I guess when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Posted on 09/15/2012 8:20:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It’s no exaggeration to say that race and racism have been defining issues in the Age of Obama. And with the election on the horizon, the question of race and Obama’s political fortunes has returned to the fore. To wit, at the Associated Press, Jesse Washington wonders whether prejudice has played a part in the concerted conservative opposition to Obama’s presidency:
The question of whether race fuels opposition to President Barack Obama has become one of the most divisive topics of the election. It is sowing anger and frustration among conservatives who are labeled racist simply for opposing Obama’s policies and liberals who see no other explanation for such deep dislike of the president.
It is an accusation almost impossible to prove, yet it remains inseparable from the African-American experience. The idea, which seemed to die in 2008 when Obama became the first black president, is now rearing its head from college campuses to cable TV as the Democratic incumbent faces Mitt Romney, the white Republican challenger.
When people ascribe racial motives to President Obama’s opponents, the thought is that we’re calling them “racists,” in a Bull Connor kind of way. But that’s not the case at all. As Ta-Nehisi Coates argues, racism often manifests itself as a “broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.” Despite the fact that he grew up exceptionally privileged in a world that privileged people who fit his description (white and male), no one has ever questioned Mitt Romney’s ability to perform the job of president. No one has ever accused him stupidity, and no one will ever call him an “affirmative action hire.”
By contrast, these are things faced by Obama and other minorities that find themselves in traditionally white domains. During her confirmation hearings, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was frequently described as “not smart enough” to serve alongside men like Antonin Scalia or John Roberts, despite her clear qualifications—Princeton University and Yale Law School—and long service on the federal bench.
As I’ve said on several occasions in other outlets, the vast majority of conservative anger at Barack Obama is not based in race, but it’s clear that it shapes the nature of their opposition. If Hillary Clinton were president, I would say the same of gender and sexism. Indeed, there’s no need to imagine the response to a Clinton presidency—during her campaign, items like the Hillary Clinton “nutcracker” emerged as ways to ridicule her candidacy (while also making a quick buck).
The real question isn’t whether race affects our political disputes, it’s how. This isn’t an easy question. Yes, there are clear racial implications to things like Mitt Romney’s false charge that Obama is “ending the work requirement” in welfare and simply cutting checks to recipients. But, when it comes to the role race plays in voting—did Obama lose votes because he’s black—it’s a little complicated.
In any case, if you’re trying to answer the question of race and opposition to Obama, here’s something to remember: we’re only forty-seven years removed from the official end of Jim Crow. White supremacy was the governing ideology for the vast majority of this country’s history, and—in the broad scheme of things—we’re still in the first legs of our journey toward racial equality.
I guess when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Gee, no reference to the racism of voting FOR Uhbama by certain groups.
No race influences SUPPORT for 0bama. Samual Jackson is just one black support of O who recently made it clear that is why he is supporting 0
That ain’t racism, foo, that jest keepin’ it real, dog.
Maybe that's because he himself was chosen because of his race, and NOT because of his abilities or his leadership skills, in the first place. And because people voted for him because of his race and not because they knew even one actually relevant damn thing about him or the other candidates!
That's sooooooooooooooo 20th century.
This drivel is compliments of another Affirmative Action hire. Gotta have that Black, that “Native American”(as though most of us aren’t), that “Hispanic” (whatever that is) on the faculty or board or committee to prove how incluuuuusive we are.
Then we wonder why many of these people simply can’t do the job. Perish the thought that we would go back to the bad old days of hiring the most qualified so we could get the job done instead of wasting time on the ever-popular “sensitivity training.”
Clarence Thomas, Herman Cain, etc. Examples of Blacks getting too uppity.
Race doesn’t affect my dislike for Obama, but stupdiity, incompetance and serial lying do.
It influences the ninety five percent of the black vote that supports him too.
When you base your life on being a VICTIM, I guess everything looks like racism, sexism, etc.....these people are soooo sickening. I can’t stand Obomba because of his POLICIES....Clarence Thomas is someone I’d much rather have as President!
And how many people of color are racist against those who are of a different or of no color?
/rhetorical
These people live in a different universe
In the TV show CARTER COUNTRY the bigoted cop once said “There hasn’t been a white man named Washington since George.” Let me repeat: I didn’t say it. It was on a TV show.
It is sad and sick that they responded like this, and I pray for them.
bttt
As Ta-Nehisi Coates argues, racism often manifests itself as a “broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.”
I wonder if these people ever listen to themselves or if understand the meaning of the high and mighty words they string together for tribal studies. Socialist black racists used to say, “we can’t be racist because we have no power.” Well, we have a black president and they are still belly aching. That’s because, as the brilliant race scholar Tanehisi explains, they are big fat racists.
Is Stupidity a race? If so then I am voting against Obama on racial grounds.
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