Posted on 10/23/2010 5:50:49 PM PDT by SanFranDan
Ever since Obama has become president there has been a hyperracialization of every issue of mere politics. The climax came for me when I went to the Tea Party protest down at the Capital just before Obamacare was passed. When I got home I started hearing claims of some kind of racial incident. You can recognize intellectually that politicians are liars, but to hear them lying about you is another matter, a real baptism. And it made me try to understand where this was all coming from.
Now some of it is pure hucksterism. There is no two ways about it.
But there is also an honest, albeit mistaken, belief that this is a racial issue. One honest, albeit misguided reason for believing that racism is behind it is that to many liberals, Obama is so self-evidently awesome one cannot rationally be opposed to his policies. But there is one other reason why liberals assume that the criticism that Obama richly deserves is based on race. I call it the Jackie Robinson Theory of the Obama presidency.
Let’s go back to Jackie Robinson. I take it as a given that you know that he was the first black player in Major League Baseball. But he was also something else: a test case. He was brought into the league first because they believed that he had the disposition, class, and intelligence to keep what was important in mind. So if some racist fool dug his spiked cleats into Robinson’s leg, Robinson couldn’t grab a bat and give the jerk the beating he richly deserved. He had to take it, play through the pain and never give back what they threw at him. It was unjust, but at that time it was necessary, and he got that. It wasn’t about him, it was about his whole race. Just as we celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ, we can take a moment to recognize another man who suffered unjustly and did not strike back. What more in the name of love, right? And maybe that doesn’t merit a tribute song by Bono, but with his quiet courage, and dignity, Robinson opened the door so that people of all colors could play baseball together.
So is Obama the “Jackie Robinson” of the presidency? In the sense that he is the first black man to come into this position, undeniably. But what about in the second sense, that he is a test case?
I would bet that the majority of the conservatives, the Tea Partiers, etc. would absolutely say “no.” I could be wrong, but that is my sense of it. We simply don’t believe Obama has to prove anything about black people, or that his conduct reflects on anyone but himself. Obama is a terrible president, and that’s just him. It doesn’t shake my faith in the equality of the races, and it doesn’t make me one bit less likely to vote for a black person next time.
But in the minds of many liberals, I think they believe he is a test case. They think that if Obama is a bad president, that this means we will never elect a black man again, or that whites might take it to imply something about all black people.
So they are rooting for him to succeed not simply because they like his policies, but because if Obama turns out to be seen as a bad president they think it will set race relations back. And if you say you oppose his policies, if you say he is a terrible president, if you say, like Rush Limbaugh, that you hope Obama fails, in the mind of such a liberal that becomes a racist thing to say, because the only correct thing to want is for Obama to be seen as one of the best presidents we have had. Because he is Jackie Robinson, in their mind, in every sense of those words.
However, that requires a very pessimistic understanding of race relations, and it makes you wonder why they feel that way. I have said this before, but I have observed that many people fall into the fallacy of believing that everyone is like them. It’s a common mistake to assume that everyone is basically alike and thinks like you. So on one hand, it sometimes makes it hard to get a truly post-racial white person to understand that racism really does exist. But the converse of that is that those people who struggle with racism, but consciously want to oppose racism, believe that everyone else is having the same struggle.
So you take two liberals who have accused the Tea Partiers of being mainly racist. On one hand, there is Chris Matthews, who said during the State of the Union that for an hour he forgot Obama was black. That means the rest of the time he views Obama it never leaves his mind. He is a racist who consciously wants to be against racism.
And then there is Keith Olbermann. In his now infamous rant on the Tea Party he started off by saying that all white men, without any exceptions, have a little prejudice in their heart they have to struggle against. That is itself a racist comment. And doesn’t it fit my template exactly?—a liberal who doesn’t want to be racist, having to struggle with it, and imputing that same struggle to his entire racial and gender class?
