Glenn Beck breaks down the president's un-American, African name
February 04, 2010 12:27 pm ET by Simon Maloy
Glenn Beck has been known to bristle at the suggestion that he might have a problem when it comes to issues of race. His incredulity is matched only by his crippling lack of self-awareness -- he seems to think that a reasoned discussion of race includes calling the first black president a "slavemaster" and a "racist" who is scheming to enact "reparations."
But I'm feeling charitable today, so I'll offer Beck a bit of advice. If you really are that upset at people constantly accusing you of being, let's say, insensitive when it comes to race, don't say things like this, as you did on the radio earlier this morning:
BECK: He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America -- you don't take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical? Really? Searching for something to give him any kind of meaning, just as he was searching later in life for religion.
OK, let's break down the problematic parts of this, just so there isn't any room for confusion. First, the suggestion that certain names, such as the African name Barack, are un-American. Second, the idea that Obama, in embracing his African name, was doing so at the expense of his American identity, as if the two are mutually exclusive (someone relevant to this discussion once talked about the "the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too"). And third, the implication that Obama's father's Kenyan roots are linked to his "radical"-ness.
That's the best I can do for you, Glenn. I can't break it down any further. If you don't see why some people would get upset that you accused the president of adopting his African name in order to repudiate his American identity and connect with his father's radical Kenyan heritage, then I'm afraid you might be a lost cause.
UPDATE: Not that Beck would ever trust the president's words over his own ill-informed armchair psychoanalyzing, but Obama told Newsweek in 2008 why he chose to start going by "Barack" after transferring to Columbia University: "It was not some assertion of my African roots ... not a racial assertion. It was much more of an assertion that I was coming of age. An assertion of being comfortable with the fact that I was different and that I didn't need to try to fit in in a certain way."
I am certainly not here to defend Beck's statements - he is clearly off base on this and a lot of other subjects. However, your act of claiming an entire group of people that listen to him are uneducated, posess "limited" IQs and are closed minded makes you look, well, uneducated.
Beck, why don't you just change his name - worked for your ancestors
When I listen to Rush and Hannity I know they don't believe what they are saying, but have made millions and became famous by manipulating their audiences to vote against themselves to ultimately protect the big 4 industries. Big banks, Big Oil,Pharma and Defense contractors. So they are just Corporate prostitutes, but Beck may be just crazy and should be pitied.
It makes me wonder if all things are well at FOX. Sure, Beck's show is popular, but advertisers won't touch him...and Roger Ailes must be tired of taking abuse about Beck's craziness.
He never suggested that Barack is an un-American name. Beck is stating his opinion on why he thinks Obama chose to run as Barack instead of Barry. One of these reasons is his connection (or lack of one) to his father and Kenya.
Again. Beck never actually says or implies this.
This is just an awkward sentence.
Which part of that sentence are you having trouble comprehending?
BECK: He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America -- you don't take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical?
Headline of article:
Glenn Beck breaks down the president's un-American, African name
You got to be braindead.
Those are the critical words uttered by Beck. Everything else, to me, is gravy.
Here's why: For most people -- Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives -- using the name you were born with is not a choice. That name is your identity, it is an important part of who you are.
If somebody questioned why the California Governor uses the name "Schwarzeneger," I would see that as inappropriate.
There are some things you don't do in a civilized society, and one of them is to question why someone uses the name they were born with.
The ethnic origin they have no control over.
The birth name their parents gave them.
The color of their skin.
Their gender.
Their sexual identity.
Etc.
Obama didn't "choose" to use his birth name. He decided that he was trying to HIDE his birth name and his unique history by using the name Barry, and he decided to stop masking that identity. His birth name wasn't something he chose. He was choosing to not mask his heritage. That's the choice he made.
He didn't have to "choose" anything to be American!!!
He was born in America. When he had the opportunity to assume the citizenship of his birth father, he didn't. He lived in the USA for almost all of his life, and when he didn't, he was too young to have had any say in it. He didn't have to DO anything, like keep the nickname 'Barry', in order to BE more American-like. He was, and is, fully American.
YIKES! Does that mean we can no longer attack glenn beck for being a shrieking, hysterical, dishonest, racist, fear-mongering hypocrite??????
What I mean is: When Jimmy Carter was running for President, one of the criticisms leveled against him from the right was that he used "Jimmy" instead of a real name. "What kind of man goes officially by "Jimmy"?" was a question right wing pundits put, criticizing him for using a diminutive.
Obama made it clear when he grew up and stopped going by the diminutive "Barry" that it was simply because he was putting his childhood behind him and becoming a man.
So, according to their opponents, Jimmy Carter was wrong to not use "James Carter". Now Barack Obama is wrong to not use "Barry Obama". The right continues to exhibit a belief that nobody remembers what they said previously as well as a desire to have it both ways.
