Note to Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine...
Obama's 'black dialect':
Obama's normal tone:
Put the race card away, Mr. Chait.
Josh Barro made an interesting observation yesterday towards this idea of a 'black dialect' and a misunderstanding when Obama gave his 'you didn't built that' speech...
Bloomberg: Jonathan Chait says the president’s "you didn't build that" speech revived racial resentments about redistributive fiscal policy, partly because the president was speaking in a “black dialect.”
Maybe this was a problem with the speech, but the key problem was much simpler: The president was needlessly insulting. He wasn’t just calling on successful people to pay more in tax but was being dismissive of their accomplishments.
Ding, ding, ding...we have a winner! Redistribution involving black, white or polka-dotted people is wrong, period. Then to insult success on top of that...well, the fact that we're still talking about it speaks to its resonance.
