If you criticize Obama, you're a racist

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David Blomstrom	If you criticize Obama, you're a racist Oprah Winfrey said that people who criticize Obama are racist. What kind of fallacy is this? It sounds like an ad hominem attack, but I don't think that's the best fit.
	asked on Sunday, Jan 06, 2019 04:16:39 PM by David Blomstrom
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Answers

Bo Bennett, PhD 0	That is more of a claim than an argument, thus it is a misunderstanding (deliberate or not) or the term "racist". Did you mean IF Oprah said that? I did some Googling to see if that were true but I could not find anything. If you are saying she did say that, I would love to see a source.
	answered on Sunday, Jan 06, 2019 06:11:18 PM by Bo Bennett, PhD
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David Blomstrom 0	I believe she made several variations of this claim. At one extreme, some defend her for saying things like "People don't respect Obama because he's black." However, the important thing is context. When someone made a legitimate complaint about Obama, Oprah would play the race card, suggesting the person was simply criticizing Obama because of his race. https://wgno.com/2013/11/16/oprah-plays-obama-race-card/
	answered on Sunday, Jan 06, 2019 06:24:14 PM by David Blomstrom
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Abdulazeez 0	well, the statement by itself is not fallacious, but if I want to seek for implicit claims she's making, she's probably implying that the reason why somebody would criticize Obama would be because of his race, which is a false cause fallacy.
	answered on Sunday, Jan 06, 2019 08:09:43 PM by Abdulazeez
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mchasewalker 0	The statement in and of itself is more opinion than a specific error in reasoning, although there are studies that examine the racist tendencies and roots of Obama criticism (Psychology Today). Certainly, it cannot be claimed that all Obama critics are inherently or ideological racist. However there are numerous slippery slope arguments than can develop from this kind of exaggerated generalization: Fallacies of Composition or Division come to mind, depending on which way you frame the claim, Whole to Part, Part to Whole, as well as ad hominem (guilt by association) or even a potential Transfer Fallacy rears its ugly head when attributing the quote to Oprah without verification. I would argue against Questionable or False Cause as the fallacious culprits here because there are formidable studies that bolster the claim - so it is not entirely unreasonable. Nevertheless. there is no real cause or logical premise here - only opinion. Logically, it is really not important who said it, but whether it is an error or blatant deception in reasoning.
	answered on Monday, Jan 07, 2019 01:38:47 PM by mchasewalker
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McCarthy 0	This would be an ad hominem attack with several other fallacies thrown on top 1 She's assuming you are making a criticism of Obama which tend to be an argument 2 she is using false cause fallacy by asserting that you are making an argument because you are a racist 3 and this is socially implied that your argument is invalid because you are a racist.
	answered on Tuesday, Jan 08, 2019 02:19:06 AM by McCarthy
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Jim 0	I agree that the term "racist" needs to be defined more clearly to evaluate the argument. I see it being represented like this: Person X is criticizing Obama. Person X has <these traits>. Racists have <these traits>. Therefore, Person X is a racist. Therefore, all people who criticize Obama are racist. I see several times where a hasty generalization is used, mainly in making the leap "Person X is a racist, therefore all people who criticize Obama are racist."
	answered on Wednesday, Jan 09, 2019 10:33:01 AM by Jim
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