Racism: How to Change the Debate
When the fire gets too hot, either the media or President Obama seem to want to bring his “race” into the debate. Conservatives, like Glenn Beck, have made this matter worse by asserting insane comments like “Obama hates white people” or is “racist” himself.
The President’s ignorant comments to support his friend Professor Gates did reveal a prejudice nature and a trigger happy component from the President to stereotype according to race. This hardly means a “half-white” man hates white people.
But Obama’s track record is getting muddled with instances of leaning on the race card to get through troubled time. When the critics begin asking difficult questions racism is the immediate response.
Rep. Joe Wilson rudely shouted at the President and columnist Maureen Dowd translated his outburst into “You Lie, Boy”(see below)
Boy?
I thought the immediate racism was going to be the exclusion of the illegal immigrants and the insensitive nature of Wilson and other Republicans.
Nope.
Now the media cycle has embraced the “racism” headline to explain the opposition. We are only seeing the fringe minority and painting the masses at protests and Townhalls as being racist. I’m sure there is a small contingent that may be approaching the debate hindered by their prejudice, but there’s an equal or greater support for the President, who support him unilaterally because he’s a minorty. If the country was so obsessed with race, would he be the President?
President Carter joined the fray:
“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American. I live in the South, and I’ve seen the South come a long way, and I’ve seen the rest of the country that shares the South’s attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans.”
Those racist Southerners — always behind the curve on tolerance.
Look, many of us are trying to ask viable questions about many issues and I find it destructive to resort to the crutch of racism. I don’t care about the color of the President’s skin, but care deeply about the thickness of it.
NBC’s Matt Lauer suggested. “We talk about political divides, ideological differences that sometimes turn ugly. … Why can’t we say this is what this is about right now? Why does race have to be made part of it?”
