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Huffington Post put this story in the Entertainment section, and I have no idea why. It’s a video of born-again Christian and conservative mouthpiece Stephen Baldwin (of the Baldwin brothers, and of The Usual Suspects), bitching about President Obama. Baldwin was at CPAC, I think, which is the annual Conservative conference which features lots of high-profile speakers and lots of bashing of liberals. Anyway, in this little clip, Stephen Baldwin told ABC reporter Jonathan Karl “I’m gonna be real straight with you. I am not happy about the way things are. I pray for President Obama every single day. But tell you what. Homey made this bed, now he has got to lay in it.” As HuffPo breathlessly announces, “’Homey’ is short for ‘homeboy,’ slang for a fellow gang member.” Thank you, HuffPo. I never would have known that!
Obviously, some people are all, like, “That’s so racist!” And maybe it is, but mostly I think it just seems douchey and out-of-touch. Do “gang members” still call each other “homey”? And the fact that Baldwin thought he was cutting down or disrespecting Obama by calling him such a passé term makes Baldwin look like an idiot, in my opinion. And yes, Baldwin would have never called a white liberal president “homey”. But that seems to me beside the point. Anyway, Entertainment section, blah, blah, was it racist?
Stephen Baldwin on February 5, 2010. Credit: WENN.
Written by Kaiser
Posted in Barack Obama, Racist, Stephen Baldwin
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71 Responses to “Is Stephen Baldwin racist by calling Obama “homey”?”
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Well, if he were a liberal calling him Homey, everyone would think it is adorable and clever.
But, since he dares to be Christian and conservative, no doubt everyone will pile on and accuse him of being a racist. Because any criticism of Obama is considered racist these days. We aren’t allowed to honestly disagree with his policies-it’s all racism.
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No, this does not make him racist.
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racist? meh, I don’t think so.
but derogatory? (and a little condescending/disrespectful…) yeah, I’d go with that. As you said, he likely wouldn’t have called a white president by that term.
I don’t think he’s a racist, I think he’s just an idiot who talks about thing he’s not informed on.
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Homey does not necessarily mean gangbanger. It pretty much just slang for friend. I thought that was pretty well known.
Having said that, it could have been an attempt on his part to be condescending. Racist? That might be stretching it a bit but I don’t know SB although he does seem to be a bit of a douche.
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Its utterly stupid and as a grown man trying to get people to take him seriously its doesn’t help his case. It doesn’t make him racist really, but he was trying to start some BS…and with conservatives I never think of them as minority friendly anyway.
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This is so stupid , so what he called him Homey??
I have heard the people on Fox news and a couple of conservatives leaders call him worse. I believe O’reilly called him “the devil”.
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This is stupid. The Huffington post is such a joke that even liberal nut cases laugh at it.
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O’Reilly called him the devil? I think BO is kind of a douche too but it doesnt seem like his style.
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No. This is a non story. He’s obviously not saying Obama is a gang member.
It’s a bit disrespectful yea, but tons of people made similar comments about past presidents. I sure as hell called Bush plenty of names. Bottom line, people are always going to say stuff about their leaders but he was not implying Obama is an inferior president (or person) because of his race. That is the litmus test for racist comments..
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This slang term is part of our language now. At least in some peoples’ vocabulary.I don’t like the word and woudn’t use it. Of course, I am a 58 yr old grandmother and there are a lot of slang terms I don’t use.
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QB, Glenn Beck speculated that the president may be racist after the Gates/cop acting stupidly incident. O’Reilly has never called the president the devil. In fact, O’Reilly is trying to soften his image, though I doubt that is is possible.
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girl , He was interviewing whats his face and he asked him “Is Obama “THE DEVIL”?” not “a devil” but “The devil” and he asked the question like it was a serious question.
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If he wouldn’t use the same word for a white man, then YES, it’s racist. Very simple.
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Honestly, I think he is enough of a dork to use the term ‘homey’ with anyone.
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This is the video of O’Reilly asking Dobbs if Obama is the Devil http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRp2_mv5xVY
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Umm, I’m pretty sure asking someone if they think someone is the devil is different than calling the person the devil.
I am no O’Reilly fan but it sounds like he was asking if Obama was the worst thing for the country. And it isn’t as if he didn’t like LD’s answer and laid out an argument for why he does believe Obama IS the devil.
Your mileage may vary of course.
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Homey don’t play that
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It’s not racist but he said it only because Obama is mixed race/black and he would not have referred to any other President as Homey. That doesn’t make him a racist, it just confirms the fact that he’s an out of touch idiot. Does anyone even say homey anymore?
