast-tracked to the top of their respective careers so that R's could have a brown face to show off as needed.
January 5th, 2009 at 5:57 pmI challenge any republican operative to leave their comfort zone, come knocking on my door and speak cohesively and comprehensively after I get done with my venting process. Hello!1!1! We’re talking about repubictards here.
January 5th, 2009 at 6:06 pmA Republican sends out 'Magic Negro' and is surprised when he is criticized. He sees nothing wrong with it. A Republican in California, sends out coupons with Obama's visage and watermelon and fried chicken and is surprised at the umbrage taken. She says she did not mean anything wrong by it. Rush Limbaugh says that Obama looks like George the Monkey, and is surprised when he is criticized, saying he saw nothing wrong with it.
These Republicans are telling the truth!! They really don't see anything wrong with depicting Black people in such denigrating manner, but yet, they are so, so in the wrong. For the very reason that they see nothing wrong, they will continue to insult. It's in their nature.
January 5th, 2009 at 6:13 pmtp, you DO understand that this guy was weighing his words for YOUR audience, right?
i'd guess he had a different spin for fox,etc...
i mean, at the time, the two African-American candidates for RNC chair — Ken Blackwell and Micheal Steele — had “been the easiest on Saltsman.”
January 5th, 2009 at 6:16 pmMembers of a racial minority are not typically drawn to a party as overtly racist as the modern GOP. The idea that a holiday greeting would be used to spread an "joke" like this is rather offensive.
January 5th, 2009 at 6:22 pmSo the party of fear, smear, greed, corruption and bigotry is having trouble reaching out beyond the "Whites Only Country Club" borders?
Go figure.
January 5th, 2009 at 6:25 pmIf Steele weren't running against Saltzman for RNC chair, it would be less of a "slam," and more of a wink and a nod.
January 5th, 2009 at 6:25 pmThe thing that shocks me about this story is that Steele actually sat for an interview with ThinkProgress!
Since when does any Republican give consideration to any news outlet but Faux News, Drudge or Hannity?
January 5th, 2009 at 6:25 pmHowever, current RNC chair Mike Duncan disputed that notion today in a separate interview with ThinkProgress. “I disagree with them,” he said, adding that “we’re about addition as opposed to subtraction and bringing people into this Party and things that take away from that are bad for the Party.”
He's right. Subtraction of all the racists in the Republican Party wouldn't leave enough people for a tea party.
January 5th, 2009 at 6:26 pm"STEELE: Oh it doesn’t help at all. Absolutely, it reinforces a negative stereotype of the party."
Stereotype? more along the lines of reinforcing what everyone already knows to be true- raypuklicans are vile, racist, scumbags.
January 5th, 2009 at 6:29 pmHow can it be a "stereotype" when it is unequivocally true? There is a reason why only 5% of blacks vote republican.
January 5th, 2009 at 6:32 pmHowever, current RNC chair Mike Duncan disputed that notion today in a separate interview with ThinkProgress. “I disagree with them,” he said, adding that “we’re about addition as opposed to subtraction and bringing people into this Party and things that take away from that are bad for the Party.”
Almost there. Now he just needs to acknowledge that the Party is bad for the Country.
January 5th, 2009 at 6:48 pmLeftside Annie, you are exactly right! What is wrong with these people? It borders on psychiactric (self-abuse).
January 5th, 2009 at 6:53 pmIndeed, during the debate, Saltsman himself said — without a hint of irony — that “we have done a very poor job in communicating any message from the Republican Party” to minority groups.
Unredacted quote: "we have done a very poor job in communicating any message from the Republican Party to fags, broads and negroes."
January 5th, 2009 at 7:01 pmRepublicans care only for the financial elite, and sucker those that aren't filthy rich into their tent by using divisive wedge issues.
I live in a southern state and am still amazed when I see some dime-a-dozen handyman with a Bu$h/Cheney bumper sticker on his rusted out '74 Dodge pickup, heading down to the disability office for his check.
