Obama a racist? I don’t know, but he’s certainly human
Apparently, the issue of race is far more important to the American people these days than health care, at least that’s what the latest, most popular news reports have been implying with all this talk of President Barack Obama’s recent race related verbal misstep.
This past week, Obama really stirred the cauldron by saying that Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department in Massachusetts “acted stupidly” when he arrested Scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Gates is a friend of the president’s, and a black man. Sgt. Crowley is white.
As reported by the Associated Press yesterday, the extent of Obama’s apology is as follows: “I could’ve calibrated those words differently.” Oh yes, and Obama called both Gates and Crowley to invite them over for a beer at the White House.
Those are two surefire ways (especially that last one) to try and douse these racial flames…
We’ll never know for sure if the president accidentally intended any racism toward the white Sgt. Crowley by his choice words, however, I think it’s interesting, and an excellent example that proves we’re all just human. Even the president of the United States has his moments.
Something else I find interesting is how big the media are blowing this up to be, which, I guess, is what they’re good for: blowing anything and everything out of proportion.
I also took notice to how often the words “white” and “black” appear in reference to these two men in the articles written about them. How often is that: quite often. Doesn’t this affect a person’s bias while reading an article like this? Doesn’t immediately stir racial emotion in the viewer/reader? Of course it does.
One one hand, it’s nice to know how the president feels about matters such as this, to know that he does possess some bias, whether it be because Gates is a friend or because they share the same race, or what have you. On the other hand, does this story, essentially about a single adverb, elicit such attention from the media.
Well, I guess it does seeing as how this is one of the most popular stories on the Web right now. I have been known to have a wrong opinion or two in my life.
Brittany @ July 25, 2009