On Friday President Barack Obama wandered into a White House briefing room where reporters were expecting to see the press secretary talk about the mundane ongoing happenings of the executive branch. What they got instead was a candid account from the president on how it was to grow up black in America. Shockingly it wasn't all winsome dance numbers up and down marble staircases with Shirley Temple.
It turns out it kind of sucked in many ways. And getting scholarships into Columbia and Harvard universities, graduating with honors from said institutions then working up through the political ladders into the most powerful post in the world does not change any of that. As people—human beings with functioning sentient self cognition abilities—we are the sum total of our past experiences. That history shapes how we think and react to the world around us. Obama is no different. And he acknowledged this in that briefing room.
"There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they are shopping at a department store. And that includes me. There are very few African- American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off."
Obama was not elected only by people who grew up free of the stain of racist prejudice. This is a nation that within the lifetime of current students still had real estate agents taut the lack of black neighbors when trying to sell a house. Many who voted for him were once people who would openly state they'd never vote for a black man.
Well they changed with time.
And yet it seems many refuse to even acknowledge this. No sooner had Obama talked about prejudice growing up than right wing partisans jumped all over him for it.
"Race-Baiter In Chief" —Emily Arrowood of Media Matters
"If you ever had any doubts, Obama is the first Racist in Chief" —Dan Riehl
"Agitator-in-Chief" —Free Republic
Got that? Acknowledging that people have been racist to you makes you racist. Also it seems part of the job of president is to lie and pretend everything is well.
"Good Lord - He’s stoking a race war." —Jim Hoft
Right, let us avoid the race war by ignoring racism. That always works.
"Without lying and affirmation action - he’s right - it could have been him. The same hatred is there. He’s only bashing whitey now with a suit and not a hoodie." —Free Republic
Ah yes. From the same school of thought where anti-racism means anti-white.
"I am so sick of his lying crap. All his life he has been the beneficiary of being Black. He had no reason to rise above being a common laborer if he had been White." —Free Republic
So...white people don't study, work hard and apply to attend top schools?
There is a lot more. I might post them when I've regained some hope in humanity.
It turns out it kind of sucked in many ways. And getting scholarships into Columbia and Harvard universities, graduating with honors from said institutions then working up through the political ladders into the most powerful post in the world does not change any of that. As people—human beings with functioning sentient self cognition abilities—we are the sum total of our past experiences. That history shapes how we think and react to the world around us. Obama is no different. And he acknowledged this in that briefing room.
"There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they are shopping at a department store. And that includes me. There are very few African- American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off."
-President Barack Obama
Obama was not elected only by people who grew up free of the stain of racist prejudice. This is a nation that within the lifetime of current students still had real estate agents taut the lack of black neighbors when trying to sell a house. Many who voted for him were once people who would openly state they'd never vote for a black man.
Well they changed with time.
And yet it seems many refuse to even acknowledge this. No sooner had Obama talked about prejudice growing up than right wing partisans jumped all over him for it.
"Race-Baiter In Chief" —Emily Arrowood of Media Matters
"If you ever had any doubts, Obama is the first Racist in Chief" —Dan Riehl
"Agitator-in-Chief" —Free Republic
Got that? Acknowledging that people have been racist to you makes you racist. Also it seems part of the job of president is to lie and pretend everything is well.
"Good Lord - He’s stoking a race war." —Jim Hoft
Right, let us avoid the race war by ignoring racism. That always works.
"Without lying and affirmation action - he’s right - it could have been him. The same hatred is there. He’s only bashing whitey now with a suit and not a hoodie." —Free Republic
Ah yes. From the same school of thought where anti-racism means anti-white.
"I am so sick of his lying crap. All his life he has been the beneficiary of being Black. He had no reason to rise above being a common laborer if he had been White." —Free Republic
So...white people don't study, work hard and apply to attend top schools?
There is a lot more. I might post them when I've regained some hope in humanity.
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