Many Republican politicians, pundits and loyal GOP voters have targeted President Obama (and, in some cases, First Lady Michelle Obama) as the reason for the current state of race relations in our nation. As those in the land of rock-ribbed republicanism see it, our current commander in chief is the primary reason that the racial situation is less than desirable.
From former FOX News host (now 2016 presidential candidate) Mike Huckabee to retired neurosurgeon (also presidential candidate) Ben Carson. To Louisiana governor and potential 2016 candidate Bobby Jindal. To the always flame throwing fire in the mouth, tea party darling and also 2016 candidate Ted Cruz. Each of these conservative Republican politicians has laid the downturn in racial harmony squarely at the feet of the president. Needless to say, they are not alone.
Right-wing talk radio has made blaming President Obama for race relations a cottage industry. In fact, I have not seen anyone blamed so much for a situation since former Bush administration official Michael Brown was scapegoated for the ineffectiveness of FEMA during the hurricane Katrina tragedy in 2005. Perennial Obama critics Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, acid-tonged author and commentator Ann Coulter, outlandish radical Obama haters Mark Levin, Alex Jones and sophisticated Obama critic Erik Erickson. Hugh Hewitt, Ben Ferguson and others have made criticizing the president for racism a daily affair. In fact, it has become an obsessive, ’round the clock hobby for a large segment of these individuals.
Truth be told, race relations have not worsened under President Obama. They are indeed less than desirable and far from ideal, but the fact is that has always been the case. From the time African slaves were bought ashore and stepped foot on American soil to the present day, race relations between different ethnic groups has always been complex and complicated at best.
America always has had a tortured racial past. The nation’s gender history hasn’t been much better. From slavery to the Civil War. From the reactionary 1980s to the 21st century, race (like gender) is an ongoing topic that has been deeply etched in the fabric of the restless soul of a conflicted and unsettled nation. This is nothing new.
Rather, what has transpired is that, during his tenure in office, largely due to his race, many people have been forced to confront the issue of race as well as their own racism. Sad as it is, the truth is that, for many of these people, the fact that a man of African descent is the leader of the free world is too much for them to bear. To these people the Obama presidency is the equivalent of having a bad nightmare from which they have not yet awakened.
Black leaders of state are supposed to be relegated to literary fiction or to the imaginary creative spaces of Hollywood portrayed by actors such as James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock. It is these sorts of fictionalized accounts of Black presidencies where such limited idealism is supposed to end. Psychologically speaking, this is where many of the president’s critics dwell in terms of emotion and values.
