Obama Calls Grandmother ‘Typical White Person’ in Radio Interview
Barack Obama called his grandmother a “typical white person” in a radio interview on Thursday, raising eyebrows among some of his critics only days after he sought to bridge racial division in a major campaign speech.
Obama had pointed to his mother’s mother in his speech Tuesday as an example of someone who harbored fears of blacks based on racial prejudice. The Illinois senator revisited his relationship with his grandmother on Thursday in an interview on 610 WIP, Philadelphia Sports Radio.
He denied his grandmother held hatred toward blacks, but described her as a “typical white person.”
“The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity — she doesn’t,” he said. “But she is a typical white person who, you know, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know, there is a reaction. That has been bred into our experiences that don’t go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way.”
On Tuesday, Obama described his grandmother as a woman who was at times fearful of black men.
In the speech, he said: “I can no more disown [Wright] than I can disown my white grandmother, a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her by on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.”
The remarks weren’t the only ones focusing on race and the campaign on Thursday.
Geraldine Ferraro complained that Obama had lumped her in with his controversial pastor, whom she called a “racist bigot.”
Obama mentioned the 1984 vice presidential candidate on Tuesday in his speech on race and his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., whose heated, anti-U.S. sermons raised questions about the company Obama keeps.
“To equate what I said with what this racist bigot has said from the pulpit is unbelievable,” Ferraro told the Los Angeles newspaper, The Daily Breeze, on Wednesday. “He gave a very good speech on race relations, but he did not address the fact that this man is up there spewing hatred.”
Ferraro, who left Hillary Clinton’s campaign finance team after saying Obama wouldn’t be where he is if he were white, said she had “no clue” why Obama included her in his speech. She said Obama’s relationship with Wright raises questions about his judgment.
“What this man is doing is he is spewing that stuff out to young people, and to younger people than Obama, and putting it in their heads that it’s OK to say ‘God damn America’ and it’s OK to beat up on white people,” she said. “You don’t preach that from the pulpit.”
The Wright controversy lit up shortly after Ferraro left her post on the Clinton finance committee following her initial interview with The Daily Breeze on Obama’s success.
In his speech, Obama drew a comparison between the two individuals.
“We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias,” he said.
Speaking in Philadelphia, Obama then argued that the issue of race cannot be ignored and that to over-simplify and focus only on the negative aspects of the matter would distort reality.
Overall, Ferraro said Obama’s speech was “excellent,” aside from the part where her name was mentioned.
Click here to read the article in The Daily Breeze.
Very conveniently, Obama left out his black grandmother who was married to a muslim. Obama, is straddling the fence, he just might end up singing soprano. Neither he nor Hillay have my vote. Hillary is a hipocryte and Obama is too wishy-washy for me to trust him not only with my walefare but that of my love ones. If he only condems the actions of his pastor but not the pastor himself, then I’m afraid that he might not condemn Bin Laden either.
I will have to look more closely at McCain or sit this one out. I guess the next good president we will have is still in his crib. Until then, people, we can pray.
I wish you people would get to reporting REAL news!!
????? white, black, blue or yellow, we all would be werrie of anyone we do not know, especialy iof a child is involved and we are responsible for their safety. And Statistics are from REALITY!!!!
Obama in my opinion isn’t the uniter he says he is and I don’t feel like being called a typical white person for the next four years. I think Obama is dividing not unifying the nation and I think he is going to cause racial tensions since he hangs with a radical crowd. If it were Powell running we wouldn’t be seeing this.
As far as his grandmother goes, Obama doesn’t get it. Women are taught to be afraid of all men when walking down the street, some blacks just think it is because they are black men. A white man is looked on the same as a black man especially if they are dressed in the same type of attire. Unfortunately people are afraid of crime from all races.
I have to say, either Obama didn’t pay much attention when he was in church or he didn’t go very often. According to all the reports Wright talked like this for 20+ years. Therefore Obama is lying about going to a Christian Church… Also did you ever feel very uncomfortable when you are in a room with 99% blacks. They never make you feel welcome, in fact they look at “Whitty” with the look of What you want white person???? But when they are in public places no one gives them an uncomfortable feeling, in fact the waitress goes out of her way most times to accomadate their needs.
Well now…. I guess Hussein’s comment about his typical white Grandmother is just typical black comments.
Funny how blacks can get away with all kinds of racist comments but it’s acceptable coming from a black.
If a white person were to say what blacks do the blacks would freak.
Okay Omaba I understand where you’re coming from, you’re a typical black making a typical black comment. You can’t help this because, as you say, it’s part of the black experience.
ANYBODY but Hussein (stealth Muslim, anti-white, Anti-America) Obama for POTUS. Vote Donald Duck if you want to but that Hussein is BAD NEWS.
Did anyone watch fox and friends this morning? Did anyone listen to the whole sound bite?
Obama, keep talking baby. The more you talk about race issues, the more we can understand where you are coming from. I hope you win the nomination of the Democratic Party. McCain will win by a landslide in November.
not only have you taken Obama’s comments out of context to the point where even Chris Wallace is defending him, many of the comments on this very thread condeming Barack are far far more divisive and hateful.
These sort of people don’t want an honest discussion on race. They want to have their scapegoats so they never have to look inward and examine their own views for actual merit. Shameful.
Fox new’s workers are just funny set of people. What is the real difference of saying something is typical or not typical. From his speech, he didn’t mean it that way till you guys tried to make a case out of it. I’m not voting for anybody but, I think some things are just not necessary. The comments by Obama’s pastor was made known and dealt with, let it go!
This Typical stuff is what I would refer to as “kiddish”. You guys need to be focusing on much more relevant issues like, Making economy better, uniting and being as one and not trying to find stuffs to put any of these candidates on a “spot” or dent their images. I’m tired of tuning the TV to watch something good but yet find people talking about irrelevant issues.