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The 90s called, they would like their slang back.
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Around here stupid kids call each other “homes” but that’s KIDS. I don’t think Baldwin was being racist; I think he was just being stupid.
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Only in America of the Offended (or the Huffington Post) could this be considered “racist”.
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thank you curlyfry! no one even says that anymore
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I don’t think if a liberal called him homey we all would think it’s clever…if one of the big media people like Brad Pitt or ummm I dunno Matt Damon were to say that, people would be all over them too. Just because some liberals support Obama’s politics doesn’t mean we give the “liberal media” carte blanche to say whatever stupid crap they want. That being said, Baldwin is an idiot and probably honestly thought he was communicating like a normal human being. I bet Obama thought he was a jackass just like Kanye…
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he hip…he cool. can’t you tell.
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For petes sake, enough of the racist thing! Everything is racist these days, as long as its a white person talking about Obama. Boring! And yes i am black.
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I agree, Corina.
I’m in the camp that Stephen Baldwin is stupid, irrelevant, and dorky, not racist.
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The reason that this could be interpreted as ‘racist’ is because the word homey is African American vernacular. Saying it’s a word created by a culture within society is fine. And white people using it isn’t a big deal. All kinds of words get spread to different subsets of society.
But when Baldwin used it, he used it specifically because it invokes ebonics. Within the context of this sentence, it evokes and brings up Obama’s skin color immediately. Which is why people see it as a slant.
Do I think it’s racist? No. But do I think he was trying to very subtly bring race into it? Hell fucking yeah I do.
There is a soft language of oppression out there that is leveled against all minorities. Women are spunky, black people are well spoken, Asians are smart, Hispanics are sneaky. It’s not outright blatant in your face racism.
But to pretend it doesn’t have a connotation of race to is is just willful ignorance.
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Oh Peach, where would we be without you!
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LOL it sounds like a white guy trying to be hip and not succeeding very well.
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In the case of racism specifically, I feel like, if you have to ask, it’s probably not racism. It’s racial insensitivity. But racism is an ugly, ugly b*stard and I think it’s pretty identifiable when you see it. Personally.
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@ Peach:
“Do I think it’s racist? No. But do I think he was trying to very subtly bring race into it? Hell fucking yeah I do.
There is a soft language of oppression out there that is leveled against all minorities. Women are spunky, black people are well spoken, Asians are smart, Hispanics are sneaky. It’s not outright blatant in your face racism.
But to pretend it doesn’t have a connotation of race to is is just willful ignorance.”
Well said. I agree.
Personally, I think he made himself sound like an idiot
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Did anyone else see Celebrity Big Brother UK? Baldwin was on, along with a bunch of other has-beens including Sisquo, and while he called all of the white housemates ‘friend’, he called Sisquo ‘my brother’ or ‘homie’. I don’t think he specifically does it to be racist (although whether or not it is a racist act is another question), I just think he is a dumb white guy trying to be cool.
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The only people I’ve heard use that term in years are dumb, white kids trying to sound cool by calling each other homes and homey.
For the most part, it’s lost the racial connotations it once had. Now it’s just a verbal tool for..well..tools.
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The term isn’t just used by African Americans. It was used by Latino kids in the barrio too. A LOT.
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“Well, if he were a liberal calling him Homey, everyone would think it is adorable and clever.”
ummm, no, they wouldn’t. it is a condescending term to use for the president, regardless of his race or political persuasion. get off your “conservative christian” victim soap box already.
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I have heard previous Presidents called much worse things and far more derogatory things than “homey”. Baldwin just reconfirmed what we already knew – he is a dork.
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the problem with balwin is he is stating that Obama created this mess we have ourselves in. it was bush & cheney. but what do you expect from a guy who attends cpac and believes in the invisible man in the sky? baldwin is obviously a douche
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This is really ridiculous just because I call someone a “Homie” it means that I’m a racist? That’s a load of BS. Our president is blowing his chance all by himself.
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“invisible man in the sky”… Lord and Saviour to me….ain’t that what makes America great…the FREEDOM to say whatever we want….
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Would he call a white man homey? If the answer is no, then his action is the definition of racism, which is treating someone differently because of the color of their skin.
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Basically imagine if I was talking about Sonya Sodamayor. And I said,
“Whatever, that chica does what she wants.”
Chica is a latina term.
Homey is an African American term.
Do white girls use the term chica with other white girls? All the effing time. Do all people use the term homey? Of course they do.
