OPINION/ FORUM
The
Chronicle
Ernest H. Pitt PuMisher Co-Founded
ELAINE Pitt Business Manager
Michael A. Pitt Meeting
T. Kevin Walker Managing Ediior
PuOMtiwre Association
: Carter was Right
to Denounce Racists
George
Curry
Guest
Columnist
One of the major criti
cisms of civil rights leaders
for years has been that too
many decent Whites choose to
remain silent on the issue of
race, ceding the spotlight to
mean-spiritfed Caucasians who
are insensitive to the suffering
of African Americans.
Today, more Whites are
willing to challenge injustice,
but when they do. they face a
barrage of criticism from con
servative politicians and talk
show crazies who'd like for us
to think that Whites, especial
ly White males, are the most
oppressed people in America.
The clearest example of
this was the attack on former
president Jimmy Carter after
he attacked the motives of
some critics of Barack
Obama. In an interview with
NBC News, Carter said, "I
think an overwhelming por
tion of the intensely demon
strated animosity toward
President Barack Obama is
based on the fact that he is a
Black man."
Carter's comment came a
day after Rep. Joe Wilson, a
Republican from South
Carolina. breeched
Congressional decorum and
good manners by yelling.
"You lie!" at President Obama
as he delivered an address to a
joint session of Congress.
Conservatives, including
Republican National
Committee Chairman Michael
Steele, expressed outrage.
"President Carter is flat-out
wrong." Steele said in a state
ment. "This isn't about race.
It's about policy."
, The White House, recog
nizing it was in a no-win situ
ation, quickly distanced itself
from Carter's comments.
Press Secretary Robert
Gibbs said Obama "does not
believe that the criticism
comes based on the color of
his skin." He added. "We
understand that people have
disagreements with some of
the decisions that we've made
and some of the extraordinary
actions that had to be under
taken by this administration."
But Jimmy Carter did not
back down.
In a speech at Emory
University in Atlanta, he said:
"When a radical element of
demonstrators and others
begin to attack the president of
the United States as an animal
or as a reincarnation of Adolf
Hitler or when they wave
signs in the air that said we
should have buried Obama
with Kennedy, those kinds of
things are beyond the
bounds."
Carter added. "I think peo
ple who are guilty of that kind
of personal attack against
Obama have been influenced
to a major degree by a belief
that he should not be president
because he happens to be
African American. It's a racist
attitude, and my hope is and
my expectation is that in the
future both Democratic and
Republican leaders will take
?the initiative in condemning
that kind of unprecedented
attack on the president of the
United States."
He wasn't the only White
person to reach that same con
clusion.
New York Times columnist
Maureen Dowd wrote. "I've
been loath to admit that the
shrieking lunacy of the sum
mer - the frantic effort to paint
our first black president as the
Other, a foreigner, socialist,
fascist, Marxist, racist.
Commie, Nazi; a cad who
would snuff old people; a
snake who would indoctrinate
kids - had much to do with
race".
She continued, "J^ut
Wilson's shocking disrespect
for the office of the president
- no Democrat ever shouted
liar' at W. when hp was
hawking a fake case for war in
Iraq - convinced me: Some
people just can't believe a
black man is president and
will never accept it."
Neither Carter nor Dowd
said everyone who opposes
Obama is a racist. Far from it.
They pointed out that an ele
ment of the opposition
includes racism and they are
correct. Racists are not as
straight-forward as former
governors Gov. George C.
Wallace of Alabama and Gov.
Ross Barnett of Mississippi.
They don't stand in school
house doors or use the n-word.
Instead, they cloak their
racism in code words such as
"family values," depict the
opposition as being socialists
or communists and want the
public to believe that people
of color are the racists.
That's why Glenn Beck
could accuse President Obama
of being a racist. He said
Obama, who is biracial, has "a
deep-seated hatred for White
people." Rush Limbaugh said
the president "is the greatest
living example of a reverse
racist." Both called Supreme
Court Justice Sonia
Sotomayor a "reverse racist."
As a Southerner who grew
up during the Jim Crow era, I
was quite familiar with racists.
However, 1 never knowingly
met a "reverse racist." There's
no such thing. A person is a
racist or isn't one.
This whole attempt to
deflect racism by accusing the
victims of racism of being
racists is part of a larger
movement to hijack the lan
guage and tactics of the Civil
Rights Movement and turn
them against people of color.
Anti-Obama Tea Party pro
testers who arrived in D C. by
bus called themselves
"Freedom Riders,"
In court, anti-affirmative
action zealotss have turned the
equal protection clause of the
14th Amendment on its head.
Initially passed immediately
after the Civil War to provide
protection for newly-freed
slaves, the clause requires
states to provide equal protec
tion for all people within their
jurisdictions. Conservatives
have gone to court to assert
that even voluntary affirma
tive action programs deny
them equal protection guaran
teed by the 14th Amendment.
Let's dispense with the
smokescreens. Some of the
opposition to Obama is based
on pure racism.
George E. Curry, former
editor-in-chief of Emerge
magazine and the NNPA News
Service . is a keynote speaker,
moderator, and media coach.
He can he reached through his
Weh site,
www.georgecurry.com .
