Obama says rise of Trump was racist reaction to 'having a black man in the White House', blasts President for birtherism and says the rot set into GOP

[YADA]

I believe it was what a family member [grandparent/aunt??] living in Kenya stated - though since I did not read his book - could have been there as well.

Similarly his Indonesian school registration that listed his religion as Islam caused some to doubt whether he was Christian or not …

I did not vote for Obama, I do not support his policies and I dont even think he oratory skills are awesome - I find his speech cadence awful actually. I also found him to promote division around race during the eight years of his presidency and in my estimation 50 years of healing the racial divide in this country evaporated … and it was not because an African American was elected to the White House.

That said - the “birther issue” was not an issue for me - his mother was an American citizen [and I have grandchildren and other family members who were born overseas with American parent or parents]. Nor is his mixed race. I have members of my family who share his same mixed race and are of other ethnicity as well - we are a melting pot. Nor did I care what his religion was listed as a child - faith and faith affiliation is a life long journey.

What I care about are the policies that have destroyed the poor white and minority community family - enslaving people to the welfare state. Failed schools and policies that keep poor and minority children trapped. I care about the destruction of the American work ethic, the American dream. Immigration policies - especially those that favor and encourage illegal immigration - that bring in cheap labor that impacts poor and minority communities by flooding the labor market. I care about rhetoric that divides people by class, race, political affiliation, etc. I care about Freedom and Democracy - I don’t seek government control of my life or my work. I dont support Socialism / Communism or Marxism. And I abhor those anti-fascists who use fascist tactics to silence and ostracize those who dont toe their progressive ideology. I also do not support the killing of innocent babies, using tax dollars to kill those babies and definitely do not support exporting the killing of babies over seas in other countries - where there are primarily people of color - nor the babies of people of any color.

And that is why I did not support Obama, Clinton, or Biden

 

[JonNC]

How wonderful it must be to read other people’s mind.

You mean like those who just know Trump’s questioning of Obama’s birth certificate was racist even though they can’t provide specific evidence that race was the motivation?

 

[zsiga]

You mean like those who just know Trump’s questioning of Obama’s birth certificate was racist even though they can’t provide specific evidence that race was the motivation?

No I mean @7_sorrows, who talked about how empty and shallow Obama’s mind is.

 

[Zzyzx_Road]

I wasn’t aware that white people were aborting or forcing black women to abort their children. I understand the numbers. I’m anti abortion. But these are black women aborting their own children. The races are aborting their own race so please don’t make it sound like this was forced on these minorities. Our society is failing all these women!

I didn’t say he was forcing them, that’s you attributing that word to me when I did not say it. I said he supported abortion in the sense that he pushed funding for it, supported Planned Parenthood and supported those who proposed and approved the funding. In addition to which he had nothing to say about the disparity between aborted black babies and aborted babies of other races. Also I said this wasn’t limited to blacks, but the black baby holocaust is notable for the percentage of black babies vs overall black pregnancies, as compared to other races.

 

[JonNC]

JonNC:

You mean like those who just know Trump’s questioning of Obama’s birth certificate was racist even though they can’t provide specific evidence that race was the motivation?

No I mean @7_sorrows, who talked about how empty and shallow Obama’s mind is.

I think my example is quite accurate.

 

[Victoria33]

It’s always problematic to start accusing others of racism and everyone, nearly everyone has acted racist at one time or another. The definition is difficult.

Ben Stein: 'Obama is the most racist president.' Why is Obama the punching bag du jour? - CSMonitor.com

And if not racism, there is plenty of other prejudice, race baiting, discriminating against people over religion and so on. When is something over the line? Racist epithets, that’s easy, sort of, then rap music came.

Rick Santorum: Obama Inflamed Racism in U.S. By Siding With People Of Color, Against Police - Newsweek

 

[Feanor2]

I agree with Obama that the fixation with Palin did mark a change in the GOP

Folks seemed to like that simple petulant passive aggressive presentation of her.

It was disturbing

“Lipstick on a bulldog” she said

 

[Nepperhan]

Again, Democrats, please don’t tell us what racism is.

It seems you don’t want to know.

