Barack the Magic Negro"[SUP][2][/SUP] is a song by American political satirist Paul Shanklin who wrote and recorded it for the Rush Limbaugh Show as satire after the title phrase was first applied to presidential candidate Obama by movie and culture critic
David Ehrenstein in a
Los Angeles Times op ed column of March 19, 2007. It was played numerous times in 2007 and 2008 by
Rush Limbaugh and appeared on the 2008 album
We Hate the USA. It is sung by Shanklin to the tune of "
Puff, the Magic Dragon".
Shanklin impersonates black activist Al Sharpton, who regretfully sings that white people will vote for
Barack Obama for President instead of Sharpton, because Obama is a
magical Negro (a term previously popularized by Spike Lee[SUP]
[3][/SUP]), not a real black man from the
"hood"..
Al Sharpton never said it, Jesse Jackson Never said it. But racists are easily confused.
Here is the actual definition and origin of the term and it has nothing to do with Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson:
The
magical Negro is an
archetype which was first applied to presidential candidate Obama by movie and culture critic
David Ehrenstein, in a
Los Angeles Times op ed column of March 19, 2007. According to Ehrenstein, the magical Negro is a non threatening black hero in the popular media, usually the cinema, who was invented to ease feelings of
white guilt over slavery and racial injustice. He is noble and devoid of sexual motives, and appears suddenly, out of nowhere, to magically solve the problems of white people.
Ehrenstein opined that "Obama's fame right now has little to do with his political record or what he's written in his two books, or even what he's actually said". Rather, Obama was a popular contender for the presidency because whites were projecting their "fantasies of curative black benevolence" on him.[SUP]
[4][/SUP]
Limbaugh began discussing Ehrenstein's op ed on the day it was published. He declared that "The term 'Magic Negro' has been thrown into the political presidential race in the mix for 2008" and sang a brief rendition of "Barack the Magic Negro" to the tune of "
Puff, the Magic Dragon", anticipating the Shanklin song, which he began to air the following day. He said he would "own" the term by the end of the week.[SUP]
[5][/SUP] Limbaugh played the song numerous times throughout the 2008 presidential election season.