Why is White Right Attacking the First Black President?
Final Call, News Analysis, Charlene Muhammad, Posted: Aug 06, 2009
(FinalCall.com) - President Barack Obama recently met over beer with Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley, hoping to diffuse tense debates over racial profiling and racial bias triggered by the arrest of the Harvard University scholar by the Cambridge, Mass., police department officer.
Though that racially charged conversation may be over, vicious attacks on the first Black President of the United States are not. Analysts say don't expect the attacks to end anytime soon.
The most outrageous charges may have come from radio and TV talk show host Glenn Beck. “I'm not saying that he doesn't like people I'm saying he has a problem. He has a, this guy is, I believe a racist,” he said during a morning show on Fox News Network July 28. The president has a deep seated hatred for White people or their White culture, said Mr. Beck.
“Beck is paid to do just what he did and his remarks represent a psychological game that's being played by people who have no program, nothing positive, and no alternative and it's absurd for them to even start throwing around that Barack Obama is racist when his mother's White and most of his cabinet is White,” said Dr. David Horne, executive director of the California African American Political and Economic Institute, a political think tank in Southern California.
“The criticisms are nonsense and really are the desperate acts of people who don't like being displaced in terms of their image and sense of who they are,” Dr. Horne said.
Since he announced his candidacy, Mr. Obama and his family have been maligned, slandered, and targeted by right wing and so-called independent media hosts. Among those who have focused on largely discredited issues are right wing radio host Rush Limbaugh and self-described “independent” CNN host Lou Dobbs.
Verbal assaults against Mr. Obama have ranged from outright racist insults to doubts about the president's citizenship, his religion, his patriotism and his racial loyalties. Whites known collectively as “the Birthers” have refused to accept proof Mr. Obama, the son of a White American mother and a Kenyan father, was born in Hawaii. They haven't been satisfied by the birth certificate circulating on line, or produced by both the Obama campaign and the state of Hawaii. They aren't alone.
As of mid-July, nine Republican members of Congress were supporting a bill by Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) that would require all presidential candidates to provide their birth certificate.
“I see naked raw politics from people who did not win the election, who want power again; who didn't win the election whose agendas and policies caused the subprime crisis, the housing crisis, the jobs crisis, the financial services crisis,” said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League.
“These policies and their promoters, many of them are the deep, deep, deep wizards behind the curtains on these attacks on the president and the attacks are part of politics—some are fair, many are not. It's always fair to have a debate about public policy. But personal attacks like the inane and insane point of view that the president is not a citizen of the United States that's, you know, just such a distraction and designed to divide people,” he said.
Mr. Dobbs has focused so much on the Birthers and support for demands that Mr. Obama present a birth certificate that it may be hurting his ratings and causing friction for him with CNN.
“These guys are spouting this rhetoric that's dangerous in terms of public discourse around race. It completely sidetracks the ability of government to do its work, which I believe is these guys' intent here, and at the end of the day ... the reason why Beck is able to say these things on the big platform that he has is because advertisers pay for it,” James Rucker, of ColorOfChange.org, told The Final Call.
ColorOfChange.org, a Bay area-based activist group, launched an Internet campaign (http://www.colorofchange.org/beck) July 30, urging its more than 600,000 members to petition Mr. Beck's advertisers (including GEICO, NutriSystems, Proctor & Gamble, and United Postal Service) to pull their sponsorships.
In one day, 20,000 people joined the campaign to express their outrage, said Mr. Rucker, a co-founder of ColorOfChange. In addition, he said Fox News Channel has usually been a platform for more sophisticated and subtle race-baiting and racism. Mr. Beck is allowed to make baseless accusations and characterizations of the president and every American, Black and White, should be insulted, Mr. Rucker said.
“The man's mother is White and he got half of this country to vote for him. I don't know how that happens and you're a Black militant at the same time,” he added.
Bill Shine, Fox News' senior vice president of programming, disavowed Mr. Beck's comments the same day they were made. “Glenn Beck expressed a personal opinion which represented his own views, not those of the Fox News Channel. And as with all commentators in the cable news arena, he is given the freedom to express his opinions,” Mr. Shine told TVNewser, an industry news blog.
Since announcement of his candidacy, right wingers have been slinging mud and innuendo at the man raised largely by his White grandparents. They have called him a secret Muslim, a supporter of a Black racist church and pastor, a Socialist and a pampered insider. Mr. Limbaugh admitted shortly after the inauguration that he hoped President Obama failed.
