As did many of us, I had the opportunity to hear the President speak several times this past weekend, on the Sunday morning news and editorial network broadcasts. What I was watching for was response to the recent remarks by former President Jimmy Carter, in which he said that many of the President’s political and media adversaries were more than slightly motivated by racism. That has been my contention for some time.
As to the multiple interviews, I found one particularly interesting. On This Week, in an interview with George Stephanopoulous, the two men seemed to be more clashing than might have been predicted. One might conclude that Stephanopoulous was trying to avoid being viewed as consistently liberal. Recently on that program, George Will has moved to a considerably more conservative point of view than he had previously maintained. I enjoyed the President's final statement on the ACORN Issue, in which he said words to the effect that that's not really one of the most pressing issues of the day. More accurately, “You know, if — frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely.”
Getting back to the point of this article, former President Jimmy Carter had the courage recently to accuse the President’s critics of racism. Interviewed by NBC's Brian Williams on Tuesday, September 15, Carter said:
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 shared the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African Americans. And that racism inclination still exists. And I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply.
I have suspected such motivation myself. Following an election which was defined by promises of reaching across the aisle, it seemed and still seems that the Republicans and many powerful persons in the media and business are defying reason with their utter lack of objectivity. It occurs to me that in this new era of transparency and accountability, some individuals and groups may be feeling a financial pinch. Such a pinch may be quite a motivator.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ruvy
I don't know what planet you are living on, John, but it does not appear to be earth. World tensions are easing? Iran moves towards a bomb, threatens the United States, acquires arms from the Russian Federation, builds an empire in West Asia and tensions are easing? President Obama cancels a missile defense plan in Eastern Europe out of fear of the Russians and tensions are easing?
Either you have nerves of steel or you are living in Bizarro World where everything is the opposite of what it is here.
And you find the words of a monomaniac Jew-hater and Arab ass-kisser like Jimmy Careter to be persuasive? Are you sure this isn't a humor piece?
If you were to label this article "satire", it might be more persuasive.
Oh, by the way, while the little Hitler from Iran was talking about how democratic the elections in his couintry were, the people in his country were screaming "down with the dictator!". Obama didn't mention that at the UN - no, he dicided to try to bully the Israeli government instead.
Okay, Mr. Liberal, now I have a question for you. What kind of obscene hypocrisy is it for a black man from the United States to try to dictate to Jews that parts of their country should be judenrein. Who the hell is he to preach segregation to us?
2 - John Lake
RUVY:
Don't think I don't apprciate you comments - I do. Americans today must find it difficult or impossible to think clearly and objectivly, given the mass of propaganda pouring forth daily from media sources. I knew Rush Limbaugh when he still was almost sensible in his tirades.
The fact is, the Muslim World has responded very favorably to our new President.
I don't understand how anyone can fail to appreciate the gains in our economy, much more quickly than even the most optimistic had anticipated.
We are moving forward on healthcare, and with temporary government supervision the finance, auto, and insurance quarters are rapidly improving.
Negros have been victims of injustice for many generations, and for the most part have been patient and believing in a fair and just Creator.
Obama will sensibly approach the Israel/Palestine matters, and I think his lack of conficting intrests will be rewarded.
3 - roger nowosielski
That's the one thing I'm least convinced about, John, the gains in our economy. I really, really fail to see it.
4 - Baronius
This is a terrible article. Factually wrong, poorly written, failing even to address the question in its title.
5 - Doug Hunter
I think I know what you're talking when it comes to this 'objectivity'.
Liberal Objective Learning Video
6 - roger nowosielski
That's unbelievable, Doug. No different from the kind of indoctrination that the Chinese kids were (or still are) subjected to in order to worship Mao.
There is no educational value at all to such an exercise. Even in a kindergarten that's inexcusable.
7 - Jeanne Browne
Jimmy Carter is correct and the President knows he's correct, but he can't say so (unfortunately), because it will be viewed by many as whining or playing the race card or some-such nonsense. As a nation, we seem to have a very hard time dealing with racism: admitting it exists, talking about it, actively trying to change it. The problem here is that, as Pres. Obama did say, some of the hysteria is based on genuine economic fear and philosophical & political differences. Any President trying to do what Obama's trying to do would be getting major heat -- but the intensity and ugliness of it is inescapably racist. We may have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.