Think about it; the only thing republicans really care about, and this goes back 60 years, is to dismantle the New Deal. Never mind that the New Deal helped transform America into the nation we were proud of, pre-2000 (The Bu$h appointment).
When I see a guy like Mitch McConnell of KY yell the sky is falling so we HAVE to give Wall Street a trillion bucks, and then turn around and say "F^%K Detroit, it's the unions fault", or have the audacity to say that Obama's stimulus package is just more big government, blah blah blah, it makes me sick.
It's OK to give Wall Street a trillion greenbacks with no oversight or transparency - and don't forget, when the AP asked the banks who received at least 1 billion where the money was, where it was spent, etc., they couldn't even give a God D@mn answer!!! - but help out your ordinary Joe? Hell no.
January 5th, 2009 at 7:12 pmRepublican_1: Man, we keep losing because we don't attract gay, black, female, or latino voters.
Republican_2: Any ideas guys? New education and job training programs to create more oppurtunity? More workplace protection? Equal rights and justice for all people no matter what their race, gender or sexual preference might be????
Republican_Group: HAAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Republican_1: No, seriously guys. How can we get the blacks and papist latinos to hate the gays more by exploiting religion? How can we exploit the immigration issue to make the blacks and gays hate the latinos more? How can we exploit the legal system to make the latinos and gays hate the blacks more???
January 5th, 2009 at 8:12 pm‘Magic Negro’ Stunt ‘Reinforces Negative Stereotype’ Of The GOP
Aww, let the boys have their fun. It can't possibly hurt the GOP any more than 8 years of Bush, DeLay, Hastert, etc., etc. already have. Remember the "the majority of the majority" and "hunting Democrats with dogs" lines?
January 5th, 2009 at 8:26 pmWhen will gay and black republicans understand that they are not REALLY welcome in the republic party and are just the 'tokens' the party uses to make it's racist self feel better?
January 5th, 2009 at 8:29 pmI wonder if 5% of chickens would vote for Colonel Sanders.
January 5th, 2009 at 8:32 pmHere's hoping Steele wins the RNC chairmanship -- he proved how clueless he is a few years ago when he ran for Lt. Governor in Maryland and helped the incumbent Repuke governor there get trounced by current Gov. O'Malley (D-Md.). The repukes have previously elevated such incompetence from the state to the national level -- for example, a few years ago when they took the miserable failure of a former governor of my state, Jim Gilmore (R-Va.) (who also, not so coincidentally, got clobbered two months ago in our senate race by our new Senator, Mark Warner), and made him RNC chairman. It only took him 2 years to run that party into the ground.
So here's hoping they take another incompetent Republican (is that redundant?) and make him RNC national chairman -- it worked quite well for us progs the last time...
January 5th, 2009 at 8:38 pmWhy wouldn't 5% of chickens vote for the Colonel? After all, they get to be basted in that secret recipe...
January 5th, 2009 at 8:45 pmThe RNC suffers from a "negative stereotype" the same way Charles Manson does.
January 5th, 2009 at 8:50 pmGOOPERS and Black at that,oxymorons.Where is the outrage from everyone black and white alike,liberal and conservative.
January 5th, 2009 at 8:54 pmSteele must have had an off night. Not one mention of being pelted with Oreo cookies.
January 5th, 2009 at 9:26 pmKen Blackwell is a big fat idiot
January 5th, 2009 at 9:30 pmI think they OUGHT to elect'm and use the song as the 2012 THEME . . . nothing better for the soul than coming out of the "closet" . . . the sooner the Klan Robes show up on the podiums the better.
January 5th, 2009 at 10:16 pmStereotype means prejudice and false assumptions. But they are not "pre-judged" as racist, they ARE racist. It is not a false assumption, it is a true assumption and you don't have to assume.
January 5th, 2009 at 10:22 pmEasy Explanation on why Blackwell and Steele went the easiest on Saltsman: Their position is weak enough that if they voiced their opinion the RNC wouldn't support their election process.
January 6th, 2009 at 12:53 amMethinks that Think Progress actually is trying to help Steele get this position.
