One Girl's Crush...

I might be mistaken, but I’m pretty sure that neither Bill Clinton’s charm, nor Al Gore’s brain, nor George W. Bush’s “I’d like to have a beer with that guy” persona has inspired the kind of public, sexually explicit, lust-ladened fantasies among their respective 20-something generations as has Barack Obama. I’m speaking of course of the now-likely-to-become-infamous “Crush on Obama” music video, recently posted on YouTube.

Now I will say from the outset that the video is quite good. It’s entertaining, funny, and might even make you want to get up and shake your groove thing, bounce around a bit to the music while a sultry temptress conjures bare naked, Barack-me-tonight fantasies filled with healthcare policy, border security, John Kerry, the 2004 elections and presidential politics. It’s an ode to Barack Obama – potentially the first African-American president of the United States, and were this not the case, there would be no cause for pause. But there is.

Of course, everybody is asking, “will this help or hinder Obama’s election hopes?” I’m not a fortuneteller, so I won’t play that game with this one. I’ll just offer a brief reminder…

Remember Harold Ford, Jr. in 2006 – the black Senate candidate from Tennessee who ran an election shackled with a “playboy” label, secured by a Republican Party ad depicting a clearly promiscuous white woman eager to get Ford’s attention, a return phone call, and certainly more particular favors? Well, the same underlying and longstanding attitudes in the U.S. about race – particularly black males – and sex, interracial relationships, miscegenation, black sexual prowess, etc. pervade the ObamaGirl’s video, though in a different way than the RNCC ad against Harold Ford.

The Ford ad, in my opinion, intentionally appealed to these and other such stereotypes (see our blog about that issue last year). It is apparent that there is no such intention in the video. However, the two are both based on a similar set of attitudes and stereotypes – even if the stereotypes are a source of flirtatious admiration (for ObamaGirl). As they say, one person’s sexual attraction (Obama is “smart, black and sexy,” that’s why he’s so fine), may be another’s grounds for fear and loathing.

What plays well in liberal media (the internet, not Fox News), may not fare so well in living rooms, coffee shops, and around water coolers in Iowa, or New Hampshire, or South Carolina, where Barack Obama’s interracial sex appeal might send a different vibe – especially if they’re watching Fox News where brunette bombshells for Obama are cause for nonstop chatter.

Another reminder – that I was reminded of this week: The 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia; a mere forty years ago miscegenation was declared unconstitutional. Under the law, that is…