Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri used one of the most derogatory terms in the African-American lexicon in dismissing Barack Obama as a “house Negro” – a black underling who willingly does the bidding of his white taskmasters. The United States Wednesday condemned Zawahiri for calling US president-elect Barack Obama a “house negro,” saying it exposes his terrorist group's anti-democratic values. The term dates back to the time of American slavery, during which black plantation workers were divided into two groups – slaves forced to do the most strenuous work tilling and harvesting the fields, and those who worked indoors under less arduous conditions. The slur suggests that house slaves often cast their lot with their white slaveowners – in the process often earning scorn of their fellow slaves as untrustworthy and even traitorous. Scholars of race issues in the United States said Barack Obama's triumph earlier this month in being elected the first black American president has threatened Al-Qaeda's bid to recruit support among the poor and downtrodden – both in America and elsewhere in the world. “I think it's an attempt to sow some division within the constituency that Obama has both in the United States and abroad,” said Kerry Haynie, a professor who heads Duke University's Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Social Sciences. Many Obama followers outside of the United States have been captivated by the idea that a member of a racial minority from humble origins could rise to the highest office in America, Haynie said, adding that the Al-Qaeda message was meant to diminish that worldwide, grassroots support. The Al-Qaeda Internet audio message hailed the legacy of the late black militant leader Malcolm X in deriding Obama and other prominent African-Americans. “It is true about you and people like you ... what Malcolm X said about the house Negroes,” Zawahiri said speaking in Arabic, naming former secretary of state Colin Powell and the current secretary, Condoleezza Rice. Although it dates back to slavery, the slur “House Negro” became widely-known after its use by Malcolm X, who proudly called himself a “field Negro” and challenged the “house Negro” mentality in his speeches and writings. Nearly a century-and-a-half after Emancipation, and decades after the struggles of the civil rights era, use of the “house Negro” epithet continues, although mostly within the black community. African-Americans in the United States expressed surprise at the use by Al-Qaeda of a term uttered almost exclusively among US blacks – more often than not out of ear shot of whites. “It shows that they're paying close attention to what happens here,” said Melissa Harris-Lacewell, who teaches politics and African-American studies at Princeton University. “What surprises me is that someone from outside would deign to define for blacks in the United States what is authentically African-American.” Reacting to the statement, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters: “It's just, you know, more despicable comments from a terrorist.” On the political front, Zawahiri said: “What you have announced before ... that you will withdraw (US) troops from Iraq (and send them) to Afghanistan is a policy that is doomed to failure ... “If you still want to be stubborn about America's failure in Afghanistan, then remember the fate of (US President George W.) Bush and (Pakistan's former president) Pervez Musharraf, and the fate of the Soviets and British before them.”
