I caught a piece of the news this morning, and luckily for me because it provided another fix of Rod Blagojevich. Just when you think we’ve heard enough, he finds something else to do to capture headlines and our attention. This time Rod explores race as a social construct, and tells Esquire Magazine that he is “blacker” than Barack Obama, metaphorically at least. G-Rod said:
“People out there who are getting fucked by big, powerful forces in faraway places — they don’t know who’s doing it to them, or they have some idea who’s doing it to them, but they don’t feel like they have any control over it. I will show you can fight back when you have righteousness and the truth on your side…It’s such a cynical business, and most of the people in the business are full of shit and phonies, but I was real, man — and am real. This guy, he was catapulted in on hope and change, what we hope the guy is. What the fuck? Everything he’s saying’s on the teleprompter. I’m blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived. I saw it all growing up.”
The article hit store shelves and internet today, prompting an apology from G-Rod. Blago apologized for his wording, but also maintained that he was expressing real frustation with Obama and his administration, regardless of his poor choice of metaphor. See the video below.