Obama: The Racial Presidency

Excerpts from a new book have revealed that President Obama once laid claim to building ‘a race-neutral administration’.  When asked whether race drives decision-making in the White House, the President responded, “You just don’t think about it, you really don’t.”  Shortly thereafter, he thought about it, telling guests at a private White House function that race was likely a key component of rising opposition from conservatives – particularly the Tea Party movement – calling it a ‘subterranean agenda’.

Far from being race-neutral, the Obama administration has been race-driven, ushering in an era of unprecedented prejudiced rhetoric and actions.  The most recent example of this being Attorney General Eric Holder, a man assigned with representing the people, defending the Justice Department’s weak efforts in the voting rights case against members of the New Black Panther Party, claiming that the pursuit of justice would be “a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line… for my people.”

Equal Opportunity statements prohibit organizations from discriminating based on such factors as race, religion, and national origin, among other things.  But one could submit that Barack Obama and his administration have made a career of governing with those factors specifically driving the decision making process.  Could anything less have been expected from a man who spent over two decades listening to the sermons of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, a man who once decried a world ‘where white folk’s greed runs a world in need’?

The list begins but is not limited to...

• In 2009, Obama’s newly minted Attorney General claimed that America remained “voluntarily socially segregated” and is “a nation of cowards” when it comes to race relations.
• Obama began his first public comments on the Fort Hood shooting by offering an insensitive ‘shout out’ to audience members at a Tribal Nations Conference, then subsequently urged Americans not to jump to conclusions regarding Nidal Hasan’s motives.  Hasan is a Muslim who had been reported to have shouted ‘Allahu Akbar!’ prior to his rampage.  Unwilling to deviate from this reluctance to link religious extremism to a terrorist attack, the Pentagon released a report on the shooting that failed to mention the word ‘Islam’ or ‘Muslim’ once.
• When asked for comment regarding the arrest of Harvard University professor, Henry Louis Gates, a racially charged incident, the President first confessed to not having the facts at hand, but then served as judge and jury when he proclaimed that “the Cambridge police acted stupidly,” citing as a factor the ‘long history … of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.
• Struggled to referee a race debate involving Shirley Sherrod, a black Agriculture Department employee who had been accused of making racist comments.  The administration seemingly played to both sides on this incident, hastily forcing her resignation only to apologize and backtrack a day later.  Had this been handled based on a proper investigation, as opposed to viewing it solely as a black/white issue, the President may not have ended up looking quite as inept.
• Introduced provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that would specifically provide monetary rewards that operate on the basis of racial preferences.  One such provision stated that, "In awarding grants or contracts under this section, the Secretary shall give preference to entities that have a demonstrated record of the following: . . . Training individuals who are from underrepresented minority groups or disadvantaged backgrounds."
• The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights confirmed that the Obamacare plan gives preferential treatment to minority students for scholarships.
• Transformed Arizona’s attempts at curbing illegal immigration and securing their border, into a race issue, stating that racial profiling could result in someone without papers being harassed while having ice cream with their family.  Newt Gingrich stated that Obama was engaging in “a racist dialogue to try to frighten Latinos away from the Republican Party.”
• Suggested that Al-Qaeda operated as a racist organization, rather than one guided by blind, radical ideology.
• Pushed DREAM Act legislation in an attempt to provide amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants for the sake of garnering additional votes in 2012.  A former member of the President’s National Latino Advisory Council, Eliseo Medina, pined for such immigration reform, saying they could add eight million voters and creates “a governing coalition for the long term.” 

If anything has been proven true, it’s that President Obama most clearly has race weighing on his mind.  He does think about it.  From candidate to President, his election has gradually morphed from the hope of a post-racial presidency, into the reality of a most-racial presidency.

Rusty can be contacted at The Mental Recession