A Big Joke

Backtrack:

Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree told the Herald he was just kidding when he suggested that a decades-old clip of a young Barack Obama praising and embracing controversial Professor Derrick Bell was kept hidden from voters during the 2008 campaign.

“It was a big joke,” Ogletree said. “If you watch the tape, the audience is laughing when I’m laughing.”

How big a joke was it? It's true that he laughed, and there was some audience laughter. (See and hear it here.) It's clear he thought he was saying something funny. The crowd laughter sounds uneasy to me, and actually his own laughter sounds uneasy to me. I took it to be an uneasy admission. But... maybe it was just a big joke!

You can see that the provocation from Breitbart.com crew did create some results, with Ogletree going to the trouble of denying that he meant what he said.

Another result appeared on CNN, where Soledad O'Brien reportedly showed off her ignorance of Critical Race Theory while trying to challenge Joel Pollack of Breitbart.com.

For some reason, the Wikipedia page on Critical Race Theory also was in a minor edit war after public discussion suddenly reopened.

Obama gave a very flattering introduction of Derrick Bell, implying that he possessed insight and wisdom. Did he, or does he, actually agree with the substantive positions, such as they are, of Critical Race Theory? Or was it just flattery?

If  you're under attack
and need to take back
words that you spoke,
say "that was a joke".