“Barack Obama has one thing in common with God ... Know what it is? God does not have a birth certificate either,” Mr. Limbaugh recently told his listeners.
Mr. Dobbs has come under fire for giving play to the Birthers during his show and critics are calling on CNN to remove him from the network. According to the Associated Press, Mr. Dobbs reported on the issue twice, even though CNN President Jon Klein sent him a memo saying it seemed the story was dead.
A video circulating on the Internet and broadcast over news programs shows an emotional White woman talking about the president at a town hall meeting in Delaware hosted by Rep. Mike Castle (R). “He is not an American citizen ... He is a citizen of Kenya ... I want my country back!” she shouts, waving a copy of her own birth certificate in the air. Applause and cheering can be heard in the background.
“Those fools, the Birthers, have been to the Supreme Court twice and been rejected. They've had five hearings and every single time the legal system has said ‘You have no case,'” Dr. Horne said.
“These are essentially different manifestations of some White men being bitter, being jealous, and being angry because some Black man basically is not in his place.”
Many fear right wing media attacks are revving up extremist hatred and fears that have produced real consequences given that President Obama has received more death threats than any president or White House candidate in U.S. history.
Dr. Horne believes that as long as he is in office, and as long as he's successful, the attacks against President Obama will not stop because criticizing, throwing rocks and character assassinations are the easiest things to do.
Any Obama comment related to a racial controversy or subject seems prone to spark a negative White backlash and then a presidential apology or retreat. The recent beer conversation was more about reassuring White America that everything's ok, and perhaps less about telling Black folks to move on, Mr. Rucker said. Calls for President Obama to apologize, after he said the police who arrested Prof. Gates for disorderly conduct in his own home “acted stupidly,” came as his poll ratings dropped from 61 percent in mid-June to 54 percent in late July to 46 percent in early August. The drops are mainly because of his handling of the economy and federal deficit, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
“I think it struck a nerve in America. I think for Black and Latino people it reminded us that things are not as settled as we have claimed them to be in this so-called post-racial era,” Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, of Georgetown University, said of the Gates incident and White House beer summit. The real issue, he argued, is that a Black man called a White man stupid.
“Let's just be real. Even if he's the president of the United States, there's something intolerable about Black judgment of White intelligence,” Dr. Dyson said.
Dr. Joy DeGruy, author of “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing,” said those lying in wait for the president will give him room as long as he doesn't overstep his bounds on race issues and the impact of race on Blacks, other oppressed people, societal behavior and governmental systems.
Of all people, Dr. DeGruy said, President Obama holds the perspective of both Black and White because he is bi-racial.
“This is never acknowledged because what they again are saying is, ‘It doesn't matter. You're still Black to us, too, despite your White mother. She lost her Whiteness when she had you. She lost her Whiteness the moment she engaged with a Black man,'” Dr. DeGruy said.
Related Articles:
Major Advertisers Flee From Glenn Beck
What if Henry Louis Gates Were Not an Acclaimed Professor?
The 'Birther' Movement Won’t Go Away, and for Good Reason
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User Comments
blakdawg on Aug 24, 2009 at 03:08:55 said:
We blacks must really suffer from an inferiority complex, to keep throwing in the lame ass race card everytime americans tell us the truth about obama! obama is an idiot folks, open your wide eyes and see the truth before it's to late.obama is a racist of the worst kind,because he has you following in goosestep formation kicking down the best part of America,while he smiles to your face. Much like hitler had his minnions fooled, until a few smart ones tried to get rid of him.But then he turned that into a propaganda tool much like obama turns the truth against anyone, who is by Gods grace trying to stop him. May God bless this country and get rid of obama for all our sakes,Amen. dawg
Bubba on Aug 14, 2009 at 13:03:13 said:
Wei: If 10 people told you it was raining you would disbelieve them becuase they were all saying the same thing. or, IT'S RAINING!
Wei on Aug 14, 2009 at 09:28:37 said:
I have read the same comments - sometimes word-for-word - from the anti-Obama folks. This is clearly an AstroTurf (phony grassroots) attack facilitated using a simple Google search... Truth by repetition.
I didn't vote for Obama. But some anti-Obama people are just too irrational to engage an intelligent conversation with. But conventional wisdom states that one measures one's success by the reaction of their adversaries. I guess Obama is VERY successful!
