The outrageous, full-frontal ignorance proudly displayed by wingnuts gathered outside a high school in Phoenix where President Obama was speaking August 6 showed that overt racism is alive and well in the United States of America...and based on how these nutjobs screwed up their own racist chants they're just as stupid as they are hateful.
Here's an excerpt from an August 6 report in the Arizona Republic (http://www.azcentral.com/...):
Obama foes at one point sang, "Bye-Bye Black Sheep," a derogatory reference to the president's skin color, while protesters like Deanne Bartram raised a sign saying, "Impeach the Half-White Muslim!"
Bye-Bye black sheep? I think those wingnuts got their nursery rhymes mixed up. I believe they were referencing the line that goes "Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool?" Perhaps they meant to chant "Bye-bye black bird?" Those are the words to a song that's been around for decades. In addition, in the 1960s and 1970s the fans at the University of Kentucky's home basketball games would sing, "Bye-Bye, Blackbird" when a black player on the opposing team fouled out. It's a damned shame those tools in Phoenix were so dumb and hateful they couldn't even get their racist chants straight.
And please note the language in the sign held by Ms. Bartram. Sounds pretty racist and anti-Muslim doesn't it? But check out this quote from her later in the story:
“Obama is ruining American values. He is ruining the Constitution. He needs to go back to where he came from because obviously, he is a liar,” she said. “I am not racist. I am part Indian. Obama’s half Black, half White.”
A liar who needs to go back where he came from? Ruining the Constitution? "I am not a racist," she said. I guess in her narrow mind, nobody who is part Indian can be full racist and that you can't practice racism against the President because he's half white. Sadly, this ignorant young woman is only 17. Some say America's future is in good hands, but I'm not so sure. One can only hope.
And finally, there was this tidbit from the Republic's story:
Judy Burris said that she blames Obama for racism in America reaching heights not seen since the 1960s Civil-Rights Era. “We have gone back so many years,” she said. “He’s divided all the races. I hate him for that.”
Say what? She hates President Obama and blames him for American racism?! That's is such the Republican way: Blaming others for the evil and hatred you cultivate and perpetrate. Sad.
It's reprehensible that an American President has to endure the disrespect and hate that Barack Obama sees daily. I don't know for sure, but I don't think people in South Africa dissed Nelson Mandela this much when he became that formerly Apartheid nation's first black President in 1994.
You'd like to think that if for no other reason than the office he holds, the President of the United States of America would be immune from such repugnant racist attacks, but he's not. In fact, this bold ignorance makes it clear to me why some refer to our country as "AmeriKKKa."
I want to believe we're better than that, but when bigots openly taunt our President with racist epithets and freely give their names for attribution with those vile statements like those in the Arizona Republic I just don't know. Our nation is still very much a racist nation. Sigh.