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* Disclaimer for the thin skinned: I am in no way implying that there are racists here on DU. We may be unwittingly enabling racists, through. That is another issue.
Watching President Obama getting socked around by all sides - even by the DU side, lately - has reminded me of an incident I experienced while growing up. It involved something very non-political. Baseball, to be exact.
My late single digit years were spent growing up in a very racist neighborhood, in a fairly racist state. Like all good White, church goin' suburbs at the time, mine had a little league team. I had a bit of an arm on me, so I tried out and made it as a pitcher. Every one of us, it barely needs to be mentioned, were White. We were pretty average, winning some, losing some, but having a great time. Then the day came that nearly brought the neighborhood to a standstill. A Black family moved in. And what's more, they had a young boy who liked to play baseball.
The kid came to try outs, and as luck would have it, he was a pitcher. A really good one, in fact. Much better than me. I liked him straight away, we warmed up with a little pepper ball and became fast friends. Defying all odds, he made the team and asked the coach if he could pitch a little. The coach motioned towards me and said "Well son we already have a pitcher", but I told the coach this kid could really throw a hot ball and to please give him a try. So he did, and the coach quickly saw this new guy could win some games for us.
Here's where it got weird. We stopped being a team, and started being a group of kids trying to sink one of its own team members. The catcher would purposely throw the ball back way over his head so he had to run it down. The batters would stand in the way of a perfectly good pitch just to get hit and take a walk. Time after time. If the pitcher went for a fast out on first, the first baseman would just stand there as the ball whizzed past him. The coach chewed asses for it, but it didnt take a genius to see this was a concerted effort to sabotage this new pitcher's performance in any way necessary.
What I see happening to Obama today is almost a carbon copy of this. And yes, it all eventually gets down to race. No matter where Obama turns, he is getting smacked and held to a much tougher standard than GWB or any previous president was by the media and by large segments of the population. Bush can wipe his ass with the constitution, calling it "just a goddamn piece of paper", and get away without a peep from CNBC, who is now up in arms over Obama's "ass kicking" comment. It "sullies the office" apparently. Obama's response to the BP spill is slow, yet I don't recall so much as a groan from the press when Bush strummed a guitar and laughed while people in New Orleans were drowning. Previous administrations didnt do a thing to lift the ban on Gays in the military, and Obama is getting heckled by Gays in public because he is trying judiciously to get rid of DADT, but cannot magically move his hand and erase it. It goes on and on.
At the end of the day, I see my pitcher friend in Obama's face. There is a concerted effort to make his game impossible. To thwart his every move, to up end his every effort, to explain away his every success...so when his time is done, those who hate him the worst can dust off their hands, sit back and muse "See, this is what happens when you give THOSE people a position of real power and responsibility".
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