Now that Bernie Mac has been laid to rest, a friend of the comedian is speaking out about the unfair criticism leveled at the funnyman by presidential hopeful Barack Obama. The friend believes the criticism by Obama broke his heart and sent Mac to an early grave.
Mac, 50, died last week from complications due to Sarcoidosis after being diagnosed with pneumonia and hospitalized at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for three weeks. The beloved comedian was a longtime supporter of Obama.
Last month, Obama invited Mac to perform his stand up comedy routine at a fundraiser in Chicago. But Mac’s jokes didn’t go over well with the audience of stiff shirts at the Hyatt Regency who each paid $2,500 to attend the fundraiser. One of Mac’s jokes in particular sparked a strong reaction from a few in attendance:
“My little nephew came to me and he said, ‘Uncle, what’s the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question?'” Mac said. “I said, I don’t know, but I said, ‘Go upstairs and ask your mother if she’d make love to the mailman for $50,000.'”
As Mac’s 10 minute stand up routine continued, the mostly white audience grew restless. “It’s not funny. Let’s get Barack on,” a man shouted.
When Obama came on a few minutes later, he made a joke of his own:
“We can’t afford to be divided by race. We can’t afford to be divided by region or by class and we can’t afford to be divided by gender, which by the way, that means, Bernie, you’ve got to clean up your act next time… “This is a family affair. By the way, I’m just messing with you, man.“
Despite the fact that Obama downplayed the incident, it was blown way out of proportion by the media.
Obama’s camp hastily released a tersely worded statement rebuking Mac for making “inappropriate” statements during the fundraiser. “Sen. Obama told Bernie Mac that he doesn’t condone these statements and believes what was said was inappropriate,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.
“Obama was well familiar with Bernie’s material before he asked [Mac] to appear,” wrote the family friend in an email to me. “He’s a comedian. How can they say his material was inappropriate when he tailored his material specifically for that audience?,” wrote the friend, who is also a fellow blogger.
Mac’s friend accused Obama of “backpedaling to insulate and protect himself from any backlash” and to “appease the undecided Hillary Clinton supporters.”
The family friend, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote that Mac was “deeply hurt” by what he felt was a “personal betrayal” by Obama who used Mac as a “scapegoat” to appease the media. “He threw Ludacris under the bus to appease the media too,” wrote the friend.
The friend also pointed out the hypocrisy in Obama’s condolences which was sent to the Mac family on the day of his funeral in Chicago over the weekend. “Michelle and I were so deeply sad to hear about your loss… He… (made) us laugh and laugh hard,” read Obama’s statement.
“[Obama] publicly disgraced Bernie,” wrote the blogger. “He shamed and embarrassed Bernie for doing what he did best. Bernie hadn’t been right since. It took something out of him. It hurt him deeply [and] he took that hurt to his grave.”
