Too Black, too strong

I’m confused. Ever since Barack Obama through his hat into the presidential race people have been trying to convince me that he’s not black. I’ve seen pictures of him decked out in East African attire and I’ve been reminded over and over again that his middle name is Hussein.

My brother's middle name is Vernon, so you'll forgive me if I sypathize with Obama on that one. Parents make mistakes and middle names are where you can find most of them.

I’ve had trouble with that because my eyes tell me that Obama is black. He might not sag his pants and use cool words like Fah-shizzle but he’s definitely black. In fact I would guess that most white people would take one look at him walking down the street and immediately lock their doors but that didn't stop his opponents from trying to dilute his ethnicity.

Now I’m being told that Obama is, in fact, as black as they come. He might even be too black. He goes to a church that was once run by a pastor who sometimes expresses a little bit of anger about this country and the way it’s treated minorities. This, of course, makes him a racist and anybody in his church must be as well.

Never mind the fact that Jeremiah Wright has never called for anything as outlandish as segregation, nor has he affiliated himself with any organization that seeks to do harm to others. Wright is angry with white society and that makes him a racist. Because Obama goes to his church, that makes Obama a racist too.

Where does Jeremiah Wright get off? How dare he insinuate that the attacks of 9-11 were the tragic result of a misguided foreign policy that pressured Middle Eastern leaders to keep oil prices low? What right does he have to question the difference between the way the federal government responded to New York after 9-11 and the manner in which it handled Hurricane Katrina. There is no comparison…one was a sneak attack and the other was a well-documented distaster that unfolded with tedious predictability.

Obama even has the audacity to make excuses for his Pastor. As if living though segregation and the violence associated with the Civil Rights movement of the 60s gives an old black man reason to have a chip on his shoulder.

Sean Hannity made a great point: Wright’s comments don’t necessarily mean that Obama is a racist and an anti-Semite, but what if he is? Can we take that chance? I would be inclined to say no.

Of course that would be if the Republican Party hadn’t already established precedent.

Think back to John Ashcroft, a man who was appointed to the office of Attorney General by George W. Bush. He stood up at Bob Jones University and complimented them for enforcing a rigid moral code of conduct that included a ban on interracial dating. That’s not much of a surprise coming from a President who signed off on a smear campaign that falsely accused John McCain of being father to an interracial child, but it’s still pretty scary.

Even before Bush played the Good Ol’ Boy card with the inbred Wal-Mart shoppers in the Deep South, the Republican Party carefully crafted a method for pandering to bigots. Nixon curried a lot of favor in the South by actively campaigning against affirmative action and implying that the states should determine whether or not to be segregated. A few years later, Ronal Reagan played the same card, touring the South with a complex assortment of winks, nudges and handshakes with Grand Wizards. Reagan even supported the Apartheid Government in South African and called Nelson Mandela a terrorist.

Think about that: a terrorist. And these conservative pundits want to question Obama’s integrity because his pastor can get a little worked up about what this country has done to people of color?

I’m not buying it.

Of course conservatives aren't alone. Geraldine Ferraro actually had the gall to say that Obama is in the position he's in because he's black. She even stated that he's lucky he's black. Really? This coming from a woman whose claim to fame is being a gimmick to help Walter Yawn-dale score points with the female vote. Isn't that the trinket calling the token cheap?

After suffering through a righteous flurry of criticism, Ferraro stepped away from Hillary's campaign but she stands behind what she said. Then she added "I think they're attacking me because I'm white."

And we wonder why Jeremiah Wright's got a chip on his shoulder.