8 - Dave Nalle
John, when it comes to the reaction of muslims to Obama I think I'll trust Ruvy's first-hand experience over your "objectivity" which based on this article is anything but.
Carter is an idiot, Obama came close to saying it in the Sunday morning interviews, and the fact that you couldn't even listen to what Obama was saying on this subject points out how totally disconnectd from reality you are.
Dave
9 - Jeanne Browne
P.S. Speaking of intensity and ugliness, it seems to me that every time I read the comments on nearly any BC article, the remarks are over-the-top, insulting, and frequently drift waaaaay off-point. Is this really necessary? Can't we have grown-up, polite conversations about issues and the opinions of others? We're all (ostensibly) writers and thinking persons. Surely we can do better than this!
10 - doug m
While there may be critics of obama and his policies that are racist, I have yet to see any evidence that is their sole reasoning. Point to one instance where someone has gone on record and stated they are against the health care changes because obama is a black man.
Are people more active or agitated because he's black? Possible, but so what?
11 - Doug Hunter
"Can't we have grown-up, polite conversations about issues and the opinions of others?"
When the large percentage of the articles written lately seem to just be longwinded shouts of 'racist!' at the opposition, what do you expect? The comments are just more succinct versions of the same type of insults the articles themselves provide. Write an enlightened and thoughtful article and you'll likely get higher quality comments, there are examples of this on the site (granted there are no guarantees)
12 - Lumpy
Well the title is right in a kind of ironic, myopic self-parody kind of way.
13 - Baronius
Jeanne, I'd normally try to say something polite, provocative, and/or insightful, but look at this article.
The president told "journalist" George Stephanopoulous that it doesn't interest him that one of the few organizations on his resume was exposed as an outfit where morons and wannabe criminals can get jobs? Reagan took grief for his B-movies for decades, but we're not supposed to be interested in Obama's community organizers arranging for underage slaves?
Exhibit number two of gullibility: an abandonment of missile defense in Europe is labelled "strengthening". What does that even mean? John goes on to say that a missile defense system would take 8 years to implement. Is that supposed to be an argument for putting it off?
Next: the job market has improved under Obama. False. Not even close to true. Not even a pardonable misreading of the truth.
Toss in the lack of political insight and a failure to actually answer the question "is it racism" in a coherent way, and you've got one terrible article.
14 - Jeanne Browne
Baronius -- Frankly, I agree with you: I don't think this is a particularly well-written piece and there are factual errors. And while I can't be bothered with the whole ACORN thing (it's not like Obama started this organization), I too was surprised by the author's claim that the job market has improved; it clearly has not.
But what John Lake and others have been asking, legitimately, is where does political protest end and racist feeling begin? I think Jimmy Carter spoke up because he's a white, southern former president (who isn't Bill Clinton) and as such has the necessary credibility to point to the elephant in the room. And indeed, if the protests against Pres. Obama were not so pointed, hateful and personal (the Birthers? need I say more?), the question of racism wouldn't even come up.
I think it's fair to say that there are those who object to the president in large part because of his race, and it's equally fair to say that some object to him without taking his race into consideration. But since this is our first black president and we are less than 150 years away from slavery (a blink in historical time), why should even raising the issue/question of racism evoke such an enraged response?
15 - Doug Hunter
"why should even raising the issue/question of racism evoke such an enraged response?"
Why would raising the issue of whether your political positions were legitimate or the result of you being a 'dumb whore' enrage you? No need to gather a shred of evidence or add legitimacy to my claim I'll just ask Rush Limbaugh, yep he agrees it's because liberals are dumb whores. I noted that more women are whores and that more women voted for Obama. Also, I went out to Nevada and asked some admitted whores, and yes, they support the liberal agenda. Gee, I should write an article like this every day.
