Here is something every minority has had to deal with: being compared to some fictional movie character. So if you are gay, at some point you had to tell a straight friend  why you were not like the queen  in the movie Mannequin. Once I had to go into deep boring detail on why my suburban upbringing did not make me a stand in for the characters in Boyz N The Hood.

Individual quirks matter little when you are a minority. Hold on. Let me rephrase that: those ticks of personality are very important (life saving I would argue but that is for another time) but in the broad stroke world of popular culture no one really cares.

Over at Salon, writer James Hannaham takes some  media figures like Arianna Huffington to task for pushing the angry black man memo with Barack Obama. Some commentators find the Democratic nominee’s responses to GOP attacks too genteel. Instead they would like Obama to find his inner Denzel  or Sidney  and respond in high-drama cinematic action.

As Hannaham gently points out, asking Obama to be Morgan  or Don  is a bit strange considering how he is not them or better yet: Obama is not the characters those actors play on screen.

By looking to Obama to be Will, we are not paying attention to who the junior senator Illinois actually is. And to disregard the minority in front of you because he/she is not like the minority you are used to (or dream of), keeps us away from the day when we are imperfect individuals, not members of tribes that only describe us in part.