House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he didn't rush to action because he had been assured by Republican leaders that Wilson would apologize to his fellow members. Wilson had called the White House last week to apologize. But days passed and instead of saying sorry to the House, Wilson took to the airwaves to rally financial support, claiming he would not be muzzled by liberal critics. Soon members of the congressional black caucus were insisting the incident not be ignored. Georgia Democrat Hank Johnson argued that by disrespecting the president, Wilson was encouraging racist elements in society against Obama.(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112872563)
Is it possible that this was racially motivated or if it wasn't is it possible that the race card is being played too often? If that's the case how do we control it?
The book for this class 'Understanding Diversity' directly says one of the common thoughts among 'new prejudice' is "Blacks are getting too demanding in their push for equal rights" (Understanding Diversity p.70)
Does this incident fall into that category or is it actually racism and people who claim it's not are members of the new form of prejudice? Is the fight against racism becoming a social problem in itself or is it the same social problem of racism?
Former President Jimmy Carter also made an interesting remark about this issue:
ReplyDelete"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/15/carter.obama/index.html
I think its a bit ridiculous for the left side of the political spectrum to cry racism any time somebody opposes their views, whether its a rude and disrespectful rant during the President's speech or simply a protest. Yes, Obama is black, but I almost feel like it's more racist of them to keep bringing it up! The real issue is partisan politics, which has been in disease in our political system for what seems like forever. If we're going to fix the problems in our society, we need to stop pushing petty accusations to the forefront in order to distract ourselves from the real issues facing our nation.
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