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President Obama addresses Congress on Sept. 9 ,
While House Photo by Lawrence Jackson
Why Obama is Right on Health Care
Marc
Morial
Guest
Columnist
On Sept. 9, before a joint
session of Congress,
President Obama made his
most detailed and impas
sioned case to date in support
of legislation to fix our bro
ken health care system and at
long last make health insur
ance affordable and accessi
ble to every American;
In summary, the
President's plan will provide
more security and stability to
those who have health insur
ance. It will provide insur
ance to those who don't. And
it will lower the cost of health
care for families, businesses
and our government.
If you have health insur
ance, the President's plan will
prevent insurance companies
from denying you coverage
due to a pre-existing condi
tion. It will also put a cap on
out of pocket expenses so
people don't go broke when
they get sick. It will ensure
that all Americans have
access to free preventive
services like mammograms,
flu shots and diabetes tests to
improve health and save
money. And it protects
Medicare and closes the so
called prescription drug
"donut hole" which has
resulted in an average of
$4,080 in out of pocket costs
for beneficiaries who re^feh a
coverage limit and who lack
another source of insurance.
If you are one of the tens
of millions of Americans who
don't have health insurance,
half of whom are people of
color, the President's plan
creates a new insurance mar
ketplace - the Exchange -
that allows people without
health insurance and small
businesses to compare plans
and buy insurance at compet
itive prices. It provides new
tax credits to help individuals
buy insurance and to help
small businesses cover their
employees. It offers new low
cost coverage through a
national "high-risk" pool to
protect people with pre-exist
ing conditions from financial
ruin until the new Exchange
is created. And it offers a
public health insurance
option to provide the unin
sured who can't afford cover
age with a real choice.
The President also sought
to dispel a number of myths,
lies and distortions that have
fueled so much misinforma
tion and confusion about his
plan. The National Urban
League shares his outrage at
the deliberate attempts to
defeat reform through the
spreading of outright false
hoods.
That is why on the morn
ing of the President's speech,
I joined members of the
Congressional Black Caucus
and NAACP president, Ben
Jealous in a Capitol Hill press
conference to help set the
record straight. We made it
clear, as the President did
later in the evening, that the
plan would not create so
called "death panels" with the
power to kill off senior citi
zens; coverage will not be
extended to illegal immi
grants; and no federal dollars
will be used to fund abor
tions.
Finally the public option,
which we strongly support, is
not a "government takeover"
as some have irresponsibly
claimed. It would be an
essential option to hold down
costs. It simply increases
competition. That is the very
essence of capitalism.
America stands alone
among industrialized nations
in not affording its citizens
comprehensive health insur
ance. We have been fighting
this battle for over a centu
ry. Now is the time to get the
job done.
Marc Mortal heads the
National Urban League.
Wake Up, Smell the Greens!
Peter
Bailey
Guest
Columnist
It is time for Black people
to wake up and smell the coK
lard greens. It has become
increasingly and ominously
clear that significant num
bers of Whites in this country
consider the presence of
Barack and Michelle Obama
in the White House as an
abomination, an unnatural
state of affairs, a betrayal of
all they have been taught
about the proper place for
Black people to occupy in the
scheme of things.
The malcontents include
many, if not most, of Rush
Limbaugh's Limb-Addicts,
Sean Hannity's Haters. Ann
Coulter's C'oulterats. Glen
Beck's Bcckaholics. Bill
O'Reilly's Factorcides and
Laura Ingraham's
Ingramaniacs. Absolutely
nothing Obama does will sat
isfy such people. Most of
them wouldn't want to even
see a Black conservative
such as Clarence Thomas or
Star Parker or Thomas
Sowell or Michael Steele,
etc. in The White House as
president.
A commentator in the
Washington Post recently
wrote: |f Clarence
Thomas were president, the
crowd probably would have
stayed home watching Fox
News' laudatory coverage of
the Thomas administra
tion...."
I don't think so. That
position, they believe, should
always be held by a White
man or maybe a White
woman but never by a Black
man or Black Woman no
matter how accommodating
or subservient.
Of course, none of this
surprises those of us whose
national and international
perspectives, especially on
the subject of race relations,
are greatly influenced by the
great visionary and master
teacher, Malcolm X, It also
shouldn't surprise those who
have read Martin Luther
King Jr's last book, "Where
Do We Go From Here: Chaos
or Community?" We were
Ann Coulter
aware from the very begin
ning that all the campaign
rhetoric about a "post-racial"
America was at best, naive
and at worst, a deliberate
hoax. We also never forget
what too many Blacks, in
their euphoria about Obama's
elections, tend to ignore -
which is that nearly 60 per
cent of Whites voted against
Obama in 20()8.
Black folks must now
wake up and smell the cl)l
lard greens. For personal
political reasons. President
Obama may insist that race is
not a factor in the ongoing
attacks, but those of us who
have to function in the real
world know better. As a first
step. Black organizations and
civic associations on every
level must begin to identify
the organizations, groups and
their leaders who now feel
free to openly denigrate us so
as not to be caught by sur
prise. Black newspapers
should regularly run brief bio
sketches on such organiza
tions and their leaders so they
will be imbedded in their
readers' consciousness.
Businesses, local and nation
al, who support the purvey
ors of hate and lies should
also be identified and denied
our patronage if they contin
ue to do so.
Acquiring such informa
tion and knowledge is critical
if we arc to be in a position to
promote and defend our eco
nomic and political interests
in a menacing environment.
Journalist/Lecturer A.
Peter Bailey, a former asso
ciate editor of Ebony , is cur
rently editor of Vital Issues:
The Journal of African
American Speeches. He can
he reached at
apcterhfn Verizon .net .