From tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com
Obama-Haters Becoming
Increasingly...Racial In Their Rhetoric
An interesting pattern has emerged in the last few weeks, as President Obama's ratings have started to come down to Earth: You can really see a type of Obama-hatred out there that really does cross over into a purely racial territory.
This has gotten especially worse in the aftermath of Obama's comments and subsequent mea culpa on the Henry Louis Gates arrest, but the pattern has been there all the same. You can look back to the 2008 campaign, with the Jeremiah Wright controversies, the phony rumors of a tape of Michelle Obama defaming whites, and the slow but steady emergence of the Birthers. And these days, the Birthers seem to be getting more and more bellicose
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Let's be frank, America has always had racists counted among its citizens. From the unvarnished open racism of the South to the coded cliched "Some of my best friends are black" racism of the North, racism has been part and parcel of our history since the first slave was off-loaded from a New England ship onto a Southern dock. The bloodiest war in our history was not fought against a foreign enemy but by brother against brother, American against American. And while that war may have saved the Union, the war between the races has never ended.
That fact has never been more evident than in the reaction to the Henry Louis Gates incident. The battle lines were drawn within minutes of it first being reported. On any given day, such a confrontation between a black man and a police officer which occurs umpteen times a day, 365 days a year across the country it would have been a local story with a one day shelf life. But the incident took on a life of its own because the President of the United States weighed in on the issue and that president happens to be black.
The racist poison which has been simmering for decades in the fetid swamp of ignorance and hate has become a volcanic eruption. What is most stunning is the nakedness of the hate. The election of Barack Obama seems to have been the last shock to the system that has kept the hate more or less limited and regional. But now it has gone viral. If you have any doubt about the level of ugliness out there, Google any word or phrase like black, white supremacy, white power, or better still Barack Obama and be prepared for the anger and venom which will come pouring onto your screen.
I have no solution to offer. I have only fear for the future of my country.