And then he went on to say that there were no white people in the Tea Party crowd. That was objectively untrue. But I don’t think he was consciously lying. Rather instead, those non-whites were “invisible” to him in a Ralph Ellison sort of way.
Now I am not saying that this explains 100% of this phenomenon. Like I said in the beginning, some of this is just hucksterism, or the belief that no one can rationally oppose such an awesome guy. It’s stupid, but it surely exists. But this one element, the “Jackie Robinson” element, I think is undeniably there.
(This adapted from is an old post from my blog, that I consider an “oldie but goodie” to give you guys a little content while I handle some personal matters. I hope you enjoy it.)
Jackie Robinson was a Republican.
Branch Rickey told Jackie Robinson of the lies, taunts and harangues he would receive, and that he had to ignore it and play through it, not let them break him.
Obama uses every opportunity to characterize bad policy and unrelated political events as having racial undertones.
Well he does have Brainless Joe Biden as a sidekick.
Jackie Robinson was Jackie Robinson. When I was a kid, I really admired him. Because he was admirable. A great player, a great guy.
Obama is more like Jessie Jackson. But a whole lot worse. There is absolutely nothing admirable about Obama in any way, shape, or form.
These were my thoughts when I first read that Matthews said this. He is didn't see a person, he saw only a "black" man except when Obama made his speech.
Obama has made it much harder for any future black presidential candidate Republican or Dem. African Americans have invested too much of hope in the “historic first black president.” Now they are entangled in his fall from grace. Not fair but true.
Race relations are uglier on every level than two years ago. Maybe a more vigorous debate and frank discussion of race will be one positive result of this national nightmare.
If Jackie Robinson had mugged everyone in the stadium and gave the spoils to his friends, he wouldn't have made it.
If Jackie Robinson spent the entire game bowing and scraping to members of the other team, he wouldn't have made it.
If Jackie Robinson had screwed up every play he was involved in, then blamed it on the player he replaced every time, he wouldn't have made it.
I'm not old enough to have known Jackie Robinson, but trust me, Obama - you ain't him.
I would vote for a black conservative over a white leftist without batting an eye every single time.
I know Jackie Robinson, and.....I know the “Boys of Summer”, the Brooklyn Dodgers!!! There is a tremendous difference between Jackie Robinson and POTUS Barack Hussein Obama!!! What is it? Mr. Robinson was an American and....Mr. Obama is not!!! It is as simple as the nose on your face!!! And....I am not talking about some silly birth certificate. I am talking about two men, one who loved America and his race with his whole heart & soul. And one who wants naught but to tear this great nation down!!! End of story!!!
Nor is Sotero a black man. He is an opportunist, a fraud and a traitor. He represents the most vile elements of black and white culture.
Values over blood.
Good piece. I think it’s hit the nail on the head. They try to have it both ways though. The left happily attacks Allen West, a black Republican candidate, as a Tea Party Extremist. I don’t want to know how the left maintains itself against incredible double mindedness. Most of us would try to resolve the cognitive dissonance.
The humorous part is, Baraq isn’t even half black.
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Liberalism is a mental illness, plus for many on the left its fused together with socialism.
They call black conservatives 'sellouts,' traitors and 'Uncle Toms' because the label 'racist' is reserved for whites. All whites. If you are white, you are 'racist'. It is simply their way of saying 'the enemy' in this barely disguised war against whites. Don't act surprised at their language! Ask them why they support a third-world socialist agenda.
Most want entitlement, that's their idea of justice and the result of having been schooled in affirmative action ideology and the 'we wuz slaves' mentality that they will never abandon. So now we know racism is nothing more than a weapon, wielded so all the left can coordinate their attack.
Their brains think like this: the American legal system, having evolved from British common law, is a 'white' structure, racist to the core, that cannot be fairly applied to blacks.
Were Zer0 and his DoJ will take nation as it relates to this thinking is troublesome at best.
Just stay alert watch your back, and say a prayer for America.
As was Branch Rickey the person who made him a Dodger.
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