 

[Nepperhan]

I believe it was what a family member [grandparent/aunt??] living in Kenya stated - though since I did not read his book - could have been there as well.

Similarly his Indonesian school registration that listed his religion as Islam caused some to doubt whether he was Christian or not …

No and no.

In the onslaught of publicity, an Obama relative was mistranlated as saying she saqw him born in Kenya.

Just think: an 18 year old who has never been outside the country left US medical care and her mother to give birth in eastern Africa? Birtherism was for folks who wanted to believe it; not those dealing with likelihoods.

 

[Nepperhan]

You mean like those who just know Trump’s questioning of Obama’s birth certificate was racist even though they can’t provide specific evidence that race was the motivation?

That’s like folks waiting for someone to say the “N” word before they think racism is happening.

You know, its not a mystery: Ben Stein and Rick Santorum happen to have got it wrong. When Obama ran for president the racism that was always there in some quarters became evident. Obama was always from a mixed-race district and never ran a campaign about throwing out whites. It would have been significantly odd if he never mentioned race. When he did, he was accused or racism.

As I said, I think birtherism was a personal insult to him and that he was remarkably reserved in not reacting very negatively towards it.

 

[Zzyzx_Road]

Instead, he insulted the country back by expanding on Bush’s foreign policy with military interventions in five more countries and then he really insulted the country’s intelligence with his ham-handed attempt to drag us into war in Syria based on a false flag operation (in 2013). As I recall the opposition to that was bipartisan and national. The leftist side of that opposition gave fuel to Sanders’ run in 2016 and again this year. But look what they did to him and Gabbard.

The anti-war contingent among the progressives and liberals is dead for all intents and purposes.

 

[Peeps]

Surely you cannot be naïve enough to believe that it was mere coincidence that Obama was the first African American to run for the presidency

Barack Obama was NOT the first African American to run for the Presidency.

Shirley Chisholm was the first African American candidate for a major party’s nomination for the Presidency in the 1972 elections! She was also the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

And I didn’t even have to google her name!–I just had to look up which election, but I should have known it without looking. I was in high school at the time, and I and many of my friends were excited that a woman and an Afro-American (we didn’t use the term “African American” back then) was actually a serious contender for the nomination!

Considering the time and events in American history when Barack Hussein Obama was being touted by the Democratic Party as the best candidate, it is understandable why many of us were concerned about his origins, which for some reason, he seemed to like to keep quiet about. Most people come right out and say where they born and when–but he didn’t. It kinda raises some alarms. Maybe not for you, but for many of us, the more secretive people are, the more we want to know why all the secrecy.

And yes, eventually Barach Obama did openly share his birth certificate, so mystery solved.

 

[YADA]

Mis translated - perhaps . . I was just noting where that thought initiated … I imagine that many who heard that reported did not speak Kenyan and therefore accepted the news story … which I remember and is in fact something that happened …

As I noted … whether he was born in Kenya or not - was not a factor for me … it was not a factor for the vast majority of people I interact with either … His mother was an American citizen - no matter where in the world she gave birth … and I always accepted Hawaii as he stated - long before any hype/controversy of Long Form or Short Form

 

[FrankFletcher]

Considering the time and events in American history when Barack Hussein Obama was being touted by the Democratic Party as the best candidate, it is understandable why many of us were concerned about his origins, which for some reason, he seemed to like to keep quiet about.

1. Whenever someone includes his middle name, my eyebrow goes up.
2. It isn’t at all understandable why people were concerned about his origins.
3. He didn’t “keep quiet” about his place of birth. It was public knowledge.

 

[Nepperhan]

As I noted … whether he was born in Kenya or not - was not a factor for me … it was not a factor for the vast majority of people I interact with either … His mother was an American citizen - no matter where in the world she gave birth … and I always accepted Hawaii as he stated - long before any hype/controversy of Long Form or Short Form

Worse than not being a factor – it was irrelevant. Like McCain, he would still have been a natural born citizen due to Obama’s mother’s citizenship status. So proving a silly claim would have gained them nothing.

What folks were doing was saying that Obama was ‘foreign and not one of us’. No more than that.

 

[Peeps]

He was a good orator. But he was shallow and empty.

