Some of my best friends are NPR fans. I’m an NPR listener. And what I listened to on the way home from work, Monday, October 1, disgusted me.

It was on All Things Considered, and it was titled “Courting Justice Kennedy’s ‘Swing’ Vote.” This is how the NPR website describes it: “As the ‘swing’ judge on the Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy has to fend off people from the left and the right who wish to influence his thinking. Satirists Bruce Kluger and David Slavin imagine how that might play out.”

One way, in Kluger’s and Slavin’s imagination, it plays out is Justice Clarence Thomas as Justice Antonin Scalia’s lackey, with a rather large dose of stupid. The way Kluger and Slavin depicted Thomas reminded me of the typical black servant often found in 1930s and 40s movies, such as the Charlie Chan or Abbott & Costello movies I used to love as a kid – slow of shuffling feet and mind, a complete toady for the white man.

I can’t help but ask a simple question: Would Kluger and Slavin portray Barack Obama with such a big dose of stupid? An admittedly cursory web search doesn’t find any such satire by these two leading NPR satirists. It does uncover photos of Kluger and Slavin, two white guys who, I’m sure, are happily ensconced in the cocoon of their enlightened liberalism. Except you know what – and I’m going to presume to speak, at the least, for my two sons – if you’re going to dust off the old black man as shuffling buffoon stereotype for entertainment’s value, then next time you look in the mirror, portray yourself honestly, with at least a small dose of racism in the mix.

Now, later that evening, The Michael Baisden Show on WHUR was playing in my kitchen. Baisden watched the 60 Minutes interview with Justice Thomas Sunday night. He admitted he tuned in to hear what this “Uncle Tom” – his words – had to say. And on his radio show, he was stunningly honest – we’ve been sold a “crock” – his word – about Justice Thomas, he said. Baisden urged every one of his listeners to completely rethink who Thomas the man is, regardless of political sentiments and arguments.

I just want to demand some honesty. I’m listening to Baisden a lot more, and All Things Considered, it’s getting a bit less of my consideration.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 7:41 am and is filed under Race and Ethnicity, Media Criticism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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