Columnist Bernie Hayes
The lack of respect for President Obama is bigotry in its purest form.
The debates about health care and education are defining the role of the far right wing media in U.S. society. How did Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and other so-called journalists and broadcasters in mainstream media get it so wrong?
What the conservative media and many elected officials on the right are doing is easy to understand. The right continues to disseminate false arguments as facts over the airwaves. They, along with many conservative Republicans and some members of the Democratic Party, are promoting the opposition to the president’s plan for health care reform and his blueprint for education through bigotry, plain and simple.
During the president’s joint message to Congress, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) called Pres. Obama a liar, and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck said he believes the president is a racist.
Do Hannity and Wilson respect the president as the holder of the highest office in the land, or is he just a black man whom they feel they have no reason to respect? In my opinion, they have racially stereotyped the President of the United States.
Perhaps, in their eyes, Pres. Obama is linked to the only group to have involuntarily immigrated to the United States and been forcibly stripped of its culture, not realizing that African Americans as a group have yet to receive our fair share of the American dream.
Among the responsibilities of journalists and politicians is to link persons of African descent accurately to their ancestral past, but what have we seen during Pres. Obama’s short term in office? We have witnessed a conspiracy by some members the media and many conservatives to disrupt town hall meetings, force media outlets to cover the Tea Parties, investigate President Obama’s birth certificate, and attack public officials and Obama supporters.
Mr. Obama’s presidency is historic – a defining moment in the growth of the country. It highlights the many contributions of black Americans that have influenced our culture, enriched our society and is shaping our history.
So how can the right be so wrong?
As for President Obama, I would like for him to remember a poem by Langston Hughes:
“I, Too, Sing America”
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed –
I, too, am America.
I can be reached by e-mail at: berhay@swbell.net.