My Black President Speaks to the Children

I don’t understand. Why can’t the president encourage our children? 

Something dark and unearthen is raising it’s horned head in America.  This distaste for Obama is more sinister than I think any of us are willing to admit.  He is hated for reasons that don’t make any sense.

There I was, having this conversation with someone from work and she was so intense about the other coworker that wasn’t present…so intense about how much her lack of support bothered her and about how her food stunk up the office..about how she showed up late…etc…etc…etc…  What shocked me wasn’t her conversation but the intensity behind it.  This person really bothered her emotionally…for reasons that couldn’t be justified with these trivial disagreements.  Her disdain didn’t fit with the objects of disdain.  There was something else ..under the skin.  And that’s when I saw it.  She was skinny.  Tiny.  Petite.  Her rhetoric swayed back to food all throughout our conversation.  The coworker is overweight.  I felt bad for her; not for the absent coworker but the absent hearted one.  She didn’t realize that her discrimination wasn’t justified..that she just hated overweight people.

I was confused by the way America handled Obama wanting to speak to the kids in schools.  It’s the first time I’ve ever heard of a president being denied opportunities to speak to kids. Why do people distrust him?  He seems like a nice enough guy.  We don’t know anything about the man in a Santa suit in December, but that doesn’t stop scores of parents lining up at malls and parking lots to put their kids on this stranger’s lap.

The distrust and dislike of Obama smacks of strange.  There is a current of hate for Obama that doesn’t match to the reasons.  And when that happens I look to issues deeper and more personal than policy.  But do I need to look under the skin?

Am I and Jimmy Carter the only ones that see race as a possible candidate for this level of hate and distrust?  People are calling Jimmy Carter an idiot for suggesting this, but I think he might be on to something that all these other white folk are missing. 

If you say “I’m not a racist” but don’t go into the “black part of town” then you are a racist.

If you make comments about skin or physical differences in negative or sarcastic funny hilarious ways that CRACK you up… you are a racist.

If you only want your child to marry your color because you are concerned about them having an easy life or for reason X…..you are a racist.

If you think it’s interesting when a white girl has a boyfriend that is black then you are a racist.

If you see interracial relationships as an act of rebellion …you are a racist.

If you notice when a mixed child is present and, without thinking about it, automatically have sympathy for the child…you are a racist. 

If your dog hates black people… you are a racist (your dog knows something about you that you don’t).

I hope that by the end of his term that he can change your behavior. 

Listen, Discrimination exists in all of us.  If we don’t recognize it and call it what it is we can’t fight it.  Acceptance and love is worth fighting for.