Colbert King: President Obama, viewed through a racial lens

[alp227]

What is it about Barack Obama’s race that makes some people act crazy, if not downright vicious? The latest sign of unchecked insanity turned up in the recent anti-Obama diatribe of Princeton professor Cornel West. The president of the United States, said West, is “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.” Now isn’t that a tad bit nasty and delusional?

But such rantings are not limited to West. Nor do they start with him.

Diane Fedele, a California local Republican leader, displayed her own meanness in 2008 when she included in her party’s newsletter a picture that showed the face of Obama surrounded by watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken. The photo, which was shaped as a currency note, had the inscription “Obama Bucks” under his picture.

Associating black people with poverty programs is a shopworn tactic of bigots. The same year Fedele produced her pictorial, a joke circulated on the Internet that listed American presidents and the currency denominations that bore their faces. It read: “Washington, $1 dollar bill,” “Jefferson, $2 dollar bill,” “Lincoln, $5 dollar bill,” “Hamilton, $10 dollar bill,” “Jackson, $20 dollar bill.” Then it said, “Obama, Food Stamps.”

Full: Washington Post

[Number23]

1. Mmmm hmmm..

Thus the debate among those who view everything through a racial prism: “Obama’s too black!” “He’s not black enough!” It’s absurd. In truth, it reveals more about those who indulge in this pastime than about the president of the United States, who seems absolutely comfortable in his own skin.

Don't it?

((Adding Colbert to the long list of black thinkers, academics and journalists who completely disagree with and/or are repulsed by Cornel's petty, revolting comments against the president.))

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. And that "long list" keeps growing doesn't it? West did himself no favors.

It's going to be interesting to watch how people "distance themselves" from this once trusted go-to guy on black thought in America. I'm not sure who appointed him, cause nobody asked me, but I'm pretty sure his visibility will soon be limited to occasional appearances on Bill Maher.