We all know that Democratic senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama recently painted an oral picture of his maternal grandmother—a white woman—in blatantly stereotypical terms:

The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, but that she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know - there’s a reaction in her that’s been bred into our experiences that don’t go away and sometimes come out in the wrong way and that’s just the nature of race in our society.  [Emphasis added.]

Source here. 

I was at my brother’s house when the audio of that remarkable statement was first played as breaking news on cable television.  My jaw almost hit the floor when I heard it.  Combined with the Jeremiah Wright sermon scandal, I thought that statement would spell the end of Obama’s political career.

But no.  All the flack that arose from the Jeremiah Wright flap slid off the Teflon candidate like water runs off of a duck’s back.  Apparently, because Mr. Obama is (ostensibly black)(this week at least), he can get away with postulating the existence of a “typical white person” and then saunter away untouched.

What really gets my gall, however, is the fact that Obama is mute when it comes to the character of this father and his paternal (Kenyan) grandfather.  In a January 2007 article in the Daily Mail, however, Sharon Churcher made this striking observation about Obama’s grandparents on both sides of the family:

Mr. Obama Junior claims that racism on both sides of the family destroyed the marriage between his mother and father.

In his book, he says that Ann’s mother, who went by the nickname Tut, did not want a black son-in-law, and Obama Senior’s father ‘didn’t want the Obama blood sullied by a white woman‘.

In fact Ann divorced her husband after she discovered his bigamous double life. She remarried and moved to Indonesia with young Barack and her new husband, an oil company manager.  [Emphasis added.]

Hmmm.  So Grandpa Obama didn’t want the Obama blood sullied by a white woman, eh?  Sounds like there was a little “stereotypical behavior” going on on both the maternal and paternal sides of his extended family, doesn’t it?

I’m trying really hard here, people.  I’m scouring my memory trying to find….

Damn.

Nope.

I just don’t have any recollection of hearing Barack Obama say that his grandfather was a “typical black person”.

Can anyone help me with this?  What am I missing here?

Technorati Tags: Democratic senator, presidential candidate, Barack Obama, oral picture, maternal grandmother, white woman, blatantly stereotypical terms, racial animosity, typical white person, the nature of race in our society, breaking news, Jeremiah Wright, sermon scandal, political career, Teflon candidate, Kenyan, grandfather, Sharon Churcher, black son-in-law, didn’t want the Obama blood sullied by a white woman, bigamous double life, Indonesia, Grandpa Obama, stereotypical behavior, typical black person

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