Martha's Vineyard Prepares for Obamania ... Now With Tequila

Anyone want an Obamarita?

From the New York Times:

“Look at that, an ‘Obamarita,’” said Kathy Santaniello, a tourist from Wilbraham, Mass. as she walked past Sharky’s Cantina here, which advertised the drink — a margarita made with crushed mandarin oranges (rumored to be Mr. Obama’s favorite fruit), pineapple juice (a nod to his Hawaiian heritage), triple sec and tequila.

Eric Godbout, a bartender, said the drink had been selling briskly ever since the White House announced the president will arrive here Aug. 23. Michelle Obama and their daughters are expected to arrive earlier.

Read the rest of the story here.

Oak Bluffs Residents Bite Back At Toure's New York Mag Story

And they said that wasn't THEIR lives at Martha's Vineyard writer Toure was penning for New York Magazine last month. In the article he talked about black self-segregation and how some residents of Oak Bluffs and Martha's Vineyard wouldn't be interested in the First Family because the Obamas were "off the people" and Michelle Obama was a "ghetto girl." Stay classy, that one.

Well, naturally not everyone in Oak Bluffs was pleased with how Toure portrayed their little hamlet.

More after the jump.

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Get Yer Snob On: Obamas To Vacation in Martha's Vineyard

Oak Bluffs snobs cross yer fingers! The O-man and fam could be coming to your neck of the Vineyard this August!

From The Boston Globe:

It’s official: The sandbox for the stars is once again becoming a presidential playground.

President Obama and his family are planning to vacation on Martha’s Vineyard next month, the White House confirmed yesterday without releasing details.

The visit, which will occur during the last week of August, has been rumored for months, and the Secret Service has already booked reservations at several hotels. It is unclear where the family of four will stay, but one option could be Oak Bluffs, the historical center of the island’s black community.

No One's Elite Enough For "Our Kind of People"

First Lady Michelle Obama with the wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.Snob reader Fanita was nice enough to point out to me this little bon mot I missed in the Martha's Vineyard story from the New Yorker. How did I miss this money quote?

Many blacks from Oak Bluffs are elated that the Only One–in–Chief may be joining them. “People are going to lose their minds!” Tonya Lewis Lee says. At the same time, there’s also a bit of wariness among the wealthiest ones, an uncertainty whether Obama will affirm them. “Obama is more a man of the people,” says a Vineyarder who’s part of black high society. “He doesn’t seem to identify with affluent black people. His wife definitely doesn’t; she is basically a ghetto girl. That’s what she says—I’m just being sociological. She grew up in the same place Jennifer Hudson did. She hasn’t reached out to the social community of Washington, and people are waiting to see what they’ll do about that.”

Um ... what the?!?!

Rant after the jump!

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A Different Kind of Segregation, Martha's Vineyard Edition

From New York Magazine on the Obamas' possible summer plans in a wealthy Liberal bastion of non-racial intermingling:

As liberal as it is, the Vineyard is about as racially integrated as a college dining hall—blacks and whites get along fine, but they generally don’t socialize. “There’s not a lot of overlap between black and white,” says radio executive Skip Finley, who started vacationing in Oak Bluffs in 1954 and has been living there full-time for the past decade. “I don’t think anybody’s insulted by it. I’m certainly not.” It’s an arrangement that springs largely from the self-segregating impulse among black Vineyarders, who have come to the island to connect with each other. “We have people here who are black and upscale and racist,” Finley continues. “They don’t want to be around white folks, and they don’t have to.” By choosing to vacation in and around Oak Bluffs, the Obamas would be throwing a spotlight on one of the most demographically unusual towns in America.

More after the jump.

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