Obama's name is Barack. Kenya is not in America. When one identifies an American citizen's name as Kenyan, it's not unreasonable to infer that a suggestion is being made that the name is not American.
In response to Maloy's remark, "Second, the idea that Obama, in embracing his African name, was doing so at the expense of his American identity..." you write:
Here's exactly how Beck put it: "He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America..."
Beck directly characterizes this name preference as a choice "[t]o identify, not with America". Reasonable people can disagree about many things, but I'd really like to know how you reasonably concluded that Beck never said or implied that Obama used the name "Barack" at the expense of his American identity when Beck explicitly describes the decision as a choice not to identify with America.
As for the third Maloy quote that you pull, while it's not a complete formal sentence, it might make more sense to you if you read what Beck actually said: "The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical?"
Yet, conservatives are actually *surprised* that their attitudes towards immigrants and/or non-white people are viewed with such suspicion.
Your text to link here...
Jedi Mind Trick #FAIL
You've decided to stick around and argue some more, after all? Well, that's fine. Here's to your first legitimate point--whenever it comes.
So make the case that claiming:
He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America -- you don't take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical?
does not say that the name Barack is not American and is Kenyan. But do so with some explanation other than "because I say so" Otherwise, you just look like a moron.
See, to you apparently, non-American and un-American are the same things. Are they? Or is it just when it comes from Glenn Beck? To you, not identifying with America is un-American apparently. Or at least they mean the same thing. Surely you don't believe this.
So, once again, the quote reads:
He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America -- you don't take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical?
How does that not say that the name Barack is not American and is Kenyan?
Which you'll agree is simply not true, right?
Love you MC, dont you go changin', mmmmmkay?.:P0)
I asked how Beck's quote did NOT say that the name Barack is not American and is Kenyan?
(Mind you, I did not use the term un-American very specifically because that term has connotations attached that are often assumed even when the speaker is using the original definition of the word (as MMFA did here) which is: "not American; not characteristic of or proper to the U.S.;")
Your response to my question was: "It doesn't. He IS saying Barack is Kenyan rather than American."
So in your mind:
Barack is Kenyan and is not American is a true sentence
And
Barack is not American and is Kenyan is a false sentence.
It must be scary in your head. I always find logical fallacies very frightening.
MagCynic, I want to be absolutely clear about this: this comment is not meant in a confrontational or argumentative way at all. I genuinely would like to hear your response.
Here's my question: do you agree with Beck that the name "Barack" is not American? If so, why?
I'd really like to hear your opinion on this, and I assure you that I'm not looking for a heated argument, but rather a civil conversation.
Errrrmmmmmmmm, couldn't 'preconceived notion' pretty much be considered an oxymoron to anyone with even half a brain and has watched and/or listened to any of Beck's programs?
Cool!
Just please let us know when you're going to start doing that and we'll be all ears! !
No, I just happen to have a good memory. I remember what my kindergarten teacher taught me back in 1969, but that doesn't mean I "stalk" her. And why didn't you answer the question?
It's no use arguing anymore.
Then, again, why are you still doing it?
It's still fun making valid points
Name one you ever made. Even a real stalker couldn't find one.
that cause 14 other people to flip out.
As rumpleteasermom pointed out so well, the only flipping out here is being done by yourself. You really need to grow a thicker skin, MC. Your pattern is to make a foolish statement, refuse to back it up when questioned, whine about the treatment you're getting, and then brag about how much better at arguing you are. I don't know if this actually means anything to you, but you're not impressing anyone. Not favorably, anyway.
It's not okay to read between the lines of what Glenn Beck has to say.
Fine.
Can we now ask Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, etc. etc. to not read between the lines when it comes to the things the President says and does (i.e. Bow-Gate)?
It's only fair.
Okay, okay, we get it.
Youre here to tr o ll and to spew the usual gop invective.
No truly, buddy, we get it.
So can you please go away now?
A few days ago you were whining about being attacked when you are only trying to engage in an "honest political debate" (your words). You prove that is not the case when you persist in the typical RW rejection of basic standards of proof and logic and reason and consistency. You are neither interested in, nor capable of conducting an honest political debate.
MagCynic, the fact that President Obama decided to use his full name when he transferred to Columbia doesn't seem to have any connection to why he continued to use his full name when he first ran for public office, or any subsequent time, right? Or perhaps I am just not getting it...
Mr. Beck specifically said that he thought President Obama "took" the name Barack "for a reason", which he suggested was to identify with something other than America, and suggested had something to do with his African roots or his "radical" father.
Why, exactly, are you defending Mr. Beck, instead of either remaining silent (at least) or trying to understand just what Mr. Beck's underlying problem is, or even chiding Mr. Beck for such a ridiculous "attack" on our sitting, legally elected, president?
mookie
minority whip troll
Alcoholism, drug addiction, madness and suicide. Enjoy!
