So was Obambi.
Teachable moment, not for me & many that I've talked to.
It might have been a teachable moment to Gates, 0bami and their
friends, but to many of us viewers its an incident that we are all
to familiar with thanks to Jesse and Al “The Justice Brothers”
Lengthy but interesting analysis. However, in the case of Obama, I'd say this goes a step further because Obama really has no legitimate title to the "African American" claim. He is half white, his father was a foreign born Muslim graduate student, and he was brought up by well-off whites either in foreign countries or in a comfortable environment in Hawaii. He has nothing in common with a genuine "African American." He doesn't even look black.
But because he is such a loony and does in deed have hang ups, he has had to make a choice to define himself as "African American." This means that he has to work at it, he has to be much more vigilant to maintain this fiction, and he has to maintain it publicly at all times.
It is clear that Obama never lets this rest for a moment - because he can't. It's an essential part of his confused and fragile self-image.