But within context it does make a clear reference to race. Not that it is racist. I personally think for something to qualify as racist it needs to be a bit more powerful. But it does qualify Baldwin as a thundercunt (been waiting to use that term for days!)
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he calls everyone homey, watch last months celebrity big brother uk…
he’s just goofy like that
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Racist? I dunno. Stupid? Yep. Still irrelevant? Most definitely.
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Peach, will you be my friend?
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It’s condescending and disrespectful but not racist. Bush got called plenty of names and no one gave a crap. Now because it’s Obama, this is news? Total hypocrisy. I wasn’t a Bush fan and I like Obama but you can’t have it both ways.
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NO, it’s not racist. It’s just lame. Misplaced, lame old slang that only out-of-touch people (of all races) invoke when trying to, as peach alluded to, bring in subtle racial images.
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What Peach said.
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i looove u stephen
go back on tv… we miss u
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I thought it was innocent until I heard it. His inflection though made me undecided. Sarcasm/Disdain almost. Like he meant for it to be a jab.
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His career is a punchline and he is a joke. He isn’t a racist. He is just a dumb almost has been but never was.
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I’m black. And Yes, I think this was racist because he used the term as an insult, an insult directly based on Obama’s race. He would not have used that term with a white president he didn’t like. It was Baldwin’s way of saying “So what if you’re the president of the united states, to me you’re just another worthless black guy.”
And no, Sammyha, nobody would have thought this was more acceptable if Baldwin had not been a christian conservative. Nobody cares enough about him to consider his religion or politics. It sounds like those are your personal issues. Nobody’s persecuting Christian conservatives. Nobody cares about that. Your religion and politics are your own business. Stop being paranoid.
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Peach is a peach.
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Homey isn’t a “black” word anymore. God, the media is so behind the times it’s stupid. And who says homey anymore, anyway? Haha, what a middle-aged thing to do.
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no.
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Wow, everybody’s commenting on his nasty attitudes but has nobody noticed that Baldwin looks completely messed up in the photograph. WHAT is he smoking?
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Ok, what does’nt help though is when black pundits are telling the prez to get “gangsta”, just sounds like thuggery
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The words stupid and disrespectful come to mind first.
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“Homey made this bed.” Actually, the Bush Boys, Sr. and W., along with Rothead Reagan and assorted others, including Bill Clinton, made the bed. Shut up dumbass.
Stevie B. is a racist, a homophobe, a complete moron and a totally annoying, continually proselytizing, conservative fundie. Church and state are supposed to be separate in the .S. “Civilization begins where theocracy ends”. Pray on that one, Stupid Stevie and STFU.
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Shortly before Obama was elected President, SB harolded to the world: “If Obama gets elected, I’m moving to Canada!” So my only question is, hey “man”, “homey”, “dude”, “bro”, why are you still here “man”?
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His brother said he was moving to canada when Bush was elected, why is he still here?
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Hey may or may not be a racist, but he’s definitely a pillock, why’s this even news?
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Completely agree with Peach.
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Peach rocks!
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um I think we can all agree ( well most of us) that PEACH is correct!
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Hmmm. He is using the word hoey which in itself has become somewhat harmless, as others have described, in a deiberately demeaning way– it sounded like he was using that as name calling, but in a more veiled and confusing manner. He would have said “Bozo”, probably in any other circumstance.
And since Bozo is what he meant to say, his use of “Homey” instead, only becomes ‘inflammatory’or ‘racist’ becuase it then further includes the matter of race into the insult/degradation of his words.
Were it to be said in another tone, or in other circumstances, it wouldnt catch anyones attention.
Its not the word, its his attitude and intention that is demeaning.
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LOL! #65! You REALLY think Mr. Baldwin put THAT much thought into a remark? You CRAZY!
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Oh for Gods Sake!
Please somebody put out a book of words which are off limits for the whites.
That way at least we know, cos everyday, there seems to be another word that we can’t say, but is quite fine for everybody else to say.
People put waaaay too much time into disecting the crap out of things, that just don’t matter.
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Ugh, this is such a non-story. It’s just a cringe-worthy quote, no more or less than that. It includes a racial reference, sure, but it’s such an innocuous one in the first place and in the second place, what matters is that no one has said that in like 15 years. It’s like your Mom dropping an egg and then crying out, “Oops, My Bad!!!” It just makes you shake your head and groan.
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I didnt say or suggest he put that thought into it.
Those are MY thoughts/thats my analysis.
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As a African American I definitely think he is a racist. Because it wouldn’t make sense to call a White President homey.
In my opinion, he’s just an actor who also a racist.
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