Remember the 2008 election? In particular, the transparently racist and color-coded language and innuendo bantered about by presidential candidates, politicians, political pundits and media outlets with respect to then-U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama? I won't rehash the large amounts of rhetoric here, as that would take me months. However, I will point out the most obvious and popular allegation made during those times: Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States.
What? Really? Isn't Hawaii a state within the continental United States? That's the reaction most rational people had upon hearing the allegation. Either that or an immediate rolling of the eyes. Yet and still, the newly-emerging birthers, right-wing extremists and their conservative sympathizers beat this meme into the ground. Why? We all know the answer. It's plainly simple: President Barack Obama is a black man and these groups cannot - and will not - accept that a black man is the President of the United States.
These groups can't openly admit their true feelings because to do so would be unacceptable in modern society. So they cloak their racist opinion and discomfort in illegitimate and unfounded innuendo, a thinly-veiled attempt to de-legitimatize our president and his right to hold that office. To quell the growing stupidity, then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama released his short-form birth certificate to the public. Of course, this wasn't enough for the doubters (read = Birthers), but it did help to move the national discussion on to more important topics.
Fast forward two years and we're back where we started. All thanks to Donald Trump. While playing coy about a possible presidential bid, he went on the attack. Now, you'd think a man who wants to become president would take our President to task on issues like the economy, national security, high gas prices, the failing War on Terror, enormous national debt, etc. No, not Mr. Trump. The most pressing issue in his mind is whether or not President Obama is a U.S. citizen. So, he beats the "show your birth certificate" drum all over again. That is the moment Mr. Trump immediately lost my respect. I guess I'm one more person that's no longer a part of "the blacks" he gets along with so well.
President Obama eventually released his long-form birth certificate. I'll be honest. It's something I didn't want him to do simply because I didn't think he should entertain the stupidity. Enough was enough! And, as expected, the foolishness didn't stop once he did. There was still non-belief as to its authenticity, all from the usual suspects of course. Even worse, Mr. Trump couldn't let sleeping dogs lie when his ridiculous talking point lost its legs. He graduated to another transparently racist attack: He questioned whether President Obama should have been admitted to Columbia University and Harvard Law School. In other words, he was saying our President did not have the intellectual capacity to attend an elite, Ivy League school. And thus, by implication, he is not smart enough to be President of the United States.
The fact that Mr. Trump is not attacking President Obama on the merits, but rather using attacks that play on age-old stereotypes (i.e. blacks are "the other", blacks aren't smart, blacks didn't earn their education or job, etc) says a lot about what kind of man Mr. Trump is and how low he's willing to go to get a seat at the table. Shame on him and others like him!
Here's a great video about what rhetoric like this is really saying (and its ugly history):
Photo Credit: AP
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