Serously though, being racist is a serious insult which should require serious proof just like calling someone a whore. What would proving that racist were against Obama or whores were for Obama prove even if you could? What is the purpose of this line of reasoning other than to insult your opponent and generate fear and hatred among your own base?
***Why did I select dumb whore as my insult of choice? Being a racist will probably get you fired at more places than being a whore and is just as bad, if not worse of a stain on your reputation. They're similiar in that way and neither of them have anything to do with politics (although I'm sure practitioners of each have political opinions)
16 - Doug Hunter
I can't believe I just used versions of the word serious three times in one sentence.
Anyway, I should add that it wouldn't be just about reading an article about how liberals are dumb whores one time, it would be about reading slightly altered versions of the article every other day for months on end. It's a pointless and absurd exercise in propaganda, anybody who isn't a dumb whore should understand that.
17 - Clavos
why should even raising the issue/question of racism evoke such an enraged response?
Because if you paint those opposed to Obama as racists, you throw into question the legitimacy of the opposition while at the same time giving Mr. Obama carte blanche to move ahead with whatever hare-brained scheme occurs to him, because there's no viable opposition, they're all racists.
On a personal level it enrages me to be thought of as a racist under any circumstances, because I am not one. There is, moreover, no way to defend against that charge, and it has a tendency to stick, even if there is no corroborating evidence.
18 - Dave Nalle
why should even raising the issue/question of racism evoke such an enraged response?
I don't know. I mean, why would you object if I asked if you were still beating your wife and stealing from the poor box at your church?
Dave
19 - Jeanne Browne
Doug, Clavos, Dave: Gentlemen -- and I use the term loosely -- One more time, with feeling:
Not everyone who dislikes Pres. Obama or opposes his policies, not even everybody who is foaming at the mouth about them, is a racist -- and no responsible or fair-minded pundit or citizen-observer would say so. It is most certainly possible to disagree with a black man because you object to his ideas, not the color of his skin.
However, AMONG those who dislike the president and/or oppose his policies there ARE racists; their presence is clear and disturbing and in no small number. And ironically, they are undermining the legitimacy of reasonable opposition.
Racism is a real thing; it is not a paranoid fantasy on the part of black people or a part of the distant past. Racism is still a very real dynamic and a very serious problem, because it involves one group of people feeling superior to and hostile towards another group of people because of their different RACE. And it has in the past and continues in the present to result in appalling inequities, as well as instances of violence.
If we are to evolve as a culture, make positive change as a society, and become truer to our stated values as a nation, it will be necessary to confront the reality of racism, just as it continues to be necessary to confront the reality of sexism. (I'd add homophobia, but I recognize that this is a more complex issue.)
As an intelligent tart (as opposed to a dumb whore), it continues to be beyond me why you guys have to be consistently apoplectic, to the point of rudeness and downright ugliness, in the expression of your opinions.
I also don't understand why your views of everything are in polar opposite terms of (you should excuse the apt expression...) black and white: you are all right, and everyone who disagrees with you is all wrong. There appear to be no shades of gray in your political views, no room for any measure of common ground, as well as no capacity to grasp several, sometimes disparate, truths at the same time.
Your stridency and boorishness are exhausting and boring and do nothing to further dialog or understanding. Grow up. Get a grip.
20 - Arch Conservative
This article is a steaming pile of dung. No really...it's stupid on steroids.
Jimmy Carter? No on takes him seriously. Hell no one even took him seriously back when they were taking him seriously.
The author of this article wouldn't know objectivity if it bit him in the ass.
Anyone who doesn't agree with Obama and realize his genius is a non-thinking racist?
You're a little late to the party Mr. Lake. You're like the Jehovah Witness who sleeps in late on Sunday morning and shows up at the door last. You're still selling crazy but people have grown so tired of it that outright hostility is all they can manage to greet you with.
[Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
If I never have the misfortune of stumbling across another John Lake article it will be too soon.
21 - Doug Hunter
"racists; their presence is clear and disturbing and in no small number."
That's the core lie you're basing your attack on. Prove it or shut your mouth. You have zero evidence of this yet you parrot it nonstop. As long as the very basis of your argument is a lie there is no room for dialog or middle ground.