Of course, Beck's rant is just a modern-day reframed version of the slave master narrative, or in this case, the ex-slave master, trying to maintain the centuries old uneven power structures. Mustn't allow the descendent of a slave to get too "uppity", and choose his own name, and put his feet on the sacred desk of Great White Leaders, including Bush and Nixon, who used to put their white feet on the same desk. Barak Hussein Obama's tongue (and feet) must be tamed.
Beck is just doing his patriotic duty.
It's like Faulkner said, "The past isn't dead and buried, it isn't even past."
Though I wouldn't expect Beck in his ignorance to say anything dumber than "Why not pick an American name like John Smith."
Glen, your A.D.D. is out of control. Up the ritalin.
"Because stupid is talking....doesn't mean stupid is listening.
Randy
Is there still any reasonable question about that?
REPUBLICANS ARE RACISTS!
Glenn Beck is a drug addicted alcoholic. He is Psychotic, Paranoid, Schizophrenic, and suffers from severe delusions. If anyone from Fox News is reading this, Glenn Beck needs serious intervention IMMEDIATELY before his rants cause one of his followers to go out and kill someone. If you do not believe this, do your own research.
Doughboy is certainly NOT a Howard Beale figure, driven by his doubts, his failures, and his insecurities into a mental breakdown that manifests itself with confused, delusional, and... ultimately... messianic public behavior that rivets a national television audience. Rather, his actions seem measured and deliberate. He is following in the successful footsteps of earlier right wing media grifters such as Father Coughlin, Joe McCarthy, and Bill O'Lielly. His seemingly raging and paranoid sermons always possess a certain quality of polish and timing that come only from long hours of rehearsal and studious evaluation. He knows when to raise his voice to an angry shout and when to lower it to a sobered whisper. He knows when to to look glint-eyed and when to roll those same eyes into a cutesy, Liberace-like flirtatiousness. He is a hammy actor, selling earnestness, patriotism, and trustworthiness to an audience too dense, too old, and too uncritical in their ways of thinking to realize that they are being duped.
He believes NONE of the outrageous claims that he makes about Barack Obama and the progressives, because he believes in nothing but Glenn Dreck. He is a street corner conman given the biggest street corner imaginable upon which to play out his scams. He's raking in upwards of TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR by using a rather transparent grab bag of lies, smears, and ruthless invective to convince angry, dimwitted people to rage against their own interests. He's a charlatan preacher. He's an insurance salesman in a depressed neighborhood, selling poor people policies that are designed to never pay off. He's a telemarketer hoodwinking the elderly into giving up their social security and credit card numbers in order to collect an award. He is an unsolicited e-mail from a Nigerian banker. He is a killer for Christ.
In other words, doughboy is not insane. He's merely a steaming, manipulative, and self-absorbed road apple who has managed to swindle the weak and the stupid that he is a tasty bowl of creme brulee by sticking a spoon in his ear.
Here's a good article about the subject from Salon written back in Feb of 2008. http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/02/28/hussein/
Hey Beck, since the Bible mentions Barak well over 100 times and 14 of our past Presidents also have had Semitic names, why do you hate America and the Bible so much?
"Real" American names like Blackfoot, Caddo, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chipewyan, Chippewa, Choctaw, Comanche, Cree, Creek, Crow, Dakota Sioux, Dene, Delaware, Haida, Hopi, Inuktitut, Kiowa, Lakota, Lenape, Maliseet-Passamaquoddy, Mesquakie, Mohawk, Mojave, Munsee, Muskogee, Navajo, Nez Perce, Nuxalk, Ojibway, Oneida, Osage, Pima, Potawatomi, Salish, Sauk, Seneca, Shawnee, Shoshone, Tohono O'odham, Tlingit, and Yaqui. (Not all inclusive.)
~@:o?
.
President Obama is using his given name, which is his father's name, and yes, it honors his heritage, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm astonished that Beck has tried to make this some kind of issue, and it only proves even more to me that he is a racist.
Kudos!
I'd pity Beck if he wasn't filling his acolytes' heads with violent anti government rhetoric.
I manage a staff of college students (residential life) and yesterday one of the young ladies on my female hall staff, who happens to have the lovely name of Qunisha, and I were discussing the SOTU address and subsequent Q&A session he held with the Republicans. I wish you could have seen the pride in her eyes as we discussed the president's 1st year in office. Sure, we also discussed our disappointments, our frustrations, etc, but her pride was truly one of the most beautiful things I've seen in a long, long time. THAT'S what that 'skinny kid with the funny name' has done for many Americans.
My deepest apologies Mr. President.
