Culture

Respected, Authoritative Voice On Racism Rupert Murdoch Thinks Obama Isn’t A “Real Black President”

No one like an old white bloke to decide who is and isn't black.

by Alex McKinnon  8 October 2015

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

It’s a modern-day fable: every time Rupert Murdoch gets within spitting distance of a phone, some terrible, vastly tone-deaf, probably racist shenanigans are about to unfold. Besides the usual semi-coherent ramblings about Australian politics, Murdoch in the digital age is mostly known for loudly wondering where all the non-white Egyptian people are and saying scaremongery, demonstrably untrue things about “Moslems”. He’s like that drunk bigot uncle at the Christmas family barbie, in that his opinions on race are equally hateful and worthless and his hatred of other ethnic groups is an outward expression of some deep internal sadness.

Recently he’s been pretty vocal in his support for Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson, a former neurosurgeon who wants to arm kindergarten teachers and yesterday offered this pearl of wisdom about the Oregon mass shooting: “I would not just stand there and let him shoot me. I would say, `Hey, guys, everybody attack him. He may shoot me but he can’t get us all.'”

Naturally, Rupert loves this guy. So much so that in a series of glowing tweets he sent out earlier today, Murdoch said that Carson would be “a real black President” in contrast to Barack Obama, which may be slightly confusing for anyone who has seen or heard of Barack Obama.

It isn’t the first time Murdoch’s demonstrated his deep, nuanced understanding of black identity to take a dig at Obama and talk up Carlson. About a month ago he disparaged Obama’s “white upbringing,” presumably referring to the formative part of every white child’s life where they spend a few years at Catholic school in Jakarta.

Firstly, why do every damn one of Rupert Murdoch’s tweets have huge erroneous spaces in them? The guy’s been an editor three times longer than I’ve been alive, and he apparently still uses the two-finger spacing rule you learnt in kindergarten.

Second, how an 84-year-old media tycoon who’s so white he looks like a cauliflower left out in the sun thinks he’s an authority to comment on who is and isn’t “black” is an unsolved mystery up there with the Marie Celeste, the Antikythera mechanism and the existence of David Koch.