Monday, January 30, 2012

Dr. Julianne Malveaux: A Market for Presidential Disrespect

JMHeadshotBEH

by Dr. Julianne Malveaux

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has one hell of a nerve.  In an image that has gone viral, she put her finger in President Obama's face, apparently lecturing him about something or other, making her the pure picture of arrogant disrespect.  Apparently, she has learned from the best of the marketers.  Before her finger-wagging diatribe, her book Scorpions for Breakfast was ranked 285,568 on the Amazon list.  By the time she finished promoting and defending her disrespect, with appearances on Fox News and other networks, the book rose from its lowly perch to be ranked at 21 by Thursday and at 15 by Sunday.  And, you know, I almost bit by buying the book myself, figuring that I ought to read about something I'm going to talk about.  But Kindle lets you "sample" and the sample was not impressive.  And Amazon lets you browse parts of the book.  Also unimpressive.  At the end of the day, I refuse to enrich a woman who lacks such basic disrespect that she has to finger wag and still does not have the good sense to apologize.  Shame on her and shame on Arizona!

She is not the first, though, and she won't be the last to disrespect President Obama and the First Family.  Indeed, from the time President Obama was nominated the disrespect has been replete, and it has had a racial component that only an ostrich would deny.  Brewer played the race card, with body language that screamed "boy".  Then she said President Obama was "disrespectful" when he walked away from her mid-conversation.  She is lucky that President Obama has such amazing self-restraint.  I can imagine quite a few folks, failing to relish the experience of a leader so undisciplined as to resort to finger wagging, who might have responded very differently than President Obama did.  Later, Governor Brewer said she felt "threatened" by President Obama.  Give me a break!  This is classic Birth of A Nation, with the fragile white woman so threatened by brutish black man that she runs off a cliff.  If anyone should have felt threatened by the conversation, it was President Obama, which is perhaps why he walked away.  Look at the picture.  Who looks contained, and who looks out of control?  Brewer's invocation of racial stereotypes sent her pathetic book rising to the charts, just like Limbaugh's racial attacks on President Obama keep his ratings up.

The insults to the Obamas have been too numerous to detail, but I was appalled when Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) dared discuss the First' Lady's posterior, and even more appalled when legions of people did not rise and call him on it.  Similarly, South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson shouted "You Lie" when the President was speaking and went on to raise money in the wake of his disrespect.  Kansas House Speaker Mike O'Neal, a Republican, circulated an email describing our First Lady Mrs. Yo-Mama, then clumsily apologized that he didn't read the whole email.   While most decent people consider children hands off - that was the case for Amy Carter and Chelsea Clinton - the Obama girls have also been the subjects of sickly racist jokes.  The Obamas have been stoic in the face of crazy racism, but Brewer says our President is thin-skinned.  He didn't write a book replete with whining complaints about the response to her racist SB 1070 that not only attempted to close borders, but also charged law enforcement officials with stopping people who "look" like illegal residents of our country.  If you can't take the heat, Mrs. Brewer, then stay out of the legislation.  And keep your finger out of people's faces. 

Rudeness, however, seems to be a marketing ploy these days, and disrespecting the President seems to be even a better ploy still for the Republicans who implicitly play the race card.   And it does not cut both ways.  When the Dixie Chicks were critical of President Bush, their sales plummeted and they were disinvited to a number of concert opportunities.  Jan Brewer is disrespectful to President Bush, her book sales rise and she becomes a conservative heroine.  She attempted to do what so many conservatives have also attempted to do - put President Obama in his place.  But here's the deal.  He is in his place.  His place is in the White House!

Write, call, email Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.  If you make discretionary decisions on meeting places, consider what support of Arizona says to this disrespectful governor and the people she represents.  Jan Brewer needs to know that while some people are grabbing up her book, others see through her as a disrespectful citizen who would stoop to finger-pointing theatre to take her mediocre book from the bottom of Amazon pile to the top.  I can't say it enough -shame on you Jan Brewer.  You are very blessed and highly favored to have chosen to wag your finger at a man of restraint.  Don't try it anywhere else, because the next person might meet you toe to toe instead of choosing to walk away.

12 comments:

Black Buzz said...

But is was okay for the tan puppet Obama to disrespect brother Kanyae West?

Karla With a K said...

You disrespect "brother" Kanye West by spelling his name wrong and show your immature insecurity with your color conscious name calling!

You also show your disconnect with what really matters when you compare an entertainer, Kanye West, with President Barack Obama.

God is not a respecter of persons, but we are. Entertainers do not deserve or earn the respect that a U.S. president does. Grow up, brother, black buzz.

As for Jan Brewer, Ms. Malveaux speaks for many who have been watching and understand the big picture.

Again, GROW UP, BLACK BUZZ.

Black Buzz said...

