Associated Press Journalists Made a Racist of Obama

In his appearance last weekend at the annual convention of the Congressional Black Caucus, Barack Obama called upon black people to “fight and win.” At least, that’s what journalists of the Associated Press wrote. This sparked a scandal, as many took Obama’s words as an invocation for African-Americans to rise up against the white population of the U.S., writes Dylan Stableford, a journalist of the American news portal The Cultline.*

Associated Press journalist Mark Smith’s interpretation of Obama’s Saturday speech at the convention of the Congressional Black Caucus sparked a serious scandal in the American mass media. Radio stations and television channels debated whether President Obama actually made racist statements or a journalist from one of America’s leading news agencies incorrectly interpreted his words.

According to the AP version, Obama exhorted representatives of the black population of America to “Stop complaining… stop crying” and “[t]ake off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes.” In the president’s words, this is the only way to “seize your own piece of life and win at last,” wrote the Associated Press.** And although Mark Smith’s reporting did not give any kind of evaluation of the president’s speech, the words of the nation’s leader convey the idea quite unequivocally: Obama appealed to the black population of America to rise up against white Americans.

The AP journalist affirmed that he was not trying to portray Obama as a racist; after all, the text does not specify whom African-Americans are supposed to vanquish and overthrow. Mark Smith blamed his journalist colleagues for cheap sensationalism. Everything was cleared up after the Politico website published the official version of Obama’s speech, from which it became clear that the president proposed that the black population fight and vanquish… unemployment. In other words, the AP journalist unthinkingly took the president’s words out of context. But the story didn’t end there.

Right after the accusations of racism against Obama, the same accusations began to rain down on the AP journalist. All the recrimination turned out to be due to a very subtle linguistic point. In his report, Mark Smith cited the president’s address to African-Americans in the following form: “Stop complainin’. Stop grumblin’. Stop Cryin’.” The journalist dropped the letter “g” at the end of the words “complaining,” “grumbling,” and “crying,” giving the president’s speech a small-town, slangy touch. African-Americans often speak in just this way, dropping their “g.” Mark Smith was accused of “adapting” Obama’s words for a dark-skinned audience, knowing that the president was speaking to African-Americans. In the official transcript of Obama’s speech, all the letters “g” remain in place.

In response to the accusations of racism, the AP journalist said that, on the contrary, he faithfully transcribed the intonation and rhythm of Obama’s speech, which “was a little reminiscent of a rap song.” Mark Smith maintained that there is nothing racist about speaking to one’s audience in an understandable and familiar language. Smith proposed that, having inserted a couple of little slang words, Obama simply wanted to make himself accessible to the public.*** Nevertheless, linguists and journalists are still actively debating whether journalists have the right to edit the speech of official figures, even if it seems to them that this would better convey the politician’s intent to the readers.

The majority of American journalists are of the opinion that politicians’ speeches, which are often not ideally written, must be “cleaned up” to present grammatically correct text to the reader. The Cultline reminds us that the majority of American mass media always edited the speeches of former U.S. President George Bush, who did not particularly excel at public speaking.

Editor’s note: Some of the quotes and statements in this article, accurately translated, could not be verified. Please see translator’s notes.

*Translator’s note: Dylan Stableford’s blog The Cutline is misspelled in the original article. Stableford’s article, which was an embedded link in the original article, does not support the author’s representation of it.

**Translator’s note: This quote could not be verified in any transcript of the speech, AP article, or embedded link in the original article.

***Translator’s note: The author did not provide sources for the quotation and statements attributed to Mark Smith in this paragraph, and they could not be verified.