Oh, I thought he was a terrible orator, especially when he didn’t have his teleprompter.

He had a habit of “growling” in his throat between sentences–it was probably something he got into the habit of doing to stop himself from saying “Ummm…”

One thing that really irritated me, although I’m probably being hyper-sensitive, is the way he would change his oratorical style to fit his audience. When he was addressing a primarily African American audience, he would “sing-song” the speech, much the same as many African American pastors do when preaching a sermon. But he didn’t do this when he was with a non-African American audience. Again, I guess there’s nothing wrong with meeting people where they are, but I found it annoying.

Fred Armisen on Saturday Night Live did a spot-on imitation of Pres. Obama, including that “growl” between phrases! So I wasn’t the only one who noticed it.

 

[Victoria33]

I agree with Obama that the fixation with Palin did mark a change in the GOP

Folks seemed to like that simple petulant passive aggressive presentation of her.

It was disturbing

“Lipstick on a bulldog” she said

I think I remember what Obama said something like that. A very sexist remark and I think she saw that as a personal insult.

 

[FrankFletcher]

7_Sorrows:

He was a good orator. But he was shallow and empty.

Oh, I thought he was a terrible orator, especially when he didn’t have his teleprompter.

He had a habit of “growling” in his throat between sentences–it was probably something he got into the habit of doing to stop himself from saying “Ummm…”

One thing that really irritated me, although I’m probably being hyper-sensitive, is the way he would change his oratorical style to fit his audience. When he was addressing a primarily African American audience, he would “sing-song” the speech, much the same as many African American pastors do when preaching a sermon. But he didn’t do this when he was with a non-African American audience. Again, I guess there’s nothing wrong with meeting people where they are, but I found it annoying.

Fred Armisen on Saturday Night Live did a spot-on imitation of Pres. Obama, including that “growl” between phrases! So I wasn’t the only one who noticed it.

It’s not uncommon for Black Americans to have to alter their speech patterns to succeed in largely non-Black communities. You may find it annoying that he spoke with a different cadence when around other Blacks but at least in part that’s natural for Black Americans.

 

[Peeps]

• Whenever someone includes his middle name, my eyebrow goes up.
• It isn’t at all understandable why people were concerned about his origins.
• He didn’t “keep quiet” about his place of birth. It was public knowledge.

Lots of our American Presidents have used their middle names. Lyndon Baines Johnson’s campaign nickname was LBJ. Another example is FDR, and a third example is Richard Milhous Nixon. And of course, William Jefferson Clinton.

People were concerned about Pres. Obama’s origins because we were all still very jittery after the attack on our country on 9-11 by extremists who practiced an extreme form of Islam. We were afraid that we might become victims of an infiltration. You can laugh or snort or roll your eyes if you’d like, but it’s the truth. We were afraid. It might be unfair and unjust, but fear isn’t based on rational thinking–it’s an emotional reaction to terrifying and tragic events like the bombings and the deaths of over 3000 innocent Americans at the hands of monsters.

Many American Presidential candidates pepper their campaign speeches with anecdotes about their place of birth and their upbringing/childhood/growing up years. Pres. Obama didn’t really do this. That’s OK, but it was different than what we were used to. Yes, he made public the place of his birth, but in his speeches, he didn’t discuss his parents much–he did so in his book, though, but we weren’t reading it at that point.

Keep in mind that Barack Obama came from my state, Illinois, and most of us had never heard of him before. He kind of seemed to come out of nowhere. He was young and hadn’t been involved with politics for very long (he worked in Chicago as a community organizer).

 

[Peeps]

It’s not uncommon for Black Americans to have to alter their speech patterns to succeed in largely non-Black communities. You may find it annoying that he spoke with a different cadence when around other Blacks but at least in part that’s natural for Black Americans.

Yes, I realize that this happens. It happens with all of us–when we are with our friends and families, we use a different speaking style and vocab.

I guess what bothered me about it was feeling like he wasn’t treating us the same–it’s the same criticism often leveled by African Americans against white Americans–that we treat them differently in our speech and actoins. But again, I get it. We talk and act differently when we are with our “peeps.”