What do you make of the chaotic environment surrounding President Barack Obama?
In the CNN appearance below, I am with Jamal Simmons, a former communications adviser for the Democratic National Committee. In this conversation, we discuss the death threat environment that has been created around the president and what this means for America.
President Obama has, according to the CIA, received 400 percent more death threats than former President George W. Bush. This is only a surprise for those who don't know that America is still a racist country. When it comes to the threatening climate around the president, there are some thoughts that come to mind:
1) Are these threats due primarily to race or because people on the right simply dislike Obama's politics? It is difficult to believe that the tremendous lack of respect shown by Sen. Joe Wilson (the man who yelled, "you lie!" at the president during his speech) was not due at least in part to race. Wilson has been a member of an organization that links itself to those who have a fond regard for slavery (Sons of Confederate Veterans), and even if he is not racist himself, there is no question that racists stand with him against the president. There are some who are simply disappointed with Obama or hate all liberals, though. How do we know the difference between the two? That's what makes this problem so difficult.
2) Are those on the left turning against the president? The recent video making fun of President Obama on 'Saturday Night Live' could be a turning point in Obama's popularity with liberals. It seems that we are reaching the point where straddling the fence and reaching across the isle is making Obama look weak and ineffective. When your allies start making fun of you, that means you're in trouble.
3) What does this environment say about our country? What needs to be done in order for us to truly fulfill the dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? Have we really been doing the work or are we fooled into thinking that a couple of decades of superficial effort can remove the effects of the past 400 years? I argue that for us to really figure this thing out, we've got to do something innovative. President Obama can help with this challenge by supporting a national conversation on race. America really needs to talk about this.
The video is below if you'd like to watch. Enjoy!
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a professor at Syracuse University, a leading black speaker and author of the forthcoming book 'Black American Money.' To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.
Comments: (19)
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By: boo on 10/08/2009 6:15PM
It means that he better run and NOT walk....!
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By: tee on 10/11/2009 12:47PM
no it dont..i means that we were all created equally and we all deserve a fair chance..come on people, yall kno that the sh&t was fuc*&ed up before obama got into office. if anything they should have got bush as$ out of office before he fuc%%ed sh^t up, but naw yall cheated to get his as$ back in there and look what happen,he returned the favor in a different way. thousands of soldiers were killed, people lose homes, businesses, jobs,the rich got richer, and the poor got poorer..so you got what you asked for. so let obama do his thang, and if you don't like what he is doing then vote him out in the next election...its a common sense type of thing
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By: Trina Gibson on 10/09/2009 11:54AM
good morning ! why in the hell would you put something out there like that . you are giving people a thought ok CNN is the news and that is what you do . but to put something ot there like that is a red flag you have to know that . i feel you are telling people it's ok to go after barack obama . things like this is what make people act out . you people are makeing things more out of it then it is . this man has a family he is only trying to do this job . the us was f--- up because he got in the white house . talking about does he need to be kill no . whereever this came from this needs to stop and now .
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By: Letitia Joyner on 10/09/2009 11:52AM
It is sad in this day and age that it is so many uneducated people.The mere fact that many whites think they are the superior race. It should never matter what color your skin is but the type of person you are in your heart. the sad thing is alot of these hateful people sit on a pew every sunday morning professing to love the Lord whom they have never seen and hate the ones they see everyday. They must have cut that scripture out of their Bibles. At the end of the day they will meet the same fate as everyone else,death. When they are put in the heart of the earth they won't know who they are layed to rest by. I'm really waiting for the day when they realized that they have been buried next to a black and they jump up out of their grave screaming, how sad you people are.
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By: Wes on 10/09/2009 12:03PM
I have to disagree with point number 2. Your logic is like saying that Weird Al parodied some of Michael Jackson's songs because he had turned against Michael. I still remember one of the funniest sketches ever. It was on "Laugh In" and it poked fun at Bobby Kennedy. Shortly afterwards, Kennedy was shot and I never saw it again. Cracked and Mad Magazine have always poked fun at Presidents. I still have record albums poking fun at President's Kennedy and Johnson. And these sources of entertainment were not right wingers or people who disliked the Presidents. As for 3), there are those folks who are too filled with hate. Nothing is going to change them except Jesus.
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By: jessup1218 on 10/09/2009 5:49PM
If Derrion Albert (Chicago teen beat to death on video) went to a white school in the suburbs, he would still be alive. What does that say about our country?
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By: Deborah on 10/10/2009 6:53PM
First of all, your ignorance procedes you. Your comment regarding the black young man who was murdered in Chicago by a group of black young men? How stupid and ignorant you sound! If he had attended a white school in the suburbs, he would still be alive?? Please tell that to the young black student's parents who attended COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL in 1999! He was brutally and viciously murdered by two despicable WHITE young men, held bent on murdereing due to their hatred and animosity towards students that they felt mistreated them. If you are trying to state that whites do not commit murder.......lol let me introduce you to Charles Manson, Scott Peterson, Mark Hacking, Ted Bundy, and a whole slew of whites who murdered their wives, and innocent people who happen to be white! Take your inflammatory racist, rhetoric out of here!
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By: jessup1218 on 10/13/2009 5:58AM
Deborah, you are the ignorant one. One black kid killed in Columbine, compared to hundreds of black kids in the hood. For every white on black, there is a hundred black on black crimes. Give me the suburbs, I like my chances of survival. I you don't believe me ask Biggie and Tupac, they were not shot by the Backstreet Boys.
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By: ANITA on 10/21/2009 9:33PM
BE FOR REAL, MEN HAVE KILLED THEIR ENTIRE FAMILIES IN THE SUBRUBS, MOMS KILLED THEY CHILD, HUSBAND KILLED THEIR PREGNANT WIVES / GIRLFRIEND, METH LABS HAVE BEEN FOUND IN THE SUBRUBS, WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT THE WORLD? CRAZY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE.
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By: Duegee on 10/09/2009 8:56PM
ON Point No. 2 You sighted a skit on Saturday Night Live as possibly being sign of a segment of the voters turning againts Obama(the left).
Whether that is correct or not there is what is called the power of suggestion, with some people out there that's all that it takes, the suggesting of an idea, a plan, an action etc.
But Saturday Night live is no gauge as to the popularity of the president with those who elected him.
I do not critisize the entire sarticle for there was factual information brought out.
Such as something of which confronts those who say that racism is a thing of the past, or racism does not exist today.(ACCORDING TO THE CIA PRESIDENT OBAMA RECEIVED 400 PER CENT MORE DEATH THREATS THAN FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH)
The article was what I would consider to be fit but the part about Saturday Night Live being the possible barometer for the views of those who elected him is lidicrous. As is the president being labeled as a terrorist,not being born in Hawaii, not having obtained his college degrees
etc. I don't need to repeat these slanderous accusations and give them any more unworthy consideration than has already been given them.
Some things are not even worthy of being discussed in this arena Saturday Night live is one of them, these are comedians and they make a living off making fun of other people they are not to be taken seriously.
We are in a very sad state if Saturday Night live is being used as the barometer to decide our future.
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