The Arrogance of being President While Being Black

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

I received this piece from one of my former Lincoln University Classmates, Vaughn Thomas, and it is so on point - especially in light of DWT (dumb white theories)that have emanated from Bachmann, Palin and the Rep-ugh-blicans.

I have two pin/buttons that I wear all the time - no matter what my attire, no matter what the occasion. One says "MISSION POSSIBLE" and depicts President Obama (then candidate Obama) with dark glasses in a "mission impossible" stance. I purchased it in Denver,Colorado at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. I met more than my share of rednecks there who vowed that they would never vote for a Black man for President, and that Barack Obama would never be President of the US. I would just point at the button, and smile. Whenever I find myself up against the proverbial wall with no were to turn, I look at that button for inspiration - because President Obama made mission impossible POSSIBLE. The other button is of President Obama's Inauguration in 2009 that a lady generously gave me as a gift.

People stop me in the street to compliment me on the buttons; little kids point to the buttons and that's President Barack Obama. And I smile.

One friend, when I was doing a TV taping, stated that I did not need to wear the buttons because President Obama was not running for anything. I responded, that as long as the brother was President, we should all be wearing buttons to show our tacit and active support. We could not just passively sit by the way we did with Clinton and Bush and think things were going to unfold in an orderly fashion. President Obama needs our backing physically, mentally, spiritually, politically, electorally, and any other way we can muster 25/8 - because those rep-ugh-blicans, and the so-called blue dog Democrats are working 24/7 to trip him up; destroy anything and everything positive he's doing, or trying to do.

If you haven't done so already, get out your original Obama buttons, tee shirts, banners, wrist bands and post them prominently where people can see them, so that consciously and subconsciously they begin to acclimate to the fact that Obama will be re-elected in 2012. This is not a seasonal thing - the devil and his minions do not take off - they stay busy - which means we should stay prepared.

There are quite a few more people out there who are white, Asian, Latino, and of other cultures who feel exactly the same way this author does. I would encourage them to also write their concerns. It appears that the only way to get around mean stream news, is to take it to the bloggosphere and the internet. Make an end run, so that Americans - Black and white - don't get duped into voting in another version of Dracula from the rep-ugh-blican right wing low life arena.

Read the following and see if you don't agree with his summation. There are some preliminary comments from other readers, then his treatise begins:

"Arrogance of being President while being Black: I don't like to send these but...This is right on target!!!! AUTHOR UNKNOWN but it is all over the web.
ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW!!!!! Be Blessed!" (VT)

"I thought that America had moved past this labeling by electing a President of whom we can all be proud. When President Obama announced that there would be a resident Grandmother in the White House, I was so happy for me! Some one I could relate to, a real live "Oma" in the White House to show how it was, with "'our folks". No Nannies were necessary, So, the "Gone With The Wind" idea of the position and relevance of the Black family has not changed, in the eyes of some fools.idiots, ignoramuses, etc. I hoped their eyes be opened wide to see the world as it is today.I am so very proud of this young couple and their family!"

"Lots of good people agree and it is heartening to see the reaction. This is an excellent article written by a someone who is realistic (and happens to be White).The very last paragraph says it all."

Arrogance of being President while being Black (UNKNOWN WHITE AUTHOR):

I don't think anyone was under some real illusion that the election of Barack Obama actually means the end of racism in America. I'm pretty sure that the president-elect knew it better than anyone. After all, he saw it every day, from the moment he announced his candidacy. To some degree, he saw it within his own party during the primaries. And he saw it in all ugliness during the general election.

For half of this country, he was "That One". No matter how big and clear his victory was. No matter how smart he is. No matter how decent he is. No matter what a true patriot he is. No matter how optimistic and positive his vision for America was. All that didn't matter. Because at the end of the day, he was still black.

I'm quite old. I remember, vaguely, where my parents were on November 22, 1963. I've seen so many presidents. Some were feared, some were hated, some were adored, some popular and some not. But all of them, without exception, were treated with the highest respect deserving the office of the president of the United States .

That is until a black man won the right to occupy this office. It's been 13 months now, and in the eyes of so many, Barack Obama is still that one. He is being disrespected and at the same time being held to the highest standard of any president I've ever seen – and not just by the Republican side! He has to perform three times better than any president in history, and even that may not be enough.