I work at a university where we have a fairly large number of international students enrolled and always find it sad when many of them choose to "Americanize" their names because we Americans are either too lazy or too stupid to learn how to pronounce their birth names. How embarrasing for Americans in general.
his true name he didn't want to speak it anymore on American soil out of principle. I spent many frustrating nights with my head in his lap trying to convince him to say his real name. Unfortunatly, I could never get him to speak the sound I longed for him to say. God I hate America and her racists for what they did to "Joe".
America is a true American. I would vote for her based solely on her name.
Jess
www.internet-anonymity.se.tc
He's only half black.
Are we going back to identifying someone as 'black' if he is 1/35 black?
One of my first jobs, as a grown-up was as a mechanic in a large car dealership shop that had three Bobs and a Rob or two. I started asking the service desk and receptionist to call me "Robin" over the P.A. system to eliminate confusion.
And you know what? As an adult, I was entirely comfortable with a non-normal name. People who knew me as a child, and a few chronic name-shorteners, still call me "Rob," but I don't care.
I'm sure some of Obama's childhood friends from Hawaii still call him "Barry," and he's as comfortable as he is with "Barack."
Maybe we should all start calling Glenn Beck "Becky." Or Gwen. Or Skeezix. These names are all as American as Barack. Or Robin. :)
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Scottish, English
Pronounced: GLEN [key]
From a Scottish surname which was derived from Gaelic gleann
-The Scottish head of state is a monarch. Since his name is Glenn it is obvious that he believes Americans should not have the right to vote for their head of state and that he is a secret spy who is trying to cripple and separate America for an invasion from Scotland. If he didn't want us to uncover this dark secret he should have went with a name like George Washington. Too late! Now the truth is finally out there
i could only listen to less than half of this half-baked notion of beck's, so i'll just have to roll the dice on the ol' out-of-context syndrome... and since i didn't listen to it all, i'll have to, as much as it pains me, give media matters the benefit of the doubt on this one that beck is suggesting the president is un-american by using his kenyan name... there is plenty to criticize obama for, but no matter what beck is trying to say in this instance, it's just plain wrong to fault someone for choosing to adapt any facet of any part of their persona that's to their own liking... if clinton were president today, would beck chide him for changing his surname from blythe?... i doubt it... i truly do not believe beck is a racist, but this is unquestionably an ignorant path to pursue...
what a d**chetard...
reporting from murderland ranch,
i'm mookie von zipper (real name mookington)
massmurdermedia
His Kenyan name? It's is BIRTH name, and since he is was born in Hawaii to an American mother and is an American how can it be Kenyan?
A bierka is a pool or small pond, which is a sacred item in desert cultures. Check the Old Testament and you’ll find that Hebrews had some harsh treatments for anyone who poisoned a well; it was considered a crime against humanity.
There are other nouns based of the root barak: blessing, benediction, bounty. There is a negation meaning “misfortune” or “bad luck.” There are several parts of speech made from the root: when an Arab needs congratulations, you should say mabrook.
This information comes from from my taxpayer-supplied copy of the Hans-Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, which still smells of Kuwaiti sand.
Next, let's consider his being black... Nope, his Mom was white and his Dad was mostly Arabic. The numbers are approximately 50% white, 40% Arabic, and then 10% black. If 10% black makes you black, then we are REALLY in trouble and we can now understand why Obama can't figure out his spending challenge in fiscal policies... This also makes Obama either 1) white, 2) Arabic, or 3) then MAYBE black. Quit being deceived!
This inability to comprehend basic items through simple logic obviously explains the average person's inability to understand that Obama is not legally qualified based upon the US Constitution to be President. One has to have BOTH parents be citizens AND be born in this country. Obama has yet to provide real proof other than the digital forgery and he protects his real, long version, vault birth certificate. Why would someone protect an already, supposedly public document?
Then, why has Obama had at least dozens of social security numbers...? And some of those were to people who were dead.
How come people end up dead or threatened who challenge him?
Why has Obama changed his name so much? His name COULD be Barack Hussein Obama Jr., Barack Hussein Steve Obama Jr., Barack Soetoro, Barry Soetoro, Barry Hussein Obama, Barack Steve Obama Jr., Barack Dunham, Steve Dunham, etc.... Why keep hiding?
Why hide his other records? If he is the President, why not show off these important historic documents?
And the list continues... Let's face it.... the truth MOST LIKELY lies somewhere near where Obama was born.... perhaps somewhere in Kenya.
Because the truth of the matter is he has simply lied to us too often. About transparency, no lobbyists, a stimulis bill that would save the economy... But instead allowed unemployment to go from 7% to over 10%. So I am really worried about him being so unpopular as I totally love him!!
But I see what Beck is driving at given that the President does like to take shots at his own country quite a bit and his wife, Michelle, was never proud of it until it elected him.
I'll stand by them for their progressive liberal policies though!