Robert Smith, the former Ohio State and Minnesota Vikings running back who is now an ESPN analyst, wondered on Sunday, regarding the Donald Sterling controversy, why there was no outrage when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called President Barack Obama a “light-skinned” African American with no “negro dialect” in 2010.
Where was all this outage when senator Harry Reid talked about Obama only using the “negro dialect” when he wanted to?
— robert smith (@ESPNRobertSmith) April 27, 2014
Reid apologized for the comments, which were in Game Change. Mainstream media journalist Marc Ambinder was the first to uncover Reid’s remarks in the book when he discovered an early copy of the book at a D.C. book store. Ambinder published the excerpt below in 2010. And he probably is responsible for giving the book, which also had plenty of fictitious spin about the 2008 presidential election from campaign consultants who did not want to be blamed for the loss, much of the initial hype and buzz that eventually led to a franchise for the two permanent political class writers. Here is the excerpt:
He was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,” as he said privately. Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama’s race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination.
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