"I also don't understand why your views of everything are in polar opposite terms of (you should excuse the apt expression...) black and white: you are all right, and everyone who disagrees with you is all wrong."
Were you looking in the mirror when you wrote this? This is the oft repeated call for reason and bipartisanship (translation: you give up your principles and agree with me) I would only ask the same of you.
"Your stridency and boorishness are exhausting and boring and do nothing to further dialog or understanding. Grow up. Get a grip."
Ditto.
22 - Ruvy
Jeanne,
Let's not sell Jimmy Carter short altogether. As president, he did attempt to do something to boost alternative energy (however flawed his efforts might have been in the eyes of other commenters here). He had the nerve to get on the radio and TV and tell Americans the truth: that they suffered from a terrible malaise. Very few men have had the cojones to tell Americans of their faults. He was right, and the casino culture of greed and piggishness that has brought the States to the sad shape they are in today is part and parcel of that malaise he so rightly described many years ago. Finally, as a Georgia white man of some privilege, he has an understanding of American racism, and can smell the ugly odors that others refuse to acknowledge. There is no gainsaying that there is an element of racism in some of the opposition to Obama. To say otherwise is dishonest.
Obama, who is not really an American black, but a true Afican American (let's be generous and say that he is a "first generation American", like me) has picked up a lot of his sensitivity to racism "second-hand" so to speak. His emotional roots are in Africa and in Hawaii - both places where whites do not rule. The fact that his sensitivity to racism may be something in his head rather than his gut may well explain his statements distancing himself from Carter's comments.
That does not take away from the faults of this article, one that is seemingly based in a fantasy smoked up on some really good ganja. Just a few short miles away from Chicago, in Michigan, in Joanne Huspek's articles, one can see the prosperity of the United States first hand. Articles talking of the emotional pain of foreclosure also tell of the wonderful economic conditions in the United States. Then there is the utter ignorance of foreign affairs shown above.
When Dave Nalle, a man whose sympathies lie not with Israel, but the Arabs in Jordan and Lebanon, says he'll trust my reactions to Moslems over John Lake's that should tell you something.
"Big Bad Johnny" should stick to humor. This article is devastatingly bad.
23 - Ruvy
Jeanne,
One last point. Jimmy Carter may have overcome his racism with respect to black people. That is not for me to judge. But his dislike of Jews and Israel is terribly obvious, and has only increased over the years. For all the good he attempted to do in the States, in my scales, his anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment outweighs it, and makes what he says worthless. Even if in some incidences that do not have to do with issues in this part of the world, he is right.
24 - John Lake
Coming from Chicago, and having grown up in a multi-ethnic culture, espousing as I do, "racial blindness" I can see in Presidents eyes and in his demeanor that he is in fact sensitive to the lack of objective evaluation of his governing.
Many are stung when an honest President, like Carter, or Obama, comes into office. those who object have little interest in "doing the right thing". And Obama is stung by the fact that many in high places find it impossible to believe that a black man could not possess the qualities that they feel ALL Black men possess.
When you listen to a brilliant speaker, saying words that he himself wrote (far different from the previous administration) and when that speaker listens to and answers each and every question clearly, logically, thoroughly, not only for those listening, but also for the individual speaker - and some of you know that - he has to be seen as a very brilliant man. So, when critics appear not to have even heard a word the black man has said, it has to hurt.
Politicians in some quarters might feel that they can oppose the President, politically speaking, on his views, or they can take the more effective route, and remind the voters of the speakers race.
The job market is becoming worse at a slower rate than had been anticipated: the markets as I said are already back into what to my thinking is a Psychological acceptable level.
25 - Clavos
When you listen to a brilliant speaker, saying words that he himself wrote...
Pardon me, John, but like all presidents before him, Mr. Obama has a number of speech writers on his payroll, headed by one Jon Favreau, who has been with him since his senatorial days and who is credited with having penned his boss's most "brilliant" orations.
Mr. Obama does NOT write his own speeches.