Really?! RNC Leader Michael Steele Thinks Obama 'Is the Magic Negro'

Posted by Ali Frick, Think Progress at 11:03 AM on May 1, 2009.

During the January campaign for chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele slammed his opponent Chip Saltsman's distribution of a CD with a song called "Barack the Magic Negro." "It doesn’t help at all," Steele said. "Absolutely, it reinforces a negative stereotype of the party." However, while hosting Bill Bennett's radio show this morning, Steele laughed when a caller called Obama the "magic negro" and seemingly agreed with the characterization:

CALLER: It's just like the LA Time said last year or two years ago: He is the magic Negro.

STEELE: Yeah he -- [laughing]. You read that too, huh? [still laughing]

CALLER: Oh yeah. I read that too. Even when things go wrong, he still manages to come out smelling like a rose.

STEELE: Well, yeah.

Listen to it:

As Steele is facing an internal power struggle, he may be trying to shore up his radical right-wing credentials. Though he earlier refused to call the president a "socialist," this week he declared Obama was "moving towards a collectivist socialist approach to government."

Tagged as: racism, republicans, gop, obama, rnc, michael steele

Ali Frick is a Research Associate for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.