Barack’s Baby Mama
O, no they didn’t. Why yes, they did. James Joyner calls this quite accurately the manufactured outrage of the day. And manufactured it is indeed. Here’s what happened: when Michelle Malkin was on Fox, they ran a text below her calling Michelle Obama Barack’s “baby mama.”
Instantly, the left declared war on Fox, claiming that calling MO “baby mama” is racist. Personally I enjoyed Oliver Willis’ post most; “Hey Fox News, Just Call Her A N***** And Be Done With It.” The outrage is so intense, but hypocritical and fake that it’s… hilarious.
Why hypocritical? Well, Michelle Malkin explains it quite well:
Update: Salon is in high dudgeon over a caption that Fox ran during my segment referring to Michelle Obama as Obama’s “baby mama.”
I did not write the caption and I was not aware of it when it ran (the Baltimore studio doesn’t have a monitor). I don’t know if the caption writer was making a lame attempt to be hip, clueless about the original etymology of the phrase, or both. But I do know that it was Michelle Obama herself who referred to Barack as her “baby’s daddy” and has used the phrase “baby daddy” to describe Barack while on the stump this year.
Here’s how she introduced him during his Senate victory speech on Nov. 2, 2004:
MICHELLE OBAMA, WIFE OF BARACK OBAMA: My baby’s daddy Barack Obama. Yeah!
Michelle Obama, racist. I mean, how dare she call her husband “my baby’s daddy”? How could she. Clearly racism. Clear.ly.
Why fake? Michelle quotes from an article from Slate Magazine (left-wing magazine):
Celebrity gossips are not known for their contributions to English letters. In tabloids, the copy is breathless, the headlines are stunningly literal, and the “hand-written” photo captions seem to toggle between “Awww!” and “Ew!” But as they zero in on celebrity mating and breeding rituals, the magpies keep breaking new linguistic ground. First they imported the British term bump, a noun used to refer to the protruding abdomen of a pregnant starlet. Then they awarded celebrity couples mash-up nicknames like “Bennifer,” “Brangelina,” and “TomKat.” Now they’ve seized upon baby-daddy and baby-mama, two useful terms that have long appeared in hip-hop and R&B lyrics, and are slowly stripping them of their emotional fangs.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines baby-daddy as “the father of a woman’s child, who is not her husband or (in most cases) her current or exclusive partner.” The baby-mama entry follows the same template with the genders reversed. But some gossip writers have been adopting the first part of the definition and ignoring the second. Salon recently called Tom Cruise “Katie Holmes’ baby-daddy,” even though the couple is engaged. And Gawker refers to Keven Federline as “Britney Spears’ baby-daddy,” even though the couple has been married for more than a year.
…These days, the terms no longer seem “chiefly African-American”—they’re everywhere, the latest bits of hip-hop lingo to gain widespread use. Baby-daddy is the new bling. Online, you can buy “Jesus is my baby-daddy” magnets, tote bags, and beer steins. There is a drink called the “babymama.” Scott Hoffman, the bassist for the glam rock band the Scissors Sisters, goes by the stage name “Babydaddy.” Some of this cultural paraphernalia retains the old, loaded sense of the term: You can, for example, download a “Salty Baby Mama” ringtone so that when people call, your phone will jangle and thrum while a woman’s voice says, “Baby, I know you hear this damn phone ringing. I’m going to beat your ass, as soon as I see you.” But just as often, the connotations are strictly biological. Baby-mama has even made inroads in Japan, where it’s being used on a Web site that appears to sell strollers.
Who knows why these terms became catchphrases? Perhaps it’s just that they’re metrically pleasing: Baby-mama and baby-daddy are undeniably fun to say. But it’s the novelty factor that explains how the words lost their negative connotations. Sure, there are many gossip writers who still use the terms in their original senses (calling dancer Carlos Leon “Madonna’s baby-daddy,” for example) because they’re useful, reducing a complex chain of possessives—Madonna’s daughter’s father—to a nice, comprehensible noun. But it seems there are also plenty of writers who just like the way the words sound and don’t care much about the stigma once attached to babydaddyhood. When news came last week that Anna Nicole Smith may be pregnant, it was no surprise that bloggers immediately began speculating about the identity of the “baby daddy.” It may be a long time before you hear a quaint, old-fashioned “Who’s the dad?”
What? Kevin Federline and Tom Cruise are black?
We’re going to get a lot more of this crap.
Funny stuff though.
[UPDATE FROM CLAUDIA]: Let’s see how the Urban Dictionary defines “baby mama“:
1. The mother of your child(ren), whom you did not marry and with whom you are not currently involved.
Oh her? She ain’t nothing to me now, girl, she just my baby mama. So, can I get your number?
2. A term used to define an unmarried young woman (but can be a woman of any age) who has had a child. As mentioned before in another definition, most of the time it is used for when it was simply a sexual relationship, compared to ex-wife or girlfriend. Usually this has a negative connotation, a lot of baby mamas are seen as desperate, gold digging, emotionally starved, shady women who had a baby out of spite or to keep a man. Sometimes they may act like this because of missed child support payments, unfulfilled promises by the father, or convenient sex by the father. Either or both may exist in any situation.
Joe didn’t have any relationship with that chick, she was the “other woman” who ended up being his baby mama.
Maybe Andy’s baby mama is pissed because he said he was taking his sons to get a haircut but instead ended up playing dominoes with his boys.