Karla with a K: But it was okay for President Obama to disrespect brother Kanye West?
President Obama's comment about brother Kanye West were very immature, unprofessional, and unpresidential. I am quite sure you would agree with that statement.

President Obama showed his gross lack of judgment and immaturity by getting in involved in a situation with a rapper that didn't deserve or warrant Presidential involvement.
I also think that a person with your purported great maturity would agree with my position.
Karla: Answer this question honestly! Would President Obama have ever called a white rapper or entertainer a " Jack Ass?"
In reference to President Obama being a "tan puppet"; Obama and Romney drink and eat from the same Wall Street trough.
Everyone with a modicum of political intelligence understands that Obama is a puppet for Goldman Sachs and other corporate special interests. Karla: You have to possess a greater degree of political maturity to understand and comprehend my previous sentence.

Karla: May I suggest that you read my blog post titled: Black Politics, Campaign 2012, and Tomorrow
at http://blackbuzz.blogspot.com/1/2/2012
This article was written by a scholar and activist who has been involved in the struggle for Black Liberation for the last 50 years. If you elect to read that article then you may want to have a deep constructive conversation about said with me.

* White people think they can say and do anything to Black people with impunity even when that person is the President of the United States of America.
Jan Brewer is nothing but pure unadulterated trash regardless of her position as governor of the state of Arizona.
Instead of spending all of that time emotionally reacting to Jan Brewer we need to be meeting/planning and formulating a short list of Black female candidates for the United States Supreme Court to present to Obama if he is reelected as President of the United States of America.
It was Black women who did all of the heavy lifting to get Obama in the WH, and he should have at least considered a sister for the United States Supreme Court.

Karla: Please lighten up on my spelling. I had to drop out of school after the fifth grade.

* Some of my best friends are Deltas.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this beautiful summary....and to think it was a white woman who has given us this wonderful Black Man for our President!!!

Black Buzz said...

Anonymous: Thank you for your kind remarks... but note we are all Black Africans under the skin.
You may elect to review the excellent film/video titled "The Journey of Man;"... and the National Geo film titled the Human Family Tree... it all began in the Motherland of Africa.

I am quite sure that you are aware of the fact it took Barack Obama Sr. to play a vital role in giving you Barack Obama Jr.

It is my understanding that Dr. Julianne Malveaux is a Delta and she is a wonderful person!!!

Some of my best friends are Deltas.

Anonyous who are you?

Black Buzz said...

Correction from the previous comment:
Anonymous who are you and please share your identity with the readers on this site.

Black Buzz said...

Anonymous: Why have you been so silent?

Anonymous said...

I wonder why the mass news media and the so called self appointed black leaders have not mention the call for for moving on the Pres by the Jewish publisher in Atlanta. Nothing but crickets...

Black Buzz said...

Anonymous: The people who use Anonymous in there comments are yellow-bellied cowards who hide by Anonymous to conceal their real identity. I don't place to much stock or credibility in anonymous people who come to this site and make warped asinine comments in reference to above captioned matter.
Reveal to readers of this site your true identity and quite being a punk hiding behind the internet with your misplaced anonymous comments.
Like the coward that you are you have chosen to attack me even though you know by my profile that I would light you up intellectually with sound and fury.
You are probably one of those corporate cloned Negroes or neo-liberal whites who owe your jobs to the system that you claim to scold for better or worse.
Anyone that has a modicum of intelligence knows that Jews have a disproportionate lock on the flow of propaganda coming from the sponsored media.
Propaganda regardless of the slant is bias which is either implicit or
explicit. There are certain powerful interests that have no vested investment in seeing a Jewish publisher in Atlanta come under scrutiny for his self serving comments about Obama. Wherein those interets know for fact that the publisher in question in Atlanta and in state of Israel can hide under the Freedom of Speech/Press Clause both in the US Constitution and in the Israeli Constitution.
Although Black women did the heavy lifting to get Obama into the Oval Office it was Jews with big big bucks who where his largest donors to his campaign, and they are not going
to upset the status quo or the
political climate because of some comments made by some obscure
Jewish publisher in Atlanta.

The Obama brand was made on Park and Madison avenues and they are not going to permit anyone of note to tamper with President Obama's return to the White House.

It remains perplexing as to why so many Black people remain in support of Barack Obama--- the absence of historical perspective and critical analysis can have this effect on people. Obama's actions, regarding Black America, are antithetical to those of the late great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.












The Obama brand was made on Park and Madison Avenues and they have deeply vested interests in seeing President Obama return to 1600 Pennsylvania

Black Buzz said...

Anonymous: It took you from February 5, 2012 to March 30 of said year for you to respond to my comment to identify your-self and you still hide behind your white robe.

Black Buzz said...

Anonymous: Correction from the above comment. Wherein those interests know for a fact etc.

Blogger said...

Did you know you can create short urls with AdFly and make dollars for every click on your short urls.