John Music on Aug 13, 2009 at 07:37:54 said:
There are many reason to not like Obama. For me, it's his utter dishonesty, his arrogance and his thuggish behavior. But the MSM and this article keep telling everybody the only possible reason to not like him is the color of his skin. Well, since that's my only choice, I'll take it. The fact that he studied and practiced Black Liberation Theology for 20 years, or that he was brought up as a Muslim in Indonesia, does not endear him to to us honkies.
Jayme on Aug 11, 2009 at 23:38:16 said:
I can't believe how biased this article is and how ignorant the left wing is about this president and health plan. I shouldn't be surprised, because that's what the left does...hate and spew poison. It's not about color/race at all. If you want to make it about it, then that's your problem. The issue is with his health rationing and how it will kill us off as we age. You ready to be put to sleep if you develop a disease? It's horrible and immoral; that's what this president brings to us citizens. We don't want his change.
Jayme on Aug 11, 2009 at 23:37:11 said:
I can't believe how biased this article is and how ignorant the left wing is about this president and health plan. I shouldn't be surprised, because that's what the left does...hate and spew poison. It's not about color/race at all. If you want to make it about it, then that's your problem. The issue is with his health rationing and how it will kill us off as we age. You ready to be put to sleep if you develop a disease? It's horrible and immoral; that's what this president brings to us citizens. We don't want his change.
Jayme on Aug 07, 2009 at 20:04:45 said:
I can't believe how biased this article is and how ignorant the left wing is about this president and health plan. I shouldn't be surprised, because that's what the left does...hate and spew poison. It's not about color/race at all. If you want to make it about it, then that's your problem. The issue is with his health rationing and how it will kill us off as we age. You ready to be put to sleep if you develop a disease? It's horrible and immoral; that's what this president brings to us citizens. We don't want his change.
albert camper, jr. on Aug 07, 2009 at 11:42:05 said:
agree!
Geo on Aug 07, 2009 at 10:10:38 said:
These comments display more racism and facsism and total ignorance than I have seen in a long time. It's idiots like you that were taken in by Hitler. They believed that immigrants and liberalism were taking over their beloved country and they needed to take it back. Look where that got them. Keep listening to Rush and Glenn Beck!
Uriah X. on Aug 07, 2009 at 06:21:24 said:
the writer is a Mohammedan, follower of the child-molesting mass-murdering prophet.
that says all you need to know.
Constitutionalist on Aug 07, 2009 at 06:19:51 said:
"Analysts say don't expect the attacks to end anytime soon."
At least not until Obama releases his birth certificate.
"60 Million crazed racists voted against Obama in 2008. Where are we going to lock them all up?"
Jan on Aug 07, 2009 at 05:48:52 said:
No offense, Paul, but it sounds as if you are the one who needs to grow up. You need to take the blinders off - immediately. The majority of the comments made in response to this biased, I dare say, attempted piece of journalism are coming from American citizens who are deeply concerned about the path that Congress for the last twenty/thirty years has taken and Obama's devastating agenda for this wonderful country. If you think for one moment that conservative, constitution loving Americans are going to sit back and let this bandit destroy our beloved country, you are nutty as a fruit cake - period! I totally respect the office that B.H.O. now holds, but I DO NOT respect any part of the man. Liberals like to think that everyone who is opposed to Obama's tactics and agenda is racist. Not true. I have some dear friends who are black. One of my doctors is black. I work with a wonderful and talented man who is black. Black, white, brown, yellow what does it matter? It doesn't. It is the character, what's inside a man's heart and mind, that determines how I view an individual. In Obama's case, he has shown me that he is a racist, a manipulator, a liar, a "smooth" talker with absolutely NO SUBSTANCE to his words, and an arrogant piece of work. I am amazed how many Americans were fooled and are still being taken for a ride by this man. Grow up, Paul.
C Lakey on Aug 07, 2009 at 01:31:28 said:
His actions speak a thousand words, you have racists from within their mind, they dare show except with the slip of the tongue, black and white. Rev Jackson, Rev Sharp, Rev Wright look where he has been who he assocates himself with he lives with a angry black women, you can't even call a black a black without being racist, example as in two blackmen pushing on a door! They have had just as many rights as every other race Vietnamese, Latino, Mexican American for the last 40 years but their still complaining about the same stuff, thats why I look at them (Wright, Sharpton, Jackson) and say to myself "Come on give me a break" if I said it out loud I would be a racist. It won't stop until they change their frame of mind and their attitude.
