One thing's quite clear this week: America has not rid itself of racists. That much is obvious in the total universe of comment conversations around both the so-called "Government Shutdown 2011" (which shows how news website concern for Search Engine Optimization has finally impacted what we call things) and Donald Trump's noisemaking about running for President and constant chirping about a dead issue: the birth certificate of Barack Obama.
First, the Government Shutdown 2011 talk and the Trump noise has some commenters referring to Obama as an "Affirmative Action" President, and this popped up on my YouTube pages yesterday. The truth is that President Obama was elected to office, starting as an Illinois State Senator. To say that "affirmative action" had anything to do with that is to demonstrate racism and ignorance, which do go together, by the way.
Here's my video asking Trump to pipe down about being President:
Also, the racists delight in calling the person who points out racism, racist, showing even more stupidity. Racism is the act of putting someone down because of the color of their skin.
If one thinks or says that someone black got to where ever they are because of "affirmative action" and without knowing a thing about them, that person is claiming the talent of the one they question could have not got them to where they are, and thus, they are putting that person down for being black.
Thus, that person is being racist. Period.
Now, on the matter of Donald Trump's "Obama Birther" blathering, this issue was killed years ago. Plus, it shows how little people even want to think logically about the issue. To be frank, that the vast majority of people issuing these wild claims about Obama's birth place are white should give pause to anyone with half a brain.
If a subject is split along racial lines, then racism is at play, and all the more reason not to take any claim trying to advance the subject seriously.
It's also why Donald Trump's image is now toast, and will become darker toast with every week he continues to push it. If he does this, he looks like a racist. Period. End of story. If Trump keeps pushing this, advertisers will start to shun any television show he currently produces. Indeed, his actions could trigger a backlash where companies are encouraged to avoid him.
President Obama has had to present a birth certificate at various points in his life, not just during his run for presidency. He had to do so when applying for schools; I did when I applied to both undergraduate school at Texas Arlington, and grad school at Berkeley. Barack Obama's place of birth would have been, and has been, established a long time ago.
But with this, in the entire 44-president history of The United States, Barack Obama is the only one who has had to present his birth certificate for inspection. No one bothered to check the backgrounds of the other 43 presidents, all of which have been white.
This is a race issue and because, like many African Americans and minorities, Obama's background does not fit the classic path. Those cultural lines were established in an America where, for much of its history, people of color were not even considered by those who were white as being worthy of the same level of treatment.
Fast forward to post war America and slowly it became more integrated, and people with "strange names" started to make their mark on society, and at a time when record-keeping was always a little off. My name is greek and Jewish, for example, and the product of a complex family history that took place in America. Because of this, I get two or three different explanations of where the name "Abraham," my last name, came from.
For blacks, that history is always one painted by slavery and by integration. There's even a book called Black Names In America, where there are three kinds: names given by slave owners, names that slaves adopted when they were free, and names that blacks had who were free from birth.
Abraham is one such name, and while "Obama" was not listed, it certainly should have been.
Americans need to become more informed about the real America - one that includes a rich and complicated history of not just blacks, but Latinos, and Asians, particularly the Japanese during World War II. But in the discussion of Barack Obama and his birth place, there are many like Donald Trump, who make inbread assumptions about people who don't fit within the lines they're used to, and use those assumptions to advance whole statements, constantly expressing their prejudices.
After a while, it seems that the people who claim Obama's not American are so psychotic in their belief, it's morphed into a sickness that can't be cured by anything other than a lobotomy.
Meanwhile, President Obama's just trying to keep the American government going. Let him do that.
First, the Government Shutdown 2011 talk and the Trump noise has some commenters referring to Obama as an "Affirmative Action" President, and this popped up on my YouTube pages yesterday. The truth is that President Obama was elected to office, starting as an Illinois State Senator. To say that "affirmative action" had anything to do with that is to demonstrate racism and ignorance, which do go together, by the way.
Here's my video asking Trump to pipe down about being President:
Also, the racists delight in calling the person who points out racism, racist, showing even more stupidity. Racism is the act of putting someone down because of the color of their skin.
If one thinks or says that someone black got to where ever they are because of "affirmative action" and without knowing a thing about them, that person is claiming the talent of the one they question could have not got them to where they are, and thus, they are putting that person down for being black.
Thus, that person is being racist. Period.
Now, on the matter of Donald Trump's "Obama Birther" blathering, this issue was killed years ago. Plus, it shows how little people even want to think logically about the issue. To be frank, that the vast majority of people issuing these wild claims about Obama's birth place are white should give pause to anyone with half a brain.
If a subject is split along racial lines, then racism is at play, and all the more reason not to take any claim trying to advance the subject seriously.
It's also why Donald Trump's image is now toast, and will become darker toast with every week he continues to push it. If he does this, he looks like a racist. Period. End of story. If Trump keeps pushing this, advertisers will start to shun any television show he currently produces. Indeed, his actions could trigger a backlash where companies are encouraged to avoid him.
President Obama has had to present a birth certificate at various points in his life, not just during his run for presidency. He had to do so when applying for schools; I did when I applied to both undergraduate school at Texas Arlington, and grad school at Berkeley. Barack Obama's place of birth would have been, and has been, established a long time ago.
But with this, in the entire 44-president history of The United States, Barack Obama is the only one who has had to present his birth certificate for inspection. No one bothered to check the backgrounds of the other 43 presidents, all of which have been white.
This is a race issue and because, like many African Americans and minorities, Obama's background does not fit the classic path. Those cultural lines were established in an America where, for much of its history, people of color were not even considered by those who were white as being worthy of the same level of treatment.
Fast forward to post war America and slowly it became more integrated, and people with "strange names" started to make their mark on society, and at a time when record-keeping was always a little off. My name is greek and Jewish, for example, and the product of a complex family history that took place in America. Because of this, I get two or three different explanations of where the name "Abraham," my last name, came from.
For blacks, that history is always one painted by slavery and by integration. There's even a book called Black Names In America, where there are three kinds: names given by slave owners, names that slaves adopted when they were free, and names that blacks had who were free from birth.
Abraham is one such name, and while "Obama" was not listed, it certainly should have been.
Americans need to become more informed about the real America - one that includes a rich and complicated history of not just blacks, but Latinos, and Asians, particularly the Japanese during World War II. But in the discussion of Barack Obama and his birth place, there are many like Donald Trump, who make inbread assumptions about people who don't fit within the lines they're used to, and use those assumptions to advance whole statements, constantly expressing their prejudices.
After a while, it seems that the people who claim Obama's not American are so psychotic in their belief, it's morphed into a sickness that can't be cured by anything other than a lobotomy.
Meanwhile, President Obama's just trying to keep the American government going. Let him do that.