What Did You Expect Him To Say?

Well what did you expect him to say? When asked to comment on former President Jimmy’s Carter’s statements that criticisms of his policies are largely rooted in racism, Obama stated that he does not agree with this assessment. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs released a statement that said, “The president does not believe that criticism comes based on the color of his skin”. This doesn’t make what we as African-Americans have been saying since his critics began their assault of comparing him to Hitler, posting pictures of him as Amos ‘N Andy or in African tribal garb any less true. The birthers, tea baggers and White Pastors calling for his death…all racists. We know it’s true but what did you expect him to say?

The firestorm of negativity sparked by Carter’s comments was not unexpected. Of course the right wing whackos don’t see racism, they choose not to and in their eyes anyone who does is simply playing the race card. For them racism no longer exist and in their minds there is not a single racist white person in America. In fact, when charged themselves with racism his critics point to President Obama as an example that racism no longer exists in America…. after all we elected an African-American president. Rather than speak to his accusations directly, they chose to attack Jimmy Carter calling him senile, a Jew hater, a self-loathing southerner (whatever the hell that is) and ridiculing his presidency. Rush Limbaugh stated, “Jimmy Carter and Obama deserve each other, misery loves company”. On the Sean Hannity show he and Newt Gingrich discussed “Jimmy Carter’s latest stupidity”.

So if President Obama had stated that yes he agrees with former President Carter and yes he sees the racial component, his critics would use this as an excuse to condemn his administration and policies, the firestorm would have been far larger than we can imagine. His critics would have charged him with pandering to minorities. Let’s not forget his critics are the same people we’ve been calling racist. The same people who charge him with being a foreigner and not even born in the United States. The same people who loudly proclaim, “we want our country back”. Had he chosen to side with Carter he would have played into the hands of his so called legitimate critics, the Republican politicians who pander to these racist ideologues. All of a sudden they would claim they no longer see him as Black but as the Democratic President who sides with minorities. So what did you expect him to say?

And what about his African-American critics, those who accuse him of playing too nice. Yes he knows it’s there but he cannot make it his main focus. President Obama is only 8 months into his presidency and being the first African-American president he’s creating the playbook as he goes. He must be careful not to ignite the timber of latent racism in those whites that voted for him last November. Going forward in his presidency, he’s going to need the support of white democrats and he needs to build on the small percentage of independent votes he received last time. Specifically he needs to target white male voters, which not coincidentally is the focus of the conservative right with their racist tactics. Although African-Americans treated the last election as though it was the second coming and showed up in record numbers at the polls, we simply cannot be counted on to repeat ourselves. Obama has many more programs and bills to push through in his first term and if he intends to be around for a second he needs to appear to be a President for all the people and not one who indulges a specific minority.

So again I ask, what did you expect him to say? He simply cannot acknowledge what he and we all know.