You do realize, TP, that he'd say the exact opposite when he's b:tchen' for FOX "news".
R_B
January 6th, 2009 at 4:08 amRepublicans talking about their "image" is a sure sign the election-fraud machinery must be broken.
How sad for them. If smear campaigns, scare tactics, vote-flipping, vote suppression, vote purging, gerrymandering, intimidation, legal harassment, dirty tricks, etc. can't win an election for you, what do you do? Start thinking about your image, I guess.
Visit beautiful Wingnutania:
January 6th, 2009 at 6:15 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVPy-ejcbjM
That they can't see what a debacle this is, and that the base may be rallying around Saltsman because of it speaks volumes about the true nature and pitiful state of the GOP.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:32 amThe Republican party by definition is a racist party.
January 6th, 2009 at 9:40 am"NEGROS" are the only minority not represented in the Congress Senate or as a Governor.
For 40 years the GOP have filled their ranks read Southern Strategy by dividing us with hate and bigotry.
By design or definition the results are the same.
My thing is I will not call the Republicans the party of racist. Even though their actions are suspect sometimes I cannot call them that. What I can say is that they have no African American House Members, no African American Governors, and the Vietnamese Republican who did win in LA did so without party backing. They give minority candidates lukewarm support saving those dollars for white candidates. I also know that minorities in the party say they do not have enough outreach. And the one time the nation saw the party on display, i.e the Republican convention it seemed like a convention full of white people with a few scared minorities here and there. Are you telling me they could not find any minorities to invite to their convention? I do not believe it. I think they did not even try and saw nothing wrong with having about 98 to 99% of the people there being a homogeneous white. For them the Republicans they have gotten to the point of not even caring about diversity saying if they are not going to join us on their own accord then the hell with them.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:23 pmWait a minute... Isn't this the same dude who said after the bru-hah-hah initially came about that people were being "overly sensitive" about the Magic Negro song...? Now he is throwing the retard under the bus? Man, talk about revisionism and being a back-stabber.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:39 pmDuring the presidential election, Palin's campaign rallies saw the ugly hate that was directed at Barck Obama. Yet, she had no comment and or did nothing to quell the hate mungers in these crowds. Fast forward to after the election. There is debate within the republican party about who dropped the ball, what went wrong and who was to blame for the GOP loosing the election. Frankly, I am glad that they lost. Now, fast forward to December 2008, this dude Chip Saltman comes up with this ingenuis CD, The Magic Negro. what was he thinking? The Republican party is already perceived as racsist in its thoughts and actions. Frankly, I'm glad that Mr Saltman did this. Its like he's back at the Frat house in college and the fellas just saw some lone black kid walking in front, they yell out the window,"hey you magic negro!, what are yu doing in our neighborhood, Go back to where you belong!" Yep, I can picture good ole' Chip doing this back in the day. Now, here he is many years later. He obviously see's nothing at all wrong with what he has done. Why should he, because it is what he and the boys have done behind closed doors for years. Now, you have two african american men amongst this good ole boy club. Are they serious? I imagine that they are highly educated, very outspoken and very aware of their positon. Very aware of how they are perceived as two uncle Toms, Kenneth Blackwell says that people are being over sensitive. Micheal Steele remained silent until recently. Hypersensitivity, I think not, but the ole boy club is coming out of the closet, One Magic Negro at a time. The Uncle Toms of the 21st Century stand toe to toe with good ole Chip and the rest of his Frat Brothas in arms. Thank goodness the GOP is seen for what it really is, Closet Frat boys practicing in public what they have done behind closed doors for years.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:34 pmMr. Steele's condemnation of Saltsman's idiot stunt would likely have had a lot more impact if he hadn't waited **10 days** to comment. In the meantime the GOP looked lost as to how they should respond...and lost more PR points they desperately need to build up their relevance to American voters. Someone at the very top should have slammed Saltsman the day the story hit the airwaves, and removed him from GOP candidacy IMMEDIATELY.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:06 pm.
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