Touré: Conservatives ‘Damage Conversation’ on Race Linking Trayvon, Lane Murders

In the punditry game, compelling and unique points of view are currency. MSNBC host, columnist, and author Touré is among the best at articulating provocative and compelling points of view. Rarely do I find myself agreeing with him (though it has happened on more than one occasion), but I almost never find myself thinking that he has posited a thought that has little or no constructive value. This is one of those times. 

On Monday, Touré excoriated conservatives – though he was not talking about conservatives, per se, but merely those who disagree with the assertions he was about to make – who have insisted that characterizing the murders of Delbert Barton and Chris Lane by primarily African-American teenagers represents the other side of the racial coin. Touré added that this “vile” tactic employed by conservatives is an effort to hijack and “damage the conversation” on race. This statement must be met with protest: conversations take place between two parties of relatively equal standing. What Touré appears to be advocating for is a one-sided lecture on race.

Touré opened his Monday monologue with a correct assertion: there is nothing beyond circumstantial evidence that suggests the murders of Barton and Lane had anything to do with race. He is also right that it is misguided for some conservatives to see these murders as an opportunity to score political points against a media which credulously reported that there was a racial element to the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman.

RELATED: Fox’s Kirsten Powers: Does Jesse Jackson Have to Comment on Every Crime in the Country Now?

On Fox News Watch, Daily Beast columnist and Fox News Channel contributor Kirsten Powerscorrectly chided conservatives for calling on America’s civil rights leaders to speak out about the murders of Lane and Barton. “Do we now expect Jesse Jackson to comment on every single heinous crime that happens in the country?” she asked.

Touré cited Powers’ objections to attack conservatives, and the Republican Party (linked, though not synonymous), for adopting a “vile new tactic.” That is, to invoke Belton and Lane to engage in “signal jamming” to confuse and disrupt the sacrosanct “conversation on race.”

Via: Mediaite.com

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MSNBC’s Toure: Forget 2008; Obama Must Be Re-Elected To Show Racial Progress In America

From his spot on the Time Ideas blog, the MSNBC anchor Toure admitted "If President Obama had to run against Senator Obama of 2008, he’d probably be crushed. Back then, Obama seemed superhuman; today he is merely mortal. His victory in 2008 was historic, breaking the race barrier in the nation’s highest office."

Guess what came next. Re-electing Obama is a greater test of whether America is racist than it was in 2008: "But an Obama victory in 2012 would say something even more profound about how far our country has come. Granted, Obama’s election (or not) is merely one of many factors that will tell us where we are on race in America. But it is a big one." Toure put Obama into the metaphor of The Matrix:

In 2008, Obama was Morpheus and America was Neo, a nation of great potential that had lost its mojo and did not understand reality. Obama offered America the red pill — the chance to vote for him — and we swallowed it. In The Matrix, the red pill took effect immediately, and it wasn’t long before Neo revealed himself to be the One — the Jesus-like figure Morpheus had thought he was. In the real world, change happens much more slowly. When Obama took office, it felt as if the sky were falling and we were close to a depression. We avoided that fate. But it has been a rough few years marked by problems (not all of his making) that include a historic recession, Washington gridlock, the passage of controversial health care  legislation, the failure to close the Guantánamo prison, the Middle East explosion and the rhetorical blunder of “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that,” by which the great orator handed the GOP a gift it could mangle into a slogan. After all that, it’s impossible to view Obama as a superhuman magical-Negro figure anymore.

Toure raised the "magical Negro" stereotype as the image Obama needed to win -- and he has to shed that to prove America isn't racist. So far, he's impressed that America is putting Obama ahead of Romney in the polls:

All incumbents have natural advantages, but for Obama, incumbency is a double-edged sword. Given the super-human expectations placed on him when he took office, it’s not surprising that he has disappointed some of his followers.

So those poll numbers suggest something very interesting about this country in terms of racial progress. They show American voters embracing a non-magical black man. The magical Negro concept arose from a need to rectify supposed black inferiority with the undeniability of black wisdom by suggesting that wisdom is so alien that its origins cannot be explained by normal scientific methods.

While some may think it complimentary to be considered “magical,” it is infantilizing and offensive because it suggests black excellence is so shocking it can only come from a source that is supernatural. To accept a black leader who is extraordinary yet so human that he cannot be magical is an entirely different prospect than electing a black superhero. Anyone would vote for a superhero who lived up to my mom’s standard of having to be twice as good. But for it to embrace a nonmagical black person who cannot promise anything but hope, intelligence, sweat and experience, now that comes closer to equality. Equality is freedom from having to be twice as good to get ahead.

This is the racial con game that's being presented this time. He doesn't promise anything but "hope, intelligence, sweat, and experience" besides his atrocious record of routine incompetence. So America is pressured: prove you're not a bigot by voting for Obama.

Via: Newsbusters

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