Gregory D.

Lee

Read Greg's bio and previous columns here

March 24, 2008

Barack Obama Raises a Red Flag for ‘Typical White People’

Just about the time you thought there was a fresh, viable, transparent black politician who set himself apart from the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of this world by transcending race, the ugly truth comes out.

Barack Obama was unmasked, and his true feelings about the vast majority of Americans, i.e. whites, were revealed through a series of recent events:

• His close friendship and long-time support of his racist, Louis Farrakhan-admiring, America hate-mongering pastor-of-choice, Rev. Jeremiah Wright
• The throwing of his white grandmother under the bus during his “race speech”
• His description of his grandmother’s fear of blacks being the same as any other “typical white person.”

Here’s what Obama had to say during a Philadelphia sports radio interview: “But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know, you know, there’s a reaction that’s been bred in our experiences that don’t go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that’s just the nature of race in our society.”

Do blacks have the same reaction bred in their experiences when they see white people on the streets they don’t know? I don’t think so. Maybe that’s because, as Rev. Wright correctly pointed out in one of his sermons, there are more black men in prison than there are in college. Many more black criminals victimize whites than white criminals victimize blacks. Sounds like a reasonable fear to me. Even Jesse Jackson acknowledged his fear of other black men. Obama’s grandmother’s fear will subside when more blacks graduate from high school, go to college, get a career and don’t let black malcontents intimidate them when they claim other blacks who achieve have sold out their race.

My children’s typical white grandmother warned me that a person’s character was revealed through the company he keeps, and how true that is. Obama’s 20-year association and mentorship with Rev. Wright speaks volumes about his true feelings of America and whites. The typical white person would have walked out of the church or synagogue if the pastor or rabbi was spewing hatred toward his country and another race or religion. Typical white people love their country, don’t blame others for their failures and don’t have chips on their shoulders that are harder to dislodge than Obama’s grandmother from underneath the bus.

In contrast, your typical black, agenda-driven politician, as evidenced by members of today’s Congressional Black Caucus, favors slavery reparations, wants to expand social programs that “focus on the concerns of African-Americans” and advocates the perpetual continuation of affirmative action, also known as reverse discrimination.

In a childish attempt to minimize political damage, Obama’s campaign released a photo of President Bill Clinton shaking Rev. Wright’s hand during a 1998 annual prayer breakfast. Not a photo of the two of them side-by-side looking straight into the camera taken by the official White House photographer, but a candid shot of the two men standing among the many other participants. The implication is that Bill and Hillary don’t think Rev. Wright’s such a bad guy after all. I’ve got a photo of me shaking hands with then-First Lady Hillary Clinton on a visit to the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan when I was assigned there. Does that make me a liberal tax-and-spender? Come on, Obama, you have to do better than that to convince me and other typical white people. Rev. Wright wasn’t Bill and Hillary Clinton’s minister, he was yours.

Obama could have severed his ties with Rev. Wright years ago, but instead he chose to embrace him and his teachings in order to build credibility with his like-minded Chicago constituents.

This revelation serves the nation, and in particular typical white people, with notice of what they can expect from an Obama Administration.

Gregory D. Lee is a California based writer. You can reach him through his website: www.gregorydlee.com.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

This is Column # GL010.  Request permission to publish here.