"Baby Mama" - Stay Classy FOXNews

June 12, 2008, 9:31 am
Was It a Slur?

By Tobin Harshaw

Tags: Barack Obama, michelle obama

Salon’s Alex Koppelman, tipped off by a reader, reports that on Fox News yesterday, “during a segment discussing conservative attacks against Michelle Obama, the wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, the network described the former as ‘Obama’s baby mama.’ ” (Koppelman has the video clip of the controversial chyron on his blog.)

For Koppelman’s colleague Joan Walsh, this raises some questions:

“Where do you even start when criticizing Fox’s slur? Do you try to explain that ‘baby mama’ is slang for the unmarried mother of a man’s child, and not his wife, or even a girlfriend? Are they racist, or just clueless? Isn’t there racism even in their cluelessness, if somebody didn’t know what “baby mama” means, but used it anyway? Even at Fox, won’t somebody have to apologize? Am I wasting my time even thinking about that?”

Michelle Malkin, who was the featured guest on the Fox report in question, answers that last query in the affirmative.

I did not write the caption and I was not aware of it when it ran (the Baltimore studio doesn’t have a monitor). I don’t know if the caption writer was making a lame attempt to be hip, clueless about the original etymology of the phrase, or both. But I do know that it was Michelle Obama herself who referred to Barack as her “baby’s daddy” and has used the phrase “baby daddy” to describe Barack while on the stump this year.

Here’s how she introduced him during his Senate victory speech on Nov. 2, 2004:

MICHELLE OBAMA, WIFE OF BARACK OBAMA: My baby’s daddy Barack Obama. Yeah!

Apples and oranges? The Opinionator reports, you decide …


http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/was-it-a-slur/?ref=opinion
 
blackascoal said:
It's Hip-Hop slang.

It "blackens" him.
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It does more than blacken him. It ubanizes him in a way that leads people not particularly comfortable with him to feel even more discomfort. Now granted, recently a movie with a white woman called baby mama came out, but before that it was a hip-hop, urban black thing. I can recall seeing a movie just recently where one of the protaganist said "quick hide me, here come my baby mama."

From Urban Dictionary online:

1. baby mama

The mother of your child(ren), whom you did not marry and with whom you are not currently involved.

Usage: Oh her? She ain't nothing to me now, girl, she just my baby mama. So, can I get your number?

2. baby mama

A term used to define an unmarried young woman (but can be a woman of any age) who has had a child. As mentioned before in another definition, most of the time it is used for when it was simply a sexual relationship, compared to ex-wife or girlfriend. Usually this has a negative connotation, a lot of baby mamas are seen as desperate, gold digging, emotionally starved, shady women who had a baby out of spite or to keep a man. Sometimes they may act like this because of missed child support payments, unfulfilled promises by the father, or convenient sex by the father. Either or both may exist in any situation.

Usage; Joe didn't have any relationship with that chick, she was the "other woman" who ended up being his baby mama.
 
klaatu said:
Every attack on Obama will be labeled racist... its in the Demo play book. If you dont support Obama you are racist. Thats how Hillary got backed up to the wall... her Supporters were labeled White Suburban Moms .. thay were closet racists.

My own Daughter who now supports Obama..says the real reason I wont vote for Obama is because he's black. Sure..it has nothing to do with his leftist policies.

Im beginning to believe a good percentage Obama's support is coming from the guilt parade.
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This is the purest form of bullshit. The ONLY time I have heard ANYONE say that attacks on Obama were racially motivated was with Wright, with the Terror Dap, and with this now. Oh there was also the statement by Bill Clinton that of course he is going to do well in South Carolina, he black! But to say that every criticism leveled at Obama is going to be repelled with cries of racism is just preparing yourself for the disappointment to come in November. Much like the preparation that the Clinton campaign ginned up by tell us that people weren't voting for her cause we are sexist. Not that she lied about Bosnia, then lied about lying about Bosnia, or that she lied about the woman she heard about that died without health insurance. And just the plain nasty way she ran her campaign at the end.
 
Damocles said:
Yup.
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The article said (and you find the same references when you google it) that she said it when she introduced him during his Senate victory speech in Nov. 2004. Anyone know who to get a copy of that speech and her introduction?

Kind of interesting she would use that type of slang in that setting.
 
