What if a White President Had Said This?
We were told by numerous commentators and political theorists that when a black president was elected, America would finally move beyond “racial politics.” It hasn’t happened. Two recent incidents prove it. First, popular and talented actor Morgan Freeman had this exchange with CNN commentator Piers Morgan. As you read this, keep in mind that Herman Cain, a black man and a Republican candidate supported by the TEA Party, won the presidential straw poll in Florida:
PIERS MORGAN, HOST: Has Obama helped the process of eradicating racism, or has it in a strange way made it worse.
MORGAN FREEMAN: Made it worse. Made it worse. Look at, look, the Tea Partiers, who are controlling the Republican Party, stated, and what’s this guy’s name, Mitch O’Connell. Is that his, O’Connell?
MORGAN: Yeah, Mitch McConnell, yeah.
FREEMAN: Mitch McConnell. Their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term. What’s, what does that, what underlines that? “Screw the country. We’re going to whatever we do to get this black man, we can, we’re going to do whatever we can to get this black man outta here.”
MORGAN: But is that necessarily a racist thing?
FREEMAN: It is a racist thing.
* * * * * *
MORGAN: Does it unnerve you that the Tea Party [is] gaining such traction?
FREEMAN: Yes.
MORGAN: Why?
FREEMAN: Well, it just shows the weak, dark, underside of America. We’re supposed to be better than that. We really are. That’s, that’s why all those people were in tears when Obama was elected president. “Ah, look at what we are. Look at how, this is America.” You know? And then it just sort of started turning because these people surfaced like stirring up muddy water.
Second, soon after Freeman made these irrational and racist remarks, President Obama addressed an all-black audience and said the following as reported by the Associated Press:
In a fiery summons to an important voting bloc, President Barack Obama told blacks on Saturday to quit crying and complaining and “put on your marching shoes” to follow him into battle for jobs and opportunity.
Can you imagine if a white president or a white presidential candidate had made a similar appeal to a white audience? In fact, if the AP had reported the story and said one of these Republican candidates had told whites to quit crying and complaining and “put on your marching shoes,” the media would have gone crazy and the pundits would rev up the claim that the TEA Party is made up of a bunch of racists.
No, self-appointed black leaders and this president are the ones injecting race into politics. Conservatives are the ones trying to move beyond racial politics, but the racialists won’t let us. They need the racial vote to stay in power. They need the plantation system to maintain their power.