Tiffany is a greedy baby mama; she is using her child support payments to buy her new boyfriend some speakers for his car.
Yup, no way that could be interpreted as insulting or race-tinged when used by the same network that implied your fist-bump was a “terrorist fist jab” and said that you were educated in an extremist Islamic school. Riiight
Never one to leave an anti-Obama stone unturned, are you? Of course the Obama camp themselves have said nothing on the matter, but I have no doubt that this will be used to blame them for using the race-card, despite the fact they have not intervened. Ah well.
As for the comment itself, it’s disrespectful. Of course you’re entitled to say it, you’re entitled to say anything you like. I don’t think it’s a racist term, but I’m also pretty sure it was meant in an insulting way. You can be sure that it wasn’t a term of endearment. It implies low class, unwed mothers etc. Though I wouldn’t presume to call it a racist term, since it’s amply used for whites as well, I tend to doubt that a discussion involving Fox news and Michelle Malkin calling the wife of Obama his "baby mama" was meant in a nice way.
If Air America started calling Cindy McCain Johns "second helpings" I wouldn’t think they meant it in a nice way.
I too found it disrespectful. Too me it was simply not necessary but then I’m one that believe the news should have higher standards than what is broadcasted now as news.
I thought Republicans were the morally upright people, right? So it would make sense if they were respectful towards others. But they are not.
This is Fox News - it was clearly meant to paint a picture of unwed inner-city mothers that shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the White House. The likes of those people, right?
Claudia and the above commenter; so how about you attacking Michelle for doing the same huh?
Thought so.
And the article in Slate is, of course, completely irrelevant. Suddenly.
Funny stuff.
Michael, that’s a very weak comeback, and I happen to respect you enough to think that you know it too. Yes, what a novel idea that the same word used by your friends and your enemies can be considered something different! Just revolutionary! Ask anyone at all if a black guy calling another black guy n***** is the same as if a southern white guy calls a black guy the same thing. It’s not hypocrisy, it’s living in a world not made up of primary colors.
Your comparable examples were both celebrities, and one might–just might–argue that the potential commander in chief holds a different status in society than movie stars.
Every time an issue related to race comes up in this campaign, you seem to be deeply confused as to why it could be anything other than victim-based politics. I think the problem is that, having not lived in the United States, you miss a little of the subtler aspects of U.S. race relations, the dog whistles, that others pick up on. This is no fault of your own, but you should realize that race is still very much a divisive and touchy subject.
Claudia: actually, the black Americans I know would all find it insulting to be called nigger. Either by a fellow black, or by a white man. Hip hop may give you the impression that all blacks call each other "nigger" or "pimp," but the reality is slightly different.
Elyas; no, I understand. And in that context it’s silly to use it, because you know people will use it against you. But the racism stuff is also kept alive by those with political agendas, in this case the far left who are screaming bloody outrage.
Michael, there is a big difference between self-deprecating humor and being disrespectful. If the person who wrote that knew the Obamas well and said that line in front of them at a private party it would be fine and probably get a laugh, but the use clearly went over the line between funny or ‘hip’ and into the realm of disrespectful.
That’s sidestepping the issue. I’m aware many American blacks don’t like the term. Are you willing to assert that these people would read the same intention from a fellow black who said it and from a hostile white? Seriously? Go ask one of them.
It’s insulting because it implies Obama is sleeping around on his wife, that she’s an accessory and not a partner. Racist? Not so much.
Rather than argue that it was not insulting, how about someone try this: what good purpose did Fox think it was serving by using that turn of phrase? Anyone?
I’m sorry but to suggest, for even one second, that it is appropriate for a nationally televised news outlet to use such a term is disingenuous and intellectually dishonest. Equating its use by Fox News to that of Mrs. Obama ignores highly relevant issues such as context and intent. I may refer to my well-to-do and upwardly mobile friends as my "homeboys" and jokingly as corporate "pimps." However, I would be outraged to see the term used to describe one of them on a major news outlet while doing a report about, say, their chosen profession. Doing so would show a serious disregard for journalistic integrity.
Maybe one of two “goods” can come out of this:
1) those on the left and right will stop with the demeaning terms and respectfully disagree
-OR-
2) Those stupid crawl messages at the bottom of the screen will go away.
Likelihood of either unfortunately is about ZERO!
You’re stretching here, Michael. Don’t make a fool of yourself any more than you already have.
Also, I guess "terrorist fist bump" was completely defensible, as well?
Actually, Matthew, I have criticized conservatives when they went too far. The terrorist fist bump is an example of going too far; sadly co-blogger Claudia had already posted about it, so I just left a comment saying that this means me and me friends are all terrorists as well since we greet each other like that.
This is all so much ado. Has anyone considered that the reason FOX is the most poular news channel is precisely because they are willing to be a bit more hip and fun while earnestly presenting the news. If anything, calling Michelle Obama Barack Obama’s Baby Mama is flatterring and very respectful of Michelle Obama in that is recognizes and makes use of her preferred method of describing their relationship. Ultimately this is much ado about nothing. Having said all of this, I do agree with Doug’s comments above. The news should be held to higher standards not just higher profits.
admin: Comments making personal attacks are automatically deleted in their entirety. Do it again and you’re banned.
@Bo Diddly
Your right, Fox news is very popular do to its “hipness” and contraversy. All those kinds of attributes sell or, in this case, get viewers.