The Washington Post helpfully points out that white cast members have portrayed black celebrities in the past and that nobody complained: Darrell Hammond repeatedly played Jesse Jackson, and Billy Crystal took a turn as Sammy Davis Jr. In one respect the critics are right: There must be someone out there who is black and could impersonate Obama. But isn’t it a step backward to say that only a black person could successfully impersonate another black person? As if the gulf between the races is so vast that skin color trumps speech and gestures — which are after all what impersonation is about? And remember Ben Kingsley, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Gandhi (in dark makeup)? We all thought he did a pretty good job, and he was from a mixed background, like Armisen. And in fact, like Barack Obama. —Dan Amira