RACISM SEEMS TO RUN IN THE ‘FIRST FAMILY’…

Am I the only one who recalls how it was during the 2008 presidential campaign when there were literally legions of commentators from all across the political spectrum who were doing their best to convince themselves as well as the electorate that the election of America’s “first black president”—then Senator Barack Hussein Obama—promised to usher in a new era of race relations, a “post-racial” epoch.  And judging from a Gallup poll conducted shortly before the election, voters bought it, hook, line and sinker.  Over half of all Americans were confident that interracial relations would dramatically improve because of this “historic” event.

In the wake of his election, this number soared to seven out of ten Americans who entertained high hopes for the future of race relations in America—and the world.  And there were many notable players within the black community who actually endorsed this nonsense.  Some going so far as to argue that the presence of a black man as “uniquely poised” as Barry “Almighty” in the Oval Office could inspire troubled black youth to aim for success.  And of course, Barry, not unsurprisingly, spared no occasion to both fuel and exploit these hopes.  And now, some years later, how silly these true believers in Barry’s “post-racial” America should feel.

Now Barry, on the other hand, looks not so much silly as deceitful, and possibly even treacherous, for not only did he fail abysmally to deliver what he implicitly—and repeatedly—promised; race relations are actually worse in many respects now than they were prior to Barry’s election.  And they are worse to no slight extent precisely because of Barry, the same guy who supposed to be the great uniter, has been anything but.  Even prior to his election Barry had the distinction of introducing to the nation the toxic “black liberationist,” his pastor and “spiritual mentor” of over 20 years, the close friend of Louis Farrakhan, the “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright. 

But it was in 2009 after he became the 44th President of the United States that Barry began to further spoil the well of racial discourse when he insisted upon springing to the defense of his (black) friend, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  The latter had a confrontation with white police officers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and although Barry himself publicly conceded that he knew few if any details, he nevertheless couldn’t resist criticizing the police.  And then, of course, he would again come to insert himself into the Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and most recently the Freddie Gray incidents.  And for no other reason than to incite.

While black-on-white violence has been a problem for decades, it seems to have noticeably intensified during Barry’s tenure as president.  For instance, black-on-white riots have returned to America on Barry’s watch—although now they aren’t referred to as “riots.” Rather, we call them “flash mobs,” and they have erupted in cities across the nation.  In fact, Barry and his fellow ideologues in the Democrat Party have worked overtime to fuel the perception—a perception that remains all too pervasive among blacks, and the black underclass in particular—that his opponents—i.e. at least half of the nation—are simply “racist.”

During what have been some of the most racially-charged news events that America has witnessed in quite some time, Barry has seemed to go out of his to exacerbate, rather than diffuse, the resulting tensions.  And in choosing to never actually wait for the facts of any of these cases to become known, Barry has preferred in each and every instance to do little more than to shoot from the hip, fully aware of what the consequences of his actions will be.  I mean, here we have our president, our black president, who has repeatedly worked to create a perception that would actually come to make the facts of each case essentially irrelevant.   

Now we fast-forward to earlier today when Moochelle Obummer was heard urging students at Tuskegee University, a historically black university in Alabama, to remain involved in civic life during a time of tension regarding race relations across the country.  At the school's commencement address, Moochelle set about to list what she see as being those  scenarios in which African-Americans feel they encounter systemic discrimination, such as "nagging worries that you're going to get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason."  She went on to make the rather twisted argument that those feelings are "real," but disengaging is not an option.

Moochelle said, "I want to be very clear that those feelings are not an excuse to just throw up our hands and give up. Not an excuse. They are not an excuse to lose hope. To succumb to feelings of despair and anger only means that in the end, we lose."  Her comments come a week after violent riots brought Baltimore to a halt following the arrest and death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, a black man who died in police custody of yet to be determined causes. Maryland State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby has charged all six Baltimore Police Department officers involved in Gray's arrest for offenses including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

Moochelle noted that events like those in Baltimore and Ferguson have generated feelings of futility amongst black men and women who believe the institutions of civil society aren't designed to protect or represent them.  She said, "They're rooted in decades of structural challenges that have made too many folks feel frustrated and invisible. And those feelings are playing out in communities like Baltimore and Ferguson and so many others across this country."  Moochelle pressed the students to vote to ensure those institutional systems work more equitably.  Moochelle works to create a perception of things as she sees them, not as they actually exist

Moochelle said, "The first thing we have to do is vote. Hey, no, not just once in a while. Not just when my husband or somebody you like is on the ballot. But in every election at every level, all of the time."  She went on to say, "Because here is the truth — if you want to have a say in your community, if you truly want the power to control your own destiny, then you've got to be involved."  And in sense, I would agree   staying informed.  You simply cannot, as implied by Moochelle, use as your only criteria in choosing for whom to vote, the skin color of the candidate.

So as we can very plainly see, racism seems to be prevalent in the first family.  Because they know, as does the Democrat Party as a whole realize, if blacks were ever to desert the party, all would be lost.  Not that that is likely to happen in the foreseeable future.  Despite the fact that the black community under this black president, voted for by 95 percent of the blacks in this country, is far worse off, nearly on every front, today than it was back in 2008.  And yet despite all that Barry remains very popular among those in the black community.  If I was one of those attending Moochelle’s speech, I’d be rather selective in following her advice.