UH OH....

Well, the video does not include the discussion as promised by Rick (the CNN presenter), so I will fill in with my own thoughts.

The reason why this video grabbed public attention, was simply because we all have this common perception of an ideal President, and Barack Obama defied that perception in less than 10 seconds. Some people felt it was refreshing that finally a President has a backbone, but some might feel Obama’s comment was sloppy and improper coming from a leader. I stand with the latter group. Let us decipher exactly our cognitive processors that enabled us to be stunned by Obama’s insult.

In society we all have shared social understandings, and embedded in us is a cognitive schemata, or mental framework of how Presidents or Leaders should behave. This is known as Person Prototypes, idealized representations of certain kind of people. We might even subconsciously possess templates for how a President should speak, with scripts excluding the word “jackass” from any politician’s vocabulary. We form this knowledge due to past experiences of great leaders and how they conducted themselves.

However, such prototypes often generalize, and we may end up forming stereotyped views of Obama, criticizing him for lacking an image we have created. We also fail to realize that in the past, media excess was not as advanced as compared to modern times, and as such perhaps inappropriate behavior by past leaders were not publicized. Currently, anything can be recorded, and in a push of a button distributed to the whole world. That is the power of our media now. Obama had used the media to his advantage during campaigns, but its efficiency can backfire as seen in this video example.

Thank goodness though, that it was Obama, a black man, who aimed his insult at another black person. I can imagine if a white President had condemned Kayne, there would be media uproar on concerns regarding racism. Whether or not race is an issue, people tend to judge and interpret information based on appearances.

Another explanation why Obama’s criticism of Kayne sparked our interest was because of emotional proximity. We find ourselves identifying with celebrities or entertainers like Kayne more even if we have absolutely nada association with them. There are always so many citizens involved in debate over celebrity matters as they would normally contribute insight on country reforms.

My basis for thinking Obama’s comment was unprofessional and inappropriate, is because Presidents are role models and they have a lot of influence over people. After his remark, impressionable children might think insulting others is okay now. While we are all free to express our opinions, I think that damaging comments should still be discouraged. Obama thought this way as well, which explains why he requested for this clip to be cut (unfortunately his demand was ignored).

Watching this video, we must remember to apply mindful processing in evaluating information we get. We must be aware of how our perceptions might influence our sense of things and people. Obama probably meant his 'insult' as a casual response in an informal context and we should be wary not to jump to conclusions.

Here is a seperate clip showing how perception shapes our view of the world around us, and how that view might not be what it seems.