I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before, but undoing the work of the first black President of the United States is an ultimate form of racism. Better than killing the actual person, which would make him a martyr, is wiping out his legacy.
This came to me as I was sorting through last year’s magazines and came across a picture of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michele Obama on a cover. I remember how elated I was when he was elected. How full of hope. How pleased with the passage of Obama Care, imperfect as it was it was better than anything we have ever had.
As his Presidency went on, I was glad when his primary approach to international affairs was negotiation. I took heart in his leadership in protecting the environment. And as I thought of these things, I realized my bubble of hope has burst. His legacy is being hacked away by our current incumbent. And without my realizing it, it has affected my optimism over Barack Obama’s election.
The hacking began with the claim by now President Trump, before his election, that Barack Obama was not an American citizen. Since that false claim, the attacks on Obama’s legitimacy have only gotten worse. His programs are being dismantled, his approach to international affairs derided as soft. And, perhaps most offensive of all, the claim that somehow, he was not about making America great has been touted by a President who is the real deal, who is going to “Make America Great Again.” It is going to take a belligerent, sexist, and obviously racist, white evangelical male who claims to hold to Christian fundamentals, to “Make America Great” again. Give me a break! I thought we were making America really great when we elected an African-American as President!
It is no accident that our now President, Donald Trump, has as one of his top advisors, Bannon, a known White Supremacist. I am finally beginning to get it.
It is not racist to disagree with Ex-President Obama on some issues or on his leadership style. Some on the left think he did not go far enough. (How far can a President go with the Congress blocking him quite deliberately and methodically at every turn?) It is wrong to claim, however, that he did nothing right and, in fact, set our nation backwards.
Why didn’t I see it before? We are looking at ultimate racism in action. A black man may have won the election as President, but he is illegitimate anyway. It isn’t that only a white male will do as President. It has to be a misogynist, power hungry, violent, gold loving white male to get America back on track!
I hope this is a last gasp of Chauvinism at its militant worst. Backlash. I don’t want this to be who we are as a nation. We are better than this!
I admit that some Americans feel disenfranchised, left out, by all of Movements of the late Twentieth Century. They need a spokesperson. But President Donald Trump or his more rational appearing cronies (who is a crony of whom?) are not going to get them anywhere.
And, if truth be told, even with the advances we have made in race, gender, sexual preference and identity, disability, worker’s rights, the environment, etc. , many of us still feel the effects of discrimination or inequality.
Let movement into the future include all who feel left behind or forgotten. We are all in this together.
Racism of any kind, especially ultimate racism at the top, is an enemy of our humanity and of my belief in a just and loving God. President Obama’s legacy stands and so does he.