Angry Libs
In recent weeks, there’s been a lot of attention surrounding presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s relationship with his long time pastor, angry black man Reverend Jeremiah Wright. The preacher’s incendiary comments have set off a firestorm of media coverage and may have done irreparable harm to the senator’s presidential aspirations. Some argue that these comments offer us a secret glimpse at Obama’s privately held beliefs. Beliefs that all white people are racist, that the US’s violent actions around the world are responsible for 9/11, and that our government distributes drugs and disease to the black community*. Senator Obama’s supporters contend that these comments were taken out of context, that a couple sound bites taken from twenty years of sermons don’t present a complete picture and misrepresent Mr. Wright as a raving lunatic**. As resident political analyst here at Totes Rando, I thought I’d take this chance to put the Reverend’s comments into perspective in the hopes that I can shed some light on this complex and troubling issue.
Physical Context
Context is something you should always take into account when evaluating any offensive/incendiary/batshit crazy quote you might come across while following the presidential campaign.
Now, there are two kinds of context. Verbal context, the words that come before and after a quote, and Physical context - who said it, when, the audience, etc. But perhaps most importantly, was the person who made the comment playing Mad Libs at the time? Take this quote for example:
Death to America! Death to the infidels! – Some Terrorist Fuck
Could easily also be –
Boyfriend to Albuquerque! Dog Vagina to the Red Sox***!
Noun Location Noun Group
You’d be surprised how often Mad Libs can justify a quote that, on the surface, seems completely insane.
Now let’s take a look at that Rev. Wright quote:
“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, not God Bless America. God damn America — that’s in the Bible — for killing innocent people.” –Rev. Wright
Hypothetically, this is how that quote could have come about.
Now you give it a try. You’ll be surprised just how hard it is to not come up with something inflammatory.
Come up with something that would scare white America? I bet you did.
Though, as plausible as this mad libs theory seems, at this time I have found no evidence to support it. Which brings me to my next point:
Verbal Context
This is the classic “taken out of context” example. With a little creative editing you can get people to say the most unusual things. Take this “quote” from Mother Teresa:
“I think… St. Francis of Assisi… came in… young boys.” -Mother Teresa’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech December 11th, 1979
Who knew Mother Teresa was such a gossipy whore? Now that you understand context, you know that she didn’t really “say” this.
Here are a couple more historical examples of things taken out of context.
“You know those jews… they ain’t so bad.” -Hitler, Mein Kampf
Ouch. I’m sure that one could really hurt his cred.
“Mary Todd’s dick tastes like Spic and… Span” -Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Man that was a great speech.
But still, there are some quotes that can’t be explained away through the use of context. Sometimes stupid people just say stupid things. Like this classic:
“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” –Remarks by the President from the USS Abraham Lincoln
Or maybe he was playing Mad Libs.
* I’m assuming in order to help support the pawnshop industry.
** Who would like to see white people dumped into some Temple of Doom type fire pit.
*** For a player to be named later.
Lady Town Grub Grub is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page.