Now I would be the first to say that President Barack Obama hasn't been my favorite guy in the White House.
He's made his share of mistakes, such as choosing the wrong people to be his top advisers, and calling for a surge of forces in Afghanistan a year and a half ago.
Yet I feel he would have more successes if some folks in the U.S. Congress would get over having an African-American (In private they may have another name for him.) as head of the Executive Branch of the government.
I am reminded of how other African-Americans who have served in high level executive positions have had to live cleaner, speak better, not ruffle anyone's feathers or they were run out on the streets. People like Jocelyn Elders, former Surgeon General, and Department of Agriculture Director Mike Espy, both of the Bill Clinton era.
Today U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)laid it all out on the table when she made comments such as these on the floor of the House of Representatives:
"I do not understand what I think is the maligning and maliciousness [toward] this president. Why is he different? And in my community, that is the question that we raise. Why is this president being treated so disrespectfully? Why has the debt limit been raised 60 times? Why did the leader of the Senate continually talk about his job is to bring the president down to make sure he is unelected?
"I am particularly sensitive to the fact that only this president — only this one, — has received the kind of attacks and disagreement and inability to work.
"Read between the lines. What is different about this president that should put him in a position that he should not receive the same kind of respectful treatment of when it is necessary to raise the debt limit in order to pay our bills, something required by both statute and the 14th amendment?"
The answer, of course, is that Obama is Black. Not any other president who was in office during those 60 times when the debt limit was raised happened to be Black, nor were they Latino or women or Asian. They were mostly just the good old boys who looked like the majority of those voting in the Senate and House.
So tonight I ponder as I meditate, why do we fear or resent those who aren't like us? Are we jealous that they have leap-frogged over us in just a few decades since the Civil Rights Act was passed? Are we afraid that others will do the same thing?
As a white person, are the "others" going to get even once they become more powerful or numerous? Will I be the new minority, along with my children and grandchildren?
Where is my confidence in the future of humanity? Just because the Europeans didn't do too good of a job in accepting people who looked differently than they or worshiped differently, or just didn't belong to the same clubs as they did doesn't mean the "others" will do the same thing.
I think, despite all the other mistakes made by the Obama Presidency, one thing his administration hasn't done is discriminate against white Europeans. We've lucked out, folks. Now give this guy a break, and get on with co-governing!
Look deeply into your souls, and be honest with yourselves. Ask your constituents to do the same. Better yet, challenge them to examine their motives. We in power over so many centuries are racists. Race prejudice plus power equals racism. That's the definition of racism, and that's what's happening.
And that's what's really behind the stagnation going on in Washington these days.