CNN: Black Obama Faces Higher Standard
From those colorblind folks at CNN:
Will Obama have to be better because he’s black?
By John Blake
(CNN) — Just days before he was sworn in, President Obama was giving his daughters a tour of the Lincoln Memorial when one of them pointed to a copy of Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address carved into the wall.
Obama’s 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, told her father that Lincoln’s speech was really long. Would he have to give a speech as long? Obama’s answer was completed by his older daughter, 10-year-old Malia.
"I said, ‘Actually, that one is pretty short. Mine may even be a little longer,’ " Obama told CNN recently. "At which point, Malia turns to me and says, ‘First African-American president, better be good.’ "
The story is light-hearted, but it touches on a delicate question: Will people hold Obama to a different standard because he is the first African-American president?
Americans appear split by race on that answer. According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 53 percent of blacks say the American public will hold Obama to a higher standard than past presidents because he is black. Most whites — 61 percent — say Obama’s race will not matter in how he will be judged…
Perhaps Obama will avoid those stomachaches because of the massive good will his election has generated. But that could change quickly if Obama makes a controversial decision or a mistake, says Andrew Rojecki, co-author of "The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America."
Rojecki says people who say Obama isn’t going to be held to a different standard because of his skin color didn’t pay attention to his campaign.
He says Obama had to deal with challenges that other candidates didn’t have to face. Obama’s run for office was almost ended by his association with his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose incendiary sermons shocked many…
Even people who regard themselves as the most progressive, open-minded supporters may subconsciously hold Obama to a different standard, Rojecki says.
He says several academic studies show that it often takes people longer to associate good qualities to blacks when different faces are flashed across a screen.
"They have these stereotypes buried in their subconscious," he says. "That’s why people cross the street when they see a young black man. They’d rather not take a chance."
Obama virtually had to be perfect to overcome those stereotypes, Rojecki says. He was the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, he has an Ivy League-educated wife and adorable daughters, and he ran a great campaign.
"He’s the perfect symbol of achievement," Rojecki says.
White candidates for office don’t have to have an uninterrupted life of achievement to be considered for the Oval Office, Rojecki says.
"If George W. Bush were black, do you think he would be president?" Rojecki says…
So much for Mr. Obama inaugurating a post-racial era.
From our observations, Mr. Obama’s skin color is not even the slightest of problems. If he were a conservative, the right would draw his carriage through the streets.
But our watchdog media never seems to tire of race baiting.
"They have these stereotypes buried in their subconscious," he says. "That’s why people cross the street when they see a young black man. They’d rather not take a chance."
Talk to the Reverend Jackson about that one, Mr. Rojecki.
Or that ‘typical white person,’ Obama’s grandmother.
"He’s the perfect symbol of achievement," Rojecki says.
Mr. Rojecki is quite the kidder.
Susan Estrich was the first female editor of the Harvard Law Review. (For the same affirmative action reasons.)
Does anyone think she is qualified to be President?
For sure, Baraq is 50% Caucasian (via his Mom).
I’ve also read that his other half is 2/3 Arab and 1/3 African.
Since he’s married to a black woman, does that make him a more genuine “African American” than say Tiger Woods?
The standard I am holding him to is the standard of a “reasonable person”, (having spent 1 1/2 years in law school before I decided to bolt to get married at an “elderly age” for a first time bride). I don’t know, he won’t be held to any standard.
The MSM will simply make try to sure we perceive him as super duper… that is until it becomes apparent his “cures” are doing more damage.. THEN it will be the public’s fault because they didn’t give him a chance BECAUSE he is ..black.. or what ever..
Frankly, as admin said.. “If he were a conservative, the right would draw his carriage through the streets.” is the truth. But who is driving perception?
Just WHAT was a standard we put to Obama? That he not lie? We’ve already caught him lying to us many times, [pledge that he would accept public funds, claim that he didn't know Wright was a racist hatemonger, claim that he doesn't hire lobbyists, etc] but we didn’t turn him out, did we?
No, we let him stay because…he’s black. That’s the truth, and we all know it. Every white in America, if they are honest with themselves, should admit that we let ALL of these character problems of Obama’s slide for one reason: he’s black.
Does a CNN journalist like John Blake or an author like Rojecki even understand what the average American feels on a daily basis? Reporters and writers like these two exist with two things coursing through their veins: hate and vengence. We don’t wake up every day thinking of ways to start a race war, but these two lurch to show a racist under every rock. Our heart is not geared to think like Rojecki and Blake believe we do. We wouldn’t last very long if we did, but to two racebaitors like them, they’ll never understand that.
How can Blake even pretend to know how we regard African Americans? Blake is a paid hack, trying to dig up ANYthing that will cause a stir in the headlines. This story above may make him and Rojecki popular at parties of the rich and famous, but it all sounds like freshman prose to me.
Mr Blake and Mr Rojecki should try to come to my neighborhood for a while to see what the truth really is. I heard a black girl the other day complaining that she had to come in an hour and a half early every day to keep her job, because she was black. In her eyes, she had to do something that no other whites have ever had to experience. She thinks that being black in America means that you have to give not just 100% like whites try to do, but 110% just to get by, due to whites wanting her job. If she was white, she said, she could just breeze in a minute or two late every day, and no one would say anything to her, because whites look out for each other.
This is the mania that sweeps the black community, thanks to people like Blake. Due to “witchdoctors” like Rojecki, 70% of the black community thinks that AIDS was invented by man and that white evildoers snuck into their homes and injected them with it; A high percentage of African Americans actually believe that the only reason why blacks smoke crack is due to the CIA getting them hooked on it in the 80′s; Too many African Americans actually think that they are being made to perform at a higher level than us whites in daily routines.
What the African Americans who are paranoid because they feel a need to come to work early and leave late don’t realize is that coming in early and leaving late is a white thing, and they are just now beginning to see that it takes hard work and sacrafice for us whites to get ahead, too.
But we don’t have any evil “whitey” to blame it on. Even though we come in early and leave late, we still get fired, layed off, and demoted by another white person (or Indian, in my case, recently. Is this where I scream, “racism”?). And we have a heart that says, “I must have done something wrong”, or, “I need to improve my skills so this doesn’t happen in the future” when we get layed off or fired. We don’t know how to have a heart that refuses to accept individual responsibility for our failings, ending up as a “victim” of some person or people. We simply blame ourselves.
We have to deal with the fact that we don’t get into college for free because we’re white. We have to live with the fact that employers are being forced to accept a African American’s lower exam score over our scores for employment. And we have to accept being put in the back of the line, as if we did anything to deserve this, and let the same guilty white elitists who dreamed up this thing called affirmative action then call us racists while we’re there.
The average black person has NO idea of the sacrafice and effort that goes into our “white world”, where reverse discrimination has become the accepted order for the past two generations in this country.
They just continue to take, take, and take, while screaming that we’re still racist. CNN articles like this provide the alcohol for their drunkenness.
In a community that already has trouble assimilating peacefully into our “white world” here in America, Blake an Rojecki try to stoke their anger and confusion for the next 4-8 years.