by Freddy J. Angstmann
I don’t think anyone was under some real illusion that the election of Barack Obama actually means the end of racism in America. I’m pretty sure that the president-elect knew it better than anyone. After all, he saw it every day from the moment he announced his candidacy. To some degree, he saw it within his own party during the primaries. And he saw it in all ugliness during the general election. For half of this country, he was “That One” No matter how big and clear his victory was, no matter how smart he is, no matter how decent he is, no matter what a true patriot he is. No matter how optimistic and positive his vision for America, all that didn’t matter, because at the end of the day he was still black.
I’m quite old. I remember, vaguely, where my parents were on November 22, 1963. I’ve seen so many presidents. Some were feared, some hated, some adored, some popular and some not. But all of them, without exception, were treated with the highest respect deserving the office of the President of the United States. That’s until a black man won the right to occupy this office. In the eyes of many, Barack Obama is still “that one.” He is still being disrespected and at the same time still being held to the highest standard of any president ever! Not just by the Republican side! He had to perform three times better than any President in history, and even that has not been enough.
For the media, he has been many more times just “Obama” than “Pesident Obama” and they try to create scandals out of nothing issues. It took at least 6 years to start giving George W. Bush a small part of what he deserved, yet it took them less than 6 months to begin riding Obama for not fixing the catastrophe that they left for him.
They use condescending tones when talking about him and only mildly less condescending when they talk to him. With anyone else, CNN wouldn’t dare go to commercials every time the president speaks, as they did during one summit. They wouldn’t dare be counting how many minutes George Bush or Bill Clinton were talking. Chris Matthews wouldn’t dare make an issue out of Ronald Regan calling members of congress by their first name, like he is not actually the President.
They fully cooperate with the Right-Wing smear machine when it comes to President Obama’s national security performance-–even if almost every independent and military expert actually thinks that he’s a terrific Commander-in-Chief. You’ll never see them on TV and virtually no one from the Left, in congress and outside, defend the President on this matter.
I don’t care about the Far-Right. It’s the way the beltway and the mainstream treats this President that is shocking and how some Republicans have no trouble interrupting him in the middle of a sentence. It appears to make them literally sick to have to address him as “Mr. President” and all have this Eric-Cantor-Smirk whenever he speaks.
President Obama is labeled “arrogant” because he knows the facts better than all of them combined. He is an “elitist” because he uses big words that they don’t understand. He is “weak on national security” because he actually thinks about the consequences. He divides the country” (well, he did that the day he had the audacity to win the election). Worst of all, he actually thinks that he’s the president! You’d think that previous Presidents didn’t have any ego. Somehow it turned out that the one President who treats even his biggest opponents with utmost respect 2 is the “arrogant one.” I wonder why?
I expected that his winning the Presidency would bring out some ugliness, but it’s been far worse than I ever imagined. The racism coming from the Right is obviously clear and shameless, but there’s also some hidden and maybe subconscious and disturbing underline tone behind some of the things that read here and throughout the Left blogosphere.
The fact is that for millions in America, Barack Obama is this uppity Black man (not even a “real” black) who received good education only due to Affirmative Action, and has no right to litter the sacred Oval Office with his skin color. They just can’t accept the fact that the President is a Black man, who, unlike his predecessor, was actually legally elected. But what’s really sad is that it’s not just the fringe, its deep, deep in mainstream America.
Barack Obama’s ability to remain above all this slob, to keep his optimism and his strange and mostly unjustified faith in people, while continuing to gracefully deal with endless obstacles–is one of the most inspiring displays of human quality I have ever seen. And I can only hope that the Cosmos is on his side because God is. Sometimes, they make me feel ashamed to be a White man!
