The 20-year-old video of Obama protesting at Harvard
Vintage footage of the young law student standing up for minority rights goes viral — and inspires a "gotcha!" from the Right
The video: On Wednesday, BuzzFeed posted a 1990 video of Harvard law student Barack Obama, 29, wading into the diversity fight then roiling the Ivy League campus. (Watch it below.) Obama, the Harvard Law Review's first black president, introduces Professor Derrick Bell, Harvard's first black tenured professor, at a rally supporting Bell's protest against Harvard's dearth of black and female tenured law faculty. Though PBS's Frontline first aired the video in mid-October 2008, it's getting renewed attention now. After BuzzFeed released its clip, the late Andrew Breitbart's site aired a longer, supposedly more damning version on Fox News' Hannity, claiming that Bell is the "Jeremiah Wright of academia." Obama "always gravitates towards the most radical people," Fox's Sean Hannity said.
The reaction: Treating this footage as a political scandal is "lame" and "ridiculous," says Michael Brendan Dougherty at Business Insider. But it's interesting to watch it as a historical document, seeing "Obama as a law-student involving himself in the racial politics of academia." What I find remarkable is "how the guy in this video from 20 years ago appears to be pretty much the exact same guy now sitting in the Oval Office," says Brad Friedman at The Brad Blog. Indeed, says Meenal Vamburkar at Mediaite. You'll immediately "recognize his mannerisms and tone (and tendency to make little jokes)." Check it out:
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Antony Gormley's Time Horizon – a 'judgmental army' of 100 cast-iron men
The Week Recommends Sculptures are 'everymen questioning the privilege of their surroundings' at the Norfolk stately home
By Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK Published
-
'King's horses take free rein through London'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Is pop music now too reliant on gossip?
Talking Point Taylor Swift's new album has prompted a flurry of speculation over who she is referring to in her songs
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published