Paul on Aug 07, 2009 at 00:44:39 said:
It's so shameful how one would waste time jotting statements as seen here.Would a white man die as a result of having a bi-racial leader,this is primitive in this age and for those whose see Obama through his skin colour please know that we are not in the ice age.
Capability is not dependent on race but build on idealogies and shear determination.
As America prides itself to be a super power it sick to see how it's citizens treat one another.grow up americans please.
Nathan Hale on Aug 06, 2009 at 23:27:28 said:
I really enjoy coming to this web-site some times. It is funny for me to see that most of the comments are by conservative and patriotic Americans.
I guess when I go to a leftist site and read the articles. I feel like a "rubber necker" on a highway driving by slowly at the sceen of a very bad accident. The very bad accident being all things liberal, leftist and anti-American, which is New America Media.
justin on Aug 06, 2009 at 22:58:03 said:
This "writer" is a racist PoS.
Keep hanging the white strawman you've built up.
I can't believe you get paid to write nonsense about how the big bad whitey is out to get him.
Evil evil whitey. Seriously, look in the mirror.
Lloyd on Aug 06, 2009 at 21:40:33 said:
Ms. Muhammad, do you actually and truly believe this drivel you call writing?
Get over your fixation on race and open your eyes. Yes, you might still find the 3 remaining KKK members somewhere in South Carolina, but the problem real America has with Mr. Obama is with his policies and the utter destruction he is causing to everything that was ever good about this country.
He has taken bold steps toward nationalizing everything he manages to walk by or read a headline about. He divides America into groups and sub-groups then pits them one against the other, he assumes race is an issue and inserts himself into an arrest in Boston which any sane person would have considered a local matter and wisely deferred to comment on. The list of grievances is too long to list them here, but you should at least consider the possibility that a significant portion of the population in the USA does NOT want to live in your utopian delusion and there is nothing in this that has anything to do with RACE.
Stop it with the racist drum beating, your act is becoming tiresome
Jan Woodson on Aug 06, 2009 at 21:15:48 said:
I see. Not voting for B.H.O. makes me a racist? Right. I love it when the left cries "racist" just because a person doesn't fall hook, line, and sinker from "Smooth Talker" Obama. Any half-wit can recognize a fake like Obama. On the other hand, Obama does fit the definition of a racist in that he does practice and support racism. He attend "Reverend" Wrigt's bigot rehetoric and sermons for some twenty plus years. His quick reaction to the Gates incident showed Obama's own deep racial bias. He is an angry person who is hell bent on destroying America because of past injustices done to blacks. I could care less that Obama bills himself as black, even though he is half and half. My problem with Obama has NOTHING to do with the color of his skin, but has everything to do with his doomed blueprint for America. Obama is using tactics that Hitler used with not only the people of Germany, but in all of Europe. Obama tries to intimidate, belittle, insult, and rough up anyone who opposes him - period! He has absolutely no class - none! Bowing to a Saudi royal, having a beer party to soften his inaccurate and rude remarks towards the Cambridge Police Department, and not being "proud" to wear an American flag on his lapel before he was elected President of the United States are just a few examples of his lack of class and character. You bleeding heart liberals need to look back before the election and see just exactly what BHO promised and what course he has actually taken. Still proud that you voted for this idiot for brains? Sadly, you probably are still proud. That's the problem with carefree, anything goes liberal thinking. Where I'm from it goes without saying - If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck - it's a duck. If it walks like a sleeze and it talks like a sleeze - it's a sleeze. Enough said.
ben bebee on Aug 06, 2009 at 20:43:27 said:
You had better wake the hell up America!!!! because Obama is turning America into Hell on Earth!!! Stand up for the Constitution!!!
Davew on Aug 06, 2009 at 20:14:22 said:
The United States Constitution and Federal Law REQUIRES (not recommend) a natural born US citizen to be president.
If Obama has a real US birth certificate, why hasn't he requested it to be released and prove all the critics wrong???
Again, the United States Constitution and Federal Law REQUIRES (not recommend) a natural born US citizen to be president.
It only takes about 5 minutes over the phone to get one from the hospital you're born in.
It's easy to prove if you have a real one.
Captain Steve on Aug 06, 2009 at 17:51:15 said:
Obama's hidden records and natural born citizenship are legitimate issues.
It's no surprise that Hillary Clinton just went to Kenya to reinforce the cover-up.
