This Sounds Like A Parody...
08/02/2007
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...the kind of over the top rhetorical flourish that gets Ann Coulter in trouble with neoconservatives. Covering the Democratic Youtube debate, she writes
B. Hussein Obama said he was for slavery reparations in many forms, but the only one that got applause was for more "investment" in schools. In Obama's defense, the precise question was: "But is African-Americans ever going to get reparations for slavery?" So a switch to the subject of education was only natural.[WorldNetDaily: Did I miss the 'hip' part?August 1, 2007]
Can Ann Coulter go around saying that African-Americans talk like that? Won't she get fired, picketed, condemned, et cetera?

Well, according to the Good Gray Paper Of Record, that was the precise question:

QUESTION: Hello, America. Hello, presidential candidates. This is Will from Boston, Massachusetts. And I hope, you know, they put this question on. It’s a question in the back of everybody’s head. You know, in some people, it’s further back than others, collecting cobwebs. But is African-Americans ever going to get reparations for slavery? I know you all are going to run around this question, dipping and dodging, so let’s see how far you all can get.

Transcript of the CNN/YouTube Democratic Debate - New York Times

Ann throws in a question for Obama:

Moreover, a question on reparations has got to be confusing when you're half white and half black. What do you do? Demand an apology for slavery and money from yourself? I guess biracial reparations would involve sending yourself money, then sending back a portion of that money to yourself, minus 50 percent in processing fees — which is the same way federal aid works.
Of course, Obama isn't descended from American slaves, he's descended from Kenyans, on his father's side, and Kenyans were victimized by Arab slave traders, not English or American ones. Furthermore, Kenya is a place where they still have slavery, even though the English and Arabs are all gone.
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