Take Phil Kennicott's insane verbal gyrations attempting to fit "urban blackness" onto Heath Ledger's performance of the Joker in 'The Dark Knight.' Regardless of the fact that Ledger is a recently deceased "white" Australian actor, and that the comic book character himself is murderous, psychotic, and (incidentally) white, Phil seems to believe that the "deformed product of urban violence" that the Joker represents (he doesn't, but we'll get to that...) has been deliberately applied to a recent picture of President Obama in an attempt to highlight the "racially charged" undertone of the image, that "[Obama] is black and is identified with the inner city, a source of political instability in the 1960s and '70s, and a lingering bogeyman in political consciousness."
Let's let Phil try and justify this one: "The Joker's makeup in "Dark Knight" -- the latest film in a long franchise that dramatizes fear of the urban world -- emphasized the wounded nature of the villain, the sense that he was both a product and source of violence. Although Ledger was white, and the Joker is white, this equation of the wounded and the wounding mirrors basic racial typology in America. Urban blacks -- the thinking goes -- don't just live in dangerous neighborhoods, they carry that danger with them like a virus. Scientific studies, which demonstrate the social consequences of living in neighborhoods with high rates of crime, get processed and misinterpreted in the popular unconscious, underscoring the idea. Violence breeds violence."
Now, looking at the image myself, it's hard not to ACTUALLY find racism lurking in the image--in the form of whiteface, most often used in European clown and mime tradition, but also the distinctly American tradition of using black actors as a parody of the urban Irish, or as simplistic minstrel characters like the Massa and the Southern Belle, who had to be white. I know--it seems almost perversely racist... making fun of blacks by dressing them up as white women, or for heaven's sake, the Irish? Who would ever think of such a thing? Thankfully, however, Phil tripped all over himself trying to justify such obvious racism that it is a joy to point it out to the world.
Unfortunately, some other lucky poster got there before me; all that's left is the meta-analysis. First off: the Obama/Joker poster's creator is an idiot. The Joker was the embodiment of anarchy in the new film; had he not put the decisions for their deaths into the people's own hands, they would not have become so violent and wicked as Batman believes them to be (the enforcer of justice and order, even at the expense of massive spying and wiretapping). The great irony of the film is that the Joker's desire for lawless insanity results in lawless morality (both parties in the film's massive Prisoner's Dilemma ultimately choose not to rat each other out--spoiler!), while Batman's lawful iron fist is responsible for the death of his gal pal and the ensuing insanity of a once decent (supposedly) government official. I would say that it's a just characterization that all government types are two-faces following the whims of chance regardless of who it hurts or helps, but that's another post. As it stands, Obama would be better served metaphorically as Harvey Dent, with half his face exposed to the skull as a metaphor for his many rhetorical guises, than in Joker makeup. Mixing metaphors is just bad art.
Kennicott, on the other hand, deserves high praise for his ability to simultaneously diss and pander to an entire stereotype--"urban blackness." For the record, Obama is half white, internationally educated, and a recipient of some of the most hoity-toity qualifications America has to offer. Nothing, not his milk chocolate exterior, his custom Hart Schaffner Marx attire, nor his carefully accessorized cufflinks and executive Blackberry, screams Jenny from the Block. As far as stereotypes go, Phil, choose Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson for your Black Knights, because Obama can't hack a convincing Sunday preacher voice even when surrounded by black hotness. But for failing so spectactularly to capture the essence of urban blackness (apparently a "virus," though he neglects to say which one...), Kennicott exposes himself as the worst douchebag of them all--an idiot hurting everybody with good intentions. And we all know where those lead, right?
