Is it just me or does President Obama get whiter every time his approval ratings go up?
I could’ve sworn he was Kenyan three weeks ago. At least, that’s what the news would have me believe.
Then the assassination of Osama bin Laden sent Obama soaring up the paint chart, and he officially became a U.S. citizen.
I don’t pay much attention to opinion polls. After all, if I want to see how the news really feels about Obama, I can just look at who they give the most airtime to.
Our mainstream media serves as an agenda setter, so the loudest and most visible pundits construct the narrative.
Depending on what week it is, Obama can be anywhere from bi-racial to a Muslim Socialist anti-Christ. Ultimately, the construction depends on how well he identifies with his white constituents.
For example, during Obama’s inauguration, I was excited for our first black president. My white friends, who had previously asserted I only voted for him because he was black, were quick to remind me that he was bi-racial.
This marked an interesting turning point in the history of the one-drop rule. Previously it had been used to make sure anyone with a drop of non-European blood wasn’t considered white. Now it seems as if “half-white pride” is the order of the day.
When joking with friends about which half of Blake Griffin is dunking the ball better, I can’t help but think of all the love Obama got during the grace period after his inauguration.
However, he would inevitably fall victim to Tiger Woods Syndrome.
As his presidency has gone along, the claims of bi-racial have all but disappeared from the national narrative.
Instead we see signs simultaneously calling him a Muslim and Hitler — a correlation I would’ve never thought possible until I saw it with my own eyes.
Even though the biggest winners of health care reform were insurance companies, the narrative transformed into “radical socialist.” Neither word (as well as “Muslim”) is inherently bad, but they definitely don’t apply to a man who has consistently capitulated to corporate interest. Their purpose was to exploit the prejudice of a large, vulnerable white voting block. This tactic dates back to Reconstruction, but apparently the distraction of a black president kept people from realizing the history they were repeating.
Disdain for Obama hit an all-time high during last year’s midterm elections. While the go-to labels of “socialist,” “terrorist sympathizer” and “Muslim” were getting major play, Newt Gingrich set the bar as low as it could go (until the 2012 election presumably) with “loud tribesman.”
At that point it seemed as if the media narrative of Obama had gotten as “black” as it could get. Not surprisingly, his approval ratings were at an all-time low.
Donald Trump’s subsequent attacks on Obama’s citizenship seemed to mark a plateau in the “othering” of our president.
Little did we know Obama would catch a case of vitiligo after the assassination of bin Laden that Sunday.
Isn’t it ironic that Obama would be celebrated for his most thuggish decisions in office?
The usually loud Obama critics on the right have been consistently quiet, and in many cases supportive, of the president’s efforts when it comes to our wars and proxy wars in Africa and the Middle East.
He ordered more drone strikes in his first two years than Bush did in eight, and he has even called for the assassination of U.S. citizens like Anwar al-Awlaki despite no conviction, much less formal charges.@@yes@@
When Obama announced that U.S. Special Forces had murdered Osama bin Laden and threw his body — the evidence — in the sea, he went from being a questionable citizen earlier in the week to our Smooth Criminal-in-Chief.
While the days following a presidential inauguration are generally seen as a grace period, this represented an authentic moment in the country’s perceived acceptance of the president.
That talking heads seem most comfortable with the image of Obama as a slick talking, unapologetic murderer is a cause for concern.
Why is Obama a radical Muslim, socialist, anti-Christ when he’s trying to provide access to health care for all Americans, but he’s a hero when he orders a murder and dumps the evidence?
As time goes by, and we look back on media artifacts, the thought of a “post-racial” America will be laughable. Our media has tirelessly constructed and reconstructed President Obama to the point where politically, his best approach is imitating Frank Lucas. @@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lucas_%28drug_lord%29@@Any attempts at achieving equity for under-resourced people come across as socialism or “Kenyan” politics.
During the Black Power movement the media was more comfortable showing “scary” black people with guns rather than them serving free breakfast or poring over books. Why would we expect any different for the first black president?
That Obama has bowed to the demands of the agenda setters is disheartening, but then again, people like me rarely make it on the news.