‘Black President Obama’: Insulting and Condescending?
New America Media, an influential ethnic-media organization, has an Earl Ofari Hutchinson column that warns not to call Barack Obama the nation’s “black president”:
The instant Barack Obama tossed his hat in the presidential ring nearly two years ago, the twin mantra was that he could be the first black president, and if that happened, America would finally have kicked its race syndrome.
The twin mantra has been repeated ad infinitum, and it’s dead wrong. The early hint that race was overblown and over-obsessed came from Obama himself: He didn’t talk about it, and for good reason — he was not running as a black presidential candidate. He was running as a presidential candidate.
He had to make that crucial distinction for personal and political purposes.
The ritual preface of the word “black” in front of any achievement or breakthrough that an African American makes is insulting, condescending and minimizes their achievement. It maintains and reinforces the very racial separation that much of America claims it is trying to get past. Dumping the historic burden of race on blacks measures an individual’s success or failure by a group standard. That’s a burden whites don’t have. They succeed or fail solely as individuals.
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