HE SPEAKS SO WELL!: Rep. J.C. Watts (R-OK), the Chairman of the GOP Conference and the highest ranking black Republican in the history of the House of Representatives, announced today that he is retiring from Congress after four terms. When the story was leaked last night, anchors on all three major cable news channels gave Watts the common backhanded compliment that he is "well-spoken," "articulate," and "speaks so well." This insulting condescension toward an educated black man like Watts is such a well-established phenomenon that Chris Rock has joked about it, and it was parodied in the recent "Undercover Brother." Watts, meanwhile, is a former quarterback at Oklahoma who was a teammate of the legendary receiver Buster Rhymes (namesake of the rapper). Rhymes would be a candidate to run for Watts' seat, but he's in jail, convicted last year on the charge of carjacking a 66-year-old woman. Looks like he won't be passin' the Courvesiour anytime soon.
Posted by Stephen Silver at July 1, 2002 11:02 PM