Empty Suits and Magic

This won't surprise everyone, but I'm not nearly as clever as I thought.

I had been planning to write a piece about Obama as the Magic Negro, but somebody else thought about it months ago.

As the writer explains, The Magic Negro is a media-cultural staple. The MN shows up to help out the poor white folks. Sometimes he helps the WM get his groove back, like in "The Legend of Bagger Vance." Other times, he rescues the WM from the forces of darkness: Stephen King uses this a lot, like in The Shining (psychic magic negro saves white boy and mom from evil white dad) or in The Green Mile, where the large magic negro saves the guard from his infections and gives him back his sex life. And God has lately been depicted as the most Magic Negro of all, by Morgan Freeman in two movies, and in both of which is helping poor, mis-guided white guys.

Yep, the Magic Negro is pretty all purpose.

I think it goes beyond the Magic Negro...that particular expression is just common to our culture, and especially to the Liberal persuasion. I think it is more about the Magic Other. For instance, the Aztecs believed White People from somewhere else would come and save them.

That Magic Other reflects our fear, "Oh, my God, we (that is, people like us, whoever us happens to be) can't help ourselves. Obviously, only someone not like us can save us."

So, if you're liberal and you think that America is fallen and corrupt and racist, then, of course, you will be looking for the Magic Other to save us. Since the fallen and corrupt and racist are by liberal definition white, then the Magic Other will have to be a Magic Negro. And since he is Magic, one need not consider or question his qualifications. That fact that he is the Other, the Magic One, is enough.

If you believe in Magic, that is.