TexasMeg said:
June 12, 2008, 9:31 am
Was It a Slur?

By Tobin Harshaw

Tags: Barack Obama, michelle obama

Salon’s Alex Koppelman, tipped off by a reader, reports that on Fox News yesterday, “during a segment discussing conservative attacks against Michelle Obama, the wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, the network described the former as ‘Obama’s baby mama.’ ” (Koppelman has the video clip of the controversial chyron on his blog.)

For Koppelman’s colleague Joan Walsh, this raises some questions:

“Where do you even start when criticizing Fox’s slur? Do you try to explain that ‘baby mama’ is slang for the unmarried mother of a man’s child, and not his wife, or even a girlfriend? Are they racist, or just clueless? Isn’t there racism even in their cluelessness, if somebody didn’t know what “baby mama” means, but used it anyway? Even at Fox, won’t somebody have to apologize? Am I wasting my time even thinking about that?”

Michelle Malkin, who was the featured guest on the Fox report in question, answers that last query in the affirmative.

I did not write the caption and I was not aware of it when it ran (the Baltimore studio doesn’t have a monitor). I don’t know if the caption writer was making a lame attempt to be hip, clueless about the original etymology of the phrase, or both. But I do know that it was Michelle Obama herself who referred to Barack as her “baby’s daddy” and has used the phrase “baby daddy” to describe Barack while on the stump this year.

Here’s how she introduced him during his Senate victory speech on Nov. 2, 2004:

MICHELLE OBAMA, WIFE OF BARACK OBAMA: My baby’s daddy Barack Obama. Yeah!

Apples and oranges? The Opinionator reports, you decide …


http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/was-it-a-slur/?ref=opinion
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It actually would have been "my Babies daddy". NOT "my baby daddy". The conotation is much different. And it is a reach, AND dishonest to pretend different. But the nice thing is FOX has verified that they were the stupid ones that did it. And Malkin is covering saying she doesn't know if the typist was trying to be hip. Is EVERYONE at FOX that stupid or do they just think we are?
 
Socrtease said:
It actually would have been "my Babies daddy". NOT "my baby daddy". The conotation is much different. And it is a reach, AND dishonest to pretend different. But the nice thing is FOX has verified that they were the stupid ones that did it. And Malkin is covering saying she doesn't know if the typist was trying to be hip. Is EVERYONE at FOX that stupid or do they just think we are?
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The connotation is MUCH different. I am willing to bet that is what they were referencing, but it was definitely a stretch on their part. Btw I am working on finding a link to that introduction.
 
TexasMeg said:
here is the transcript:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/02/se.06.html

MICHELLE OBAMA, WIFE OF BARACK OBAMA: My baby's daddy Barack Obama. Yeah!
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And even that has to be a typo because she has more than one 'baby" so it would have actually been "my Babies Daddy." there may be a apostrophe in there somewhere, I am not always so good with those things but it would not have been "baby's" because she does not have only one.
 
Socrtease said:
And even that has to be a typo because she has more than one 'baby" so it would have actually been "my Babies Daddy." there may be a apostrophe in there somewhere, I am not always so good with those things but it would not have been "baby's" because she does not have only one.
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babies'. plural possession ;)
 
TexasMeg said:
LOL sorry. the teacher in me rearing it's ugly head.
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Sorry, I'm laughing here. Especially because of the context. The teacher who correctly cleared up the grammatical use of an apostrophe went on to use an apostrophe in the possessive form of a pronoun. Even if nobody else gets this, Meg, you know what I mean! :p
 
Thorn said:
Sorry, I'm laughing here. Especially because of the context. The teacher who correctly cleared up the grammatical use of an apostrophe went on to use an apostrophe in the possessive form of a pronoun. Even if nobody else gets this, Meg, you know what I mean! :p
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"It is" = It's

The genitive case of it is "its"
 
Thorn said:
Sorry, I'm laughing here. Especially because of the context. The teacher who correctly cleared up the grammatical use of an apostrophe went on to use an apostrophe in the possessive form of a pronoun. Even if nobody else gets this, Meg, you know what I mean! :p
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well did it or did it not raise it is ugly head?
 
So this is the quote?


"Obama's baby momma" it not the same as saying "My baby's daddy Barack Obama. Yeah!"


She spoke in plain english and not the slang "baby daddy"
 
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