Good news! All the problems of the world have apparently been solved, so The Washington Post can now focus on the stuff that really matters to the American people:
Is Barack Obama black? http://t.co/Cyj4xbU6hL pic.twitter.com/03I0MJa8Jv
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) April 14, 2014
For some, that headline was decidedly provocative:
Is @thefix tone deaf?
— maya fan account (@thejoshdenk) April 14, 2014
So Chris Cillizza finished up his little meal at the Whole Foods, packed up his iPad and left chuckling that Barack Obama was black.
— Trump's Bunker ?? (@EmoNegro1) April 14, 2014
Chris Cillizza is writing clickbait shit, huh? Must be a slow day in da Village… #FucktheMSM
— Kevin D. Grüssing (pronounced Grew-Sing) (@KevDGrussing) April 14, 2014
*sideeye* RT @TheFix: Is Barack Obama black? http://t.co/oS6Ykfd9w5
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) April 14, 2014
.@owillis @joanwalsh @TheFix This is a weird obsession on the right: lots of them focus on him being biracial, act like he's not black.
— Kate Tuttle (@katekilla) April 14, 2014
Note: WaPo’s Cillizza is not “on the right.”
Coming up next, Is Obama a U.S. Citizen? https://t.co/WuJeefUbKJ
— Martha Jackovics (@BeachPeanuts) April 14, 2014
https://twitter.com/GlomarResponder/status/455740795891748864
or drunk? RT @Mama4Obama1 WTF?!! Are you bored? Is that it? RT @TheFix: Is Barack Obama black? http://t.co/lwMjXYuEtT pic.twitter.com/qZTUQEC0QH
— NoChillMood (@ritaag) April 14, 2014
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Now, to be fair, Cillizza was only trying to draw attention to a recent Pew poll:
A majority of whites and Hispanics say Barack Obama is "mixed race". A majority of African Americans say he's black. http://t.co/SwgEwDkoU9
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) April 14, 2014
As Cillizza writes:
According to data in a fascinating new Pew Research Center study, a majority of Americans describe the President as “mixed race” while just more than a quarter (27 percent) call him “black.”
While whites and Hispanics are far more likely to describe Obama as “mixed race”, a strong majority of African Americans see him as black. And, black voters voted in historically large numbers for Obama. He won 93 percent of the African American vote in 2012 and 95 percent among that group in 2008. (John Kerry won 88 percent of the black vote in 2004; Al Gore won 90 percent in 2000.)
Just to be safe, Cillizza eventually decided to amend the headline to assuage the offended:
Thanks for Twitter input. Changed headline to: " Is Barack Obama ‘black’? A majority of Americans say no." http://t.co/Kp8p1499su
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) April 14, 2014
But what’s offensive about his piece isn’t that he’s questioning President Obama’s blackness (he isn’t); it’s that he thinks an asinine poll about race is more newsworthy than the Obama administration unraveling before our very eyes.
https://twitter.com/seanagnew/status/455736778989654016
Because this is important… RT@TheFix: Is Barack Obama black? http://t.co/TuY6AV6uhR pic.twitter.com/lM3nZYixiA
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) April 14, 2014
Who gives a fuck? Why is this being polled? RT @TheFix Is Barack Obama black? http://t.co/XMwSNJe1RM pic.twitter.com/KNnvdRW2NX
— RBe (@RBPundit) April 14, 2014
I don't have the time or energy to fully articulate the foolishness of @TheFix's article on how Americans view the Blackness of Pres. Obama
— Michael Reed (@mr2ed) April 14, 2014
If we have to be subjected to B.S. polls, at least make them entertaining and/or relevant. Like this:
@hboulware @owillis @TheFix 50% black, 50% white, 100% incompetent.
— Uncle Jimmy: Positively Toward the Negative ? (@jneutron1969) April 14, 2014
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