About

"I Would Have Voted for Obama for a Third Term" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Dean Armitage in the 2017 horror film Get Out. In the film, the father character Dean poses as a white liberal ally to trap a black man, using his support of President Barack Obama as cover. Online, the phrase and images of Dean have come to represent expressions of faux-racial solidarity with the black community and empty platitudes by white people to African Americans.

Origin

On February 24th, 2017, Universal Pictures released Get Out in theaters.^[1] In the film, Chris (played by Daniel Kaluuya), a black man, meets his white girlfriend's parents for the first time. In an attempt to make him feel more comfortable, her father Dean (played by Bradley Whitford) tells him, "By the way, I would have voted for Obama for a third term, if I could. Best President in my lifetime, hands down" (clip below).

Spread

Following the film's release, the phrase became a popular joke online, with many using the quote to criticize white people. For example, on March 6th, 2017, Twitter user @SonofBaldwin posted the line with a Nileseyy Niles Disappears reaction GIF (shown below).

#GetOutChallengeWhite person: I would have voted for Obama for a third term.Me: pic.twitter.com/XAjigL5QBY

— Son of Baldwin (Robert Jones, Jr.) (@SonofBaldwin) March 6, 2017

The following year, On February 19th, 2018, Twitter user @D_Disciple tweeted the image with the caption "You know, I saw Black Panther opening weekend." The tweet has since been deleted but received more than 195 points (92% upvoted) on the /r/BlackPeopleTwitter subreddit (shown below, left).^[2]

On May 19th, 2018, Twitter^[3] user @cymrogav tweeted the line with a picture of Prince Charles and Megan Markle's mother, Doria Ragland, at the Royal Wedding. The post received more than 6,700 likes and 2,300 retweets in less than three years (shown below, center).

The meme continued into 2020. On February 17th, 2020, Twitter^[4] user @BenjaminPDixon tweeted, "They also would have voted for Obama a third term" in response to a doormat that reads, "In this house: We drink water, do yoga, and don't believe Bernie Sanders." The post received more than 3,000 likes and 200 retweets in less than one year (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References