Last week, I was a guest on NPRโs News and Notes, where the topic of conversation was how to address the President. A few days before that, a guest had repeatedly referred to him as โBarack,โ and the show got a bunch of angry e-mails complaining that the guest in questionโblack, male, about the same age with children the same age as the Presidentโsโwas being disrespectful.
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And News and Notes listeners werenโt the only ones. Iโve actually gotten requests to blog about it. So here we are.
Okay, Iโm old-fashioned, saditty, hincty, over the topโwhatever, but when it comes to addressing the President of the United States, especially this one, itโs my firm belief that we do better when we err on the side of formality.
So once, and I hope, for all: Heโs not your homie. Heโs not brothaman. Heโs not Prez and he shouldnโt be hailed with โHey, O, wassup?โ
Uh-uh. By virtue of his election, heโs been transformed from, as he so memorably put it in his first huge speech in 2004 โthe skinny kid with the big ears and the funny nameโ into the Commander in Chief.
If youโre fortunate enough to meet him, give him his props: โHello Mr. Presidentโ orโhello, Mr. Obamaโ or โHello President Obamaโ all work just fine. His intimatesโlong-time friends, relatives, neighborsโmight call him other things in private, but we ainโt them. (I suppose I should be consistent: we are not they. Better?)
This is a habit we all have to grow into, and face it, weโre only four weeks into the first year of his first term. You can see that heโs gradually shifting from โhow are you guys?โ when he walks into the room to a (very) slightly more formal โhowโs everybody?โ At a visit to the Dept of Agriculture last week, Michelle Obama referred to her husband as โBarackโ initially, but then segued into โthe President and I.โ So itโs a learning curve all around.
And it wonโt take very long. As many pundits have noted, the man is looking more Presidential with each passing day. When you refer to yourself with respect, others tend to, too.
Remember this? Rod Steiger rearing up at Sidney Poitier in a memorable scene in In The Heat of the Night: (Steiger) Donโt you push me, boy! (Poitier) They call me MR. Tibbs.
So remember: if we donโt want other folks to call the President out of his name, we shouldnโt, either.
Karen Grigsby Bates is a LA-based correspondent for NPR News and co-author, with Karen Elyse Hudson, of The New Basic Black: Home Training For Modern Times (Doubleday).What do YOU call the President? Write to us at [email protected]. And remember that your e-mail may be published unless you request otherwise.
is a Los Angeles-based correspondent for NPR News and co-author, with Karen Elyse Hudson, of The New Basic Black: Home Training For Modern Times (Doubleday).
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