On the January 23 edition of ABC Radio Networks' Imus in the Morning, host Don Imus and his co-hosts discussed a question asked of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) during the January 21 CNN/Congressional Black Caucus Institute presidential debate, by co-moderator Joe Johns, regarding author Toni Morrison's 1998 statement that former President Bill Clinton was “our first black president.” During the discussion, comedian and impersonator Rob Bartlett interjected, “I thought it was because he'd had an affinity for fat white women.”

During the segment, Imus said: “Well, I like Toni Morrison, and she's brilliant, but -- and I know what she meant by describing Bill Clinton as the first black president, but then asking Barack Obama that the other night in that debate, I thought bordered on -- well, I guess it was a pretty good question.” Co-host Karith Foster responded: “But you know what's obnoxious about that question? Is that, you know, I think a lot of people were comparing him to the negative traits of black men, saying, 'Oh, well, you know, because he's a philanderer and he, you know, he plays music and he has -- you know, he grew up poor.' Like, they associate poverty with being black, which unfortunately is true a lot of times in this country, but you know, there's this growing middle class of black people that exists out there. So I think that's why that question is somewhat offensive.” After Imus stated of Johns' question, “I thought it was patronizing and condescending when I heard it,” Bartlett said: “I thought it was because he'd had an affinity for fat white women.” Bartlett appeared on the program vocally impersonating and dressed as Godfather character Don Vito Corleone.

From Morrison's essay for the October 1998 issue of The New Yorker, titled “Clinton as the first black president”:

African-American men seemed to understand it right away. Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to disappear, when the President's body, his privacy, his unpoliced sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was metaphorically seized and bodysearched, who could gainsay these black men who knew whereof they spoke? The message was clear “No matter how smart you are, how hard you work, how much coin you earn for us, we will put you in your place or put you out of the place you have somehow, albeit with our permission, achieved. You will be fired from your job, sent away in disgrace, and -- who knows? -- maybe sentenced and jailed to boot. In short, unless you do as we say (i.e., assimilate at once), your expletives belong to us.”

For a large segment of the population who are not African-Americans or members of other minorities, the elusive story left visible tracks: from target sighted to attack, to criminalization, to lynching, and now, in some quarters, to crucifixion. The always and already guilty “perp” is being hunted down not by a prosecutor's obsessive application of law but by a different kind of pursuer, one who makes new laws out of the shards of those he breaks.

From the January 23 edition of ABC Radio Networks' Imus in the Morning:

IMUS: Senator Clinton, Senator Obama at each other yesterday, again.

CHARLES McCORD (news anchor): Yeah.

IMUS: More.

McCORD: Yeah.

IMUS: Clintons must think it's OK to go after him.

McCORD: Did you see [New York Times columnist] Maureen Dowd this morning?

BERNARD McGUIRK (executive producer): They're running for president. Of course it's OK.

IMUS: No, I understand all that, but I mean, they're getting a bunch of heat from people.

McCORD: Mo Dowd is kind of coming --

McGUIRK: But they're winning.

McCORD: I think she -- you're right, Bernie. But she's -- she writes, Maureen Dowd of The New York Times, this morning, here's her start: “If Bill Clinton has to trash his legacy to protect his legacy, so be it. If he has to put a dagger through the heart of hope to give Hillary hope, so be it. If he has to preside in this state as the former first black president, stopping the would-be first black president, so be it.”

In other words, that they'll do anything, whatever the heck is necessary.

TONY POWELL (co-host): Another example of black-on-black crime, I guess.

[laughter]

IMUS: Tony, from downtown. Twenty-four after the hour. Well, I like Toni Morrison, and she's brilliant, but -- and I know what she meant by describing Bill Clinton as the first black president, but then asking Barack Obama that the other night in that debate, I thought bordered on -- well, I guess it was a pretty good question.

FOSTER: But you know what's obnoxious about that question? Is that, you know, I think a lot of people were comparing him to the negative traits of black men, saying, “Oh, well, you know, because he's a philanderer and he, you know, he plays music and he has -- you know, he grew up poor.” Like, they associate poverty with being black, which unfortunately is true a lot of times in this country, but you know, there's this growing middle class of black people that exists out there. So I think that's why that question is somewhat offensive.

IMUS: Do you think that's what Toni Morrison meant?

FOSTER: I hope not. I think it -- I do think it is the attitude adopted by a lot of African-Americans who felt, you know, closer to this man. 'Cause, like, they felt he was a real guy, which is fine, but, you know, a lot of the traits that people were, you know, associating with his being black were negative ones.

IMUS: I thought it was patronizing and condescending when I heard it.

BARTLETT: I thought it was because he'd had an affinity for fat white women.

FOSTER: Don Corleone.

IMUS: Don Corleone on the show with us this morning.