McLaughlin Calls Obama an “Oreo”

The Urban Dictionary defines the term “Oreo” as “A racist slur and schoolyard name based on racist stereotypes wrongly assuming that intelligence, articulateness, dapperness, and manners are traits of whites and not blacks. Therefore, a black person who possesses these traits is an oreo, white on the inside and black on the outside. A corollary slur is a banana, yellow (Asian) on the outside and white on the inside.”

When I was younger, I preferred what I thought was an ingenious departure from the standard Oreo joke: a “Ritz cracker” (brown on the outside but a cracker nonetheless)

Yesterday, while the media was obsessing over the controversial cover of The New Yorker (see post below), another important story went largely unnoticed. Fortunately for John McLaughlin, executive producer of the “John McLaughin Group,” a morning political roundtable show, Americans did not have a chance to be outraged by comments he made on his show Sunday:

“Does it frost Jackson, Jesse Jackson, that someone like Obama, who fits the stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo- a black on the outside, a white on the inside- that an Oreo should be the beneficiary of the long civil rights struggle which Jesse Jackson spent his lifetime fighting for?”

Panelist and Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Peter Beinart responded by saying: “Who knows what Jesse Jackson is thinking? But that’s a completely unfair depiction of Barack Obama.”

And later, Panelist Michelle Bernard, president of the Independent Women’s Forum, said: “I want to go back to the point you made about whether or not Obama is an Oreo, because if Barack Obama is an Oreo, every member of this generation of African-Americans is an Oreo, because we stand on the shoulders of the people who fought for our rights.”

Of course McLaughlin doesn’t fully understand the implications of the term Oreo and only used it to say that Obama “fits the stereotype.” (Attributing the term to blacks doesn’t get you off the hook sir!) My question is how? To say that Obama fits the stereotypes means that you recognize that he is “acting white.” How?

As a young black woman who was told on numerous occasions as a child and often times as an adult that all of her positive attributes were the result of her (nonexistent) desire to be “white,” I can say that I am extremely offended by McLaughlin’s insensitive use of a term that, for the record, is an extremely inadequate way to describe Sen. Barack Obama or any other successful black American who doesn’t necessarily live up to the mainstream perception of what black people are supposed to look, talk, and act like. 

All too often, we Americans think in terms of black and white, both literally and figuratively- failing to note that a person’s phenotype and culture do not necessarily dictate their behavior.

McLaughlin, and many of the other players who’ve made insensitive remarks throughout this election have all shined a light on a gaping hole in the American educational system. In a society in which people can essentially say that another person is not “acting their race,” we still have a long way to go in the vein of racial progress.

Media Matters for America is calling on people to make their voices heard on this issue by contacting Mclaughin directly at: (202) 457-0870 ext. 16 or e-mail: jmclaghlin@mclaughin.com.