PressEthic

In Time Magazine's October 23, 2006 issue, Barack Obama is featured on the cover with the headline "Why Barack Obama could be the Next President" written by Joe Klein. After reading the shorter version on CNN.com I began to wonder about some of the issues raised in the article and the manner in which it was written. The tone of the article begins very sarcastic- "Missed ya," he says, moving to the microphone, and he continues greeting people over raucous applause. "Tired of Washington." There's a sly hipster syncopation to his cadence, "Been stuck there for a while." The author uses the words "sly hipster" which i think is very disrespectful almost equating him to this hip-hop type stereotype of which is very unbecoming. Why does every black man have to have that type of image or even be compared to it? At the end of the article on CNN.com, Shelby Steele a race analyst gives his opinion on why people (whites) in particular like Obama so much. Steele believes it is because Obama trancends the racial lines and the stereotype of black people- just like Tiger Woods, Oprah and Michael Jordan. Steele also believes that whites like Obama because he doesn't make them feel guilty about racial issues or history in America. Obama is like almost every black male that I know- except he is in his forties and completely in a different era. What image does he not protray? He is a congressman... the article actually sounds surprised that he has a soft conversational speaking tone as though all black men are boisterious. Obama might be a great presidental candidate for the 2008 election but America is not colorblind.... even if he doesn't smack the issue of race in people's faces. What would be the problem if he did? Should he be a token like Tiger Woods? This article left me feeling like the media and America for that fact welcomes black public figures as long as they make white America feel okay about racial issues. And what does that mean anyway. The article makes a point of saying that Obama is different because he isn't and African-American, he is African and American therefore he doesn't have the pyschological issues of slavery. The problem in today's black society is not so much the pyschological wounds its the physical manifestation of what happens when a race was denied the same opportunities as everyone else for three hundred years. So, I highly resent the article in the Times for painting this color-blind picture of a president who is so obviously black. Obama might be smart enough not to challenge certain issues or offer too many opinions on certain things but he is much to intelligent to fall into the trap of being a puppet like Tiger Woods, who could do so much to help his community but instead can't even decide what race he belongs to.