among friends

Thanks to Jane who found this juicy tidbit.

It seems there’s some mischief lurking within FOX’s censors. During the channel’s New Years Eve coverage in NYC, an unexpected message scrolled across the bottom of the screen, imploring, “Let’s hope the magic negro does a good job.” A tasteless prank or the art of public disturbance? Whatever the motive, such a stunt is reminiscent of William Pope.L’s tongue-in-cheek schemes.

Eli did some research. “The ticker is in reference to a racist parody song written by Paul Shanklin, “Barack the Magic Negro <www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/50979/>” (sung to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon”). Shanklin pretends to be Al Sharpton, criticizing Barack for not being “real enough.” The “Magic Negro” is a racial archetype of the benevolent (non-sexual) black figure who magically appears to help white protagonists. See the Wikipedia article<en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro>.”