Obameo? Rush Limbaugh Likens Obama To An Oreo Because It’s A ‘Biracial Cookie’

This week, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh managed to turn a delicious (or repulsive, maybe) sugary snack cookie into a racial issue. Grab a cold glass of milk and get ready!

On his radio show Wednesday, Limbaugh discussed Kraft’s latest Dr. Moreau-ian concoction, a multi-layered “Triple Double Oreo” cookie containing both chocolate and vanilla cream. Some of us might hear about the existence of such a cookie and think “Diabetes!” or “I need sixteen of these immediately” or even “I wonder what the First Lady thinks about this,” given Michelle Obama has made combating childhood obesity her special focus while her husband is Commander-in-Chief. Limbaugh, however, immediately thought of Barack Obama because — LOL! — he’s biracial!

It’s a “Triple Double” Oreo. Do you like Oreos, is that…? Well, what it’s going to be here, it’s actually a biracial cookie. You’ve got three of the chocolate wafers, and then you’ve got the white vanilla cream, and then there’s a chocolate cream. So you’ve got three… The thing is, there’s Oreo on it, the wafer. And then you’ve got the white cream, and you got another chocolate wafer, and then you’ve got the chocolate cream and then you’ve got the bottom wafer. The Triple Double Oreo. You wait, it won’t be long before it’s going to be called the “Obameo” or something like this. Well, it’s a biracial cookie here!

He also joked that the cookie is the food industry’s direct response to Mrs. Obama’s health initiatives and, in the same show, referred to the President’s bus tour as the “White Like Me” tour. Now, we understand that many will listen to or read about Limbaugh’s comments and think “So what? It’s just a joke. How is this even racist? You hippies are too sensitive.”

Instead of giving a lesson in the history or race relations or on how “Oreo” has long been used as a racial epithet, let’s focus instead on what this joke (“joke”) says about Limbaugh, from a marketing and image maintenance standpoint. By thinking “LOL OBAMA” following a discussion on cookies, Limbaugh comes across as weirdly obsessed with the President, particularly with his skin color and racial background. The jab at the First Lady at least makes some sort of sense, contextually, given her focus on food, but why bring up the fact that Obama is biracial? (I mean, obviously, yes: He did this so that people can either clutch their pearls in horror or take a special kind of delight in yelling “WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL! IF YOU THINK IT IS RACIST, THEN YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY RACIST!” at people disgusted with Limbaugh’s comments. And he did because outlets –like, oh, Mediaite — will write about his show. You’re welcome, Rush.)

Playing Devil’s advocate for a moment, though: It could be possible that Limbaugh was attempting poke fun at others’ obsession with Obama, but that argument is more than a little thin right now given 1) the President isn’t polling terribly well at the moment and 2) Limbaugh doesn’t offer any further evidence to support this, as the topic of conversation was changes within the food industry, and not Obama and his popularity or lack thereof.

The question, then, is not so much “Why did Limbaugh say this?” but “What does this say about Limbaugh?” It would have been one thing if the host had put Obama’s race into some sort of larger context by offering some thoughtful, if provocative, commentary about the relationship between race and public image, or about pandering to a certain demographic at the cost of integrity, or on the public perception of any given race, etc. But he didn’t. He found biraciality odd or funny enough to become a punchline on its own, without offering further analysis. As such, Limbaugh comes across as being bothered by biraciality without being able to articulate why. He’s the kindergarten bully at the playground who throws sand in the face of the girl he likes because he doesn’t know how to voice his feelings, or is afraid or embarrassed by them.

Listen to Limbaugh’s segment for yourselves;

h/t The Hollywood Reporter and Media Matters

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.