I still want answers. Obummer, put up or get out!!!! All he has to do is make the following official public statement,
"I Barack Obama authorize the State of Hawaii to release and make public all of my records on file."
That's it. Issue over. But he won't because he's a fraud!! Obama knows that millions of citizens want to see it yet he continues to hide it. What/why is he hiding? and most disturbingly, why don't BHO's supporters want to know the whole truth, especially since there's a reward of $100,000 for proof that Obama is a "natural born" citizen of the United States.
OBAMA, STOP HIDING. SHOW US THE LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE AND YOUR OTHER RECORDS!!!!!
Howard on Aug 06, 2009 at 16:41:58 said:
Why do you keep noticing his skin color? Racist myopia?
We dislike his ideas, yet you somehow cannot keep but translating everything into skin color.
If only you knew how transparent your juvenile actions are. We see right through it, you just don't think we do.
malclave on Aug 06, 2009 at 16:40:40 said:
Yeah, yeah, heard it all before. Any criticism of Obama's policies is racist.
I've been being called racist simply because I'm white, male, and registered as a Republican. The problem is not me, but your own racial bigotry.
Adam on Aug 06, 2009 at 15:54:57 said:
There are three issues here, none of which has to do with 'race':
*Contrary to what has been reported in the media, Obama has NOT released difinitive proof of being born in Hawai'i. The issue at hand is the idiosynchratic HI law that allows parents to obtain a Certificate Of Live Birth (the document Obama provided and FactCheck 'verified'), even though a child was born OUTSIDE of the state. For this reason, the COLB is not considered sufficient for the purposes of the Hawai'ian Homestead Program. Contrary to what some have claimed, the Hawai'ian department of health still retains origional Birth Certificates on file, providing photocopies of them for a nominal fee. This, of course, requires the person's consent, something Obama refuses to allow. These documents list, among other things, the physician who attended the birth. Hawai'ian officials have stated that they have such a document on file, but have not definitively stated whether-or-not it indicates that Obama was BORN in HI.
*Obama himself has named two separate hospitals--Queens and Kapi'olani--as his birthplace. His current pick, Kapi'olani, will not confirm, or deny his birth there. As presidential birthplaces have become virtual shrines (including those of such utterly unremarkable Vice Presidents as Dan Quayle), this is certainly odd. Releasing his mother's maternity ward admission records would be one way to confirm his birth in Kapi'olani, but again, he has not been forthcoming. Nor will Obama disclose his college admission records--something both Bushes and John Kerry have done. For a person who was very candid abut things like cocaine use, this is uncharacteristically secretive.
*The media have been less than impartial with their coverage of Obama. Likely, this is because the media-telecom sector were major contributors to the $700M Obama-Biden campaign and inauguration fund. 'News' coverage of Obama has been blatantly propagandistic and his many gaffes (the protocol-violating bow to King Abdulla, referring to America's "57 states") are not reported. The media coverage of the 'birthers' has been shrill: terms like 'wingnut' and 'tinfoil hat-wearing' are hardly journalistic. Additionally, Obama has had a less than squeaky-clean mentor, in the form of Richard M. Daley.
Americans were right to scrutinize the eligibility of John McCain; for his part, McCain disclosed ALL of his pertinent records. 'Mr. Transparency' owes his voters the same, and the media should demand this of him.
csh on Aug 06, 2009 at 15:39:09 said:
Nobody was attacked more unfairly, relentlessly and viciously than Bill and Hillary Clinton. Surely you remember the 73 million dollars of tax payer money that funded the various Ken Starr investigations?
Constitutionalist on Aug 06, 2009 at 15:01:46 said:
"Analysts say don't expect the attacks to end anytime soon."
At least not until Obama releases his birth certificate.
"60 Million crazed racists voted against Obama in 2008. Where are we going to lock them all up?"
Constitutionalist on Aug 06, 2009 at 15:00:25 said:
"Analysts say don't expect the attacks to end anytime soon."
At least not until Obama releases his birth certificate.
"60 Million crazed racists voted against Obama in 2008. Where are we going to lock them all up?"
Mary on Aug 06, 2009 at 15:00:17 said:
The Media loves it. They don't care that they are pitting the completely ignorant against the rest of us...they love the catfight. When something bad happens to our President, they'll all want to be the fist to CARRY IT LIVE. They are evil, brainwashing bull-shit artists, and I'm done watching CNN.
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