For the media, he is many more times just "Obama" than "President Obama". They create scandals out of nothing issues. It took them at least 6 years to start giving Bush a small part of the shit he deserved. It took them 6 months to begin crap all over Obama because he's yet to fix the catastrophe that was left for him.

They use condescending tones when they talk about him, and only mildly less condescending when they talk TO him. With anyone else, CNN wouldn't dare go to commercials every time the president speaks, like they did during that summit on Thursday. They wouldn't dare be counting how many minutes George Bush or Bill Clinton were talking. Chris Mathews wouldn't dare make an issue out of Ronald Regan calling members of congress by their first name, like he is not actually the president. They fully cooperate with the Right-Wing smear machine when it comes to president Obama's national security performance – even if almost every independent and military expert actually thinks that he's a terrific Commander-in-Chief. You'll never see them on TV, and virtually no one from the Left, in congress and outside, defend the president on this matter.

I don't care about the Far-Right. They're just crazy ignorant Neanderthals. It's the way the beltway and the mainstream treats this president that is shocking. On Thursday, almost every Republican had no trouble interrupting him in the middle of a sentence. They looked like they're going to vomit every time they had to say "Mr. president". They all had this Eric-Cantor-Smirk whenever he spoke. Then they went out and started to spit their stupid talking points, to the delight of the media. Sarah Palin, a woman who can hardly read, thinks that he was "arrogant" towards John McCain, and somehow this is an important news. Because you see, "Obama's Arrogance" is the talking point of the day.

Oh, those talking points. He is arrogant (because he knows the facts better than all of them combined). He is an elitist (because he uses big words that they don't understand). He is weak on national security (because he actually thinks about the consequences). He divides the country (well, he did that the day he had the audacity to win the election). Worst of all, he actually thinks that he's the president. He even dared to say so on Thursday. How arrogant of him. You'd think that previous presidents didn't have any ego. Somehow it turned out that the one president who treats even his biggest opponents with the utmost respect – is the arrogant one. I wonder why?

I expected that his winning the Presidency would bring out some ugliness, but it's been far worse than I imagined. The racism coming from the Right is obviously clear and shameless, but there's also some hidden and maybe subconscious and disturbing underline tone behind some of the things that I read here and throughout the Left blogosphere, even before the end of Obama's first year - 'He's weak, he's spineless, he's got no balls, primary him in 2012'. It'll be dishonest to deny that.

The fact is that for millions in America, Barack Obama is this uppity black man (Not even a "real" black), who received good education only due to affirmative action, and has no right to litter the sacred Oval Office with his skin color. They just can't accept the fact that the president is a black man, who unlike his predecessor, was actually legally elected. But what's really sad is that it's not just the fringe, its deep deep in mainstream America .

Barack Obama's ability to remain above all this slob, to keep his optimism and his strange and mostly unjustified faith in people, while continuing to gracefully deal with an endless shitstorm – is one of the most inspiring displays of human quality I have ever seen. And I can only hope that the Cosmos is on his side because God is and He never makes a mistake.

Sometimes, they make me feel ashamed to be a white man!!



Now the sad thing is that there are a few negroes who are as guilty of these acts as there are whites - and you know who you are (by the way, so do we - hint - you can run but you can't hide). There are those who are politically jealous; there are those who call themselves being "Objective" (hogwash). There are those who say they want balance (but they never once opened their mouths when Bush was trampling all over them and everybody else). There are those who call it "freedom of speech" and want to have arguments just for the sake of arguing - not realizing that the realm of the subconscious ingests this crap and kicks it back out at us at the most inopportune moments.

There are those who actually have the audacity to say that President Obama is not Black because his mom was white, when the law of the land of racism is that if you have one tenth of one percent of Black blood in your veins, you are Black!! There are those who actually sided with Trump in that because his dad was from Kenya he was not a citizen -- he was born here; he was raised here; if his mother had him on a desert isle in the middle of nowhere, she was American, so therefore he is American. So we can all cut the crap now.

I once stated that certain people are so prejudiced and so racist, that they could see President Obama walking across the Potomac, and point to him and say "See, he can't even swim!"

This is a brother who has kept his word and continues to do so. We got an election to win - we have some lines to hold; we have some gains to defend. And we have to also be about building our own communities after operation Bush damned near wrecked us all. So let's be about it. Take this Unknown Authors (and my) words and pass it around to all those nay sayers - negro or white - (Black people are already on board by definition). Tell them to get with the program. Barack Obama will be re-elected President in 2012.

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson