I hear you. To be clear I wasn’t accusing the new user of ill-intent, certainly not of racism, or even implicit bias. As you said, Obama is commonly regarded as a world-class orator, so it’s just true, and also would bother the tangerine palpatine who speaks in crayon.

It is merely insensitive, and likely due to a lack of awareness, which is why throwing a flag right away is preferred, especially in a forum where black people are less well represented (for now).

As to why it is insensitive: while it’s usually meant as a compliment, noting that a black person is well-spoken — especially when using the word “articulate” — happens to summon a long history of people being surprised that black people can speak so well. And while this example of racial insensitivity isn’t as well-known in popular culture as, say, blackface, it is not at all obscure. The links I posted above are a tiny sample of the articles, books, and memes pertaining to the subject.

In other words, simply using the phrase “articulate black man” unironically is enough to strongly suggest the author is oblivious to the fact. And judging by all the downvotes on my comment (and now throughout my comment history lol) I’m guessing many others in this forum are oblivious to it as well.

So I threw a flag, partly to make the user aware of the insensitivity, partly because I suspected many others in this forum might be similarly unaware, but mainly because I’d prefer this place be welcoming to everyone.

Right and it’s just code switching. People of all races do it without thinking. The dominant strain of English in the US can sound “white” to urban poc, “academic” to rural white people, or “yank” to white people abroad. It’s only loosely associated with aggregate identities.

Here in NYC, at least in my neighborhood, code switching is constant and routine.

So what do you do with inarticulate old white men who are successful despite themselves due to old white man privelege?

Agreed. I do miss having an especially thoughtful and couth figurehead representing us on the world stage, just someone we could generally be proud of.

Of course that feeling was especially pronounced when the following act was and is a global embarrassment and weirdly consummate avatar for all our worst qualities.