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When Playing the Race Card the Joker is Wild

Amid four sexual harassment charges and a claim by a fifth woman that she and Herman Cain had a 13 year extramarital affair, former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain withdrew from the race. Prior to his quitting, the muck in the trench was getting so deep that I was expecting any day to hear Cain borrow a line from former Washington, DC mayor Marion Barry who – when caught with a woman during an FBI drug sting in January 1990 – spewed  “The bitch set me up.” 

To his credit, Cain did not go out that way. His downfall was women, not drugs.  He claimed that he withdrew from the race to spare his wife and family pain and embarrassment. I’m not pinning a “guilty” button on his lapel, but two well-known sayings keep replaying alternately in my mind, “Where there is smoke…” and “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”  I’m just saying. Let’s move on.

On October 9th, during an interview on CNN, Cain made the following statement,

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Stop Dissing the President – Part II

Inappropriate behavior and obvious disrespect directed at the Commander-in-Chief is more evident under the current Administration than it has ever been in the past. Many people believe that the acts of incivility against the president, by members of the opposing party as well as grass-roots and extremist groups, are not so much motivated by anti-government hostility as it is by transparent racism. You are what you are. Opponents of the president do not have to like him but he deserves respect, particularly for the office that he holds.

Millions of Black people as well as non-racists members of other ethnic groups take offense to the ongoing racists’ attacks on the president and many see the feeble excuses offered after the fact as a mere attempt to whitewash the obvious.

The commonly, overused excuses offered by the offenders are (1) they were unaware of the racial stereotypes (2) it was intended as a joke and (3) it was taken out of context. By the way, has any other U.S. President been harassed about producing his birth certificate?

Since Obama’s election, disgruntled adversaries have used racist imagery unrelentingly, including depicting the president as an African witch doctor and imposing his face on a food stamp bill. Additionally, they employ other long-held, commonly known and recently contrived racial stereotypes to disrespect the man who has too much class to address their narrow-minded antics.

Some of the blameworthy have bowed to the pressure of their more open-minded peers and apologized or resigned from their positions. Others simply deny that they are racists and offer what they believe is the infallible ace-in-the-hole defense, “I have black friends.”

Most of the offenders “outed” in this post are Baby Boomers or they were born prior to the Boomer years; that makes them all old enough to know that their pretense of not knowing that their actions or statements were racists nonsense. Black people are sick of the race-based diatribes and weak excuses given for demeaning and disrespecting the African-American president. And by the way, a lot of us have white friends.

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Stop Dissing the President – Part I

The disrespect began months before Barack Obama was elected 44th President of the United States. Following his inauguration on January 20, 2009, the mudslinging contempt intensified and it persists to this day.

Criticism is not the issue here. All presidents are criticized, especially by members of the opposing party and disgruntled voters overall. But relevant to the current president, it is difficult to know whether the haters in question oppose him on ideological grounds or if they are just plain racist. Name one U.S. President who was not criticized while in office and I will tell you where the infamous Casey Anthony is hiding out. Okay now, name a U.S. President other than Barack Obama who has been as blatantly disrespected – I would like to say as racially vilified, but that would be impractical, wouldn’t it?  

Before you read any further, I warn you that I am going to call this issue just as I see it, and I have no doubt that some readers will accuse me of playing the race card. If that is the case, let me assure you that these cards will not be deviously pulled from the bottom of the deck; they will be dealt straight from the top. So, if you don’t think you can handle the truth, then you should fold your hand right now.    

There is not enough space to name all of the Limbaughs, Becks, and Trumps who deserve honorable mention here, but I will identify below other public individuals who theoretically waved the confederate flag. 

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The Invincible Gabrielle Gifford

Last night a Special News Breaking Report briefly interrupted a TV program that I was watching. But my annoyance over the interruption soon turned to joy when the camera showed colleagues of Rep. Gabrielle (Gabby) Gifford welcoming her back to the floor of the House of Representatives with a standing ovation. This occurred seven months after Gabby was shot in the head outside a grocery store during a meeting with her constituents in Arizona. Although I never met the congresswoman, I was very happy to see her back on her feet.

For over a decade I worked in government relations offices as an administrative staff member. That’s a crafty way of saying that I was basically a paper-shuffler and gofer sometimes with impressive sounding job titles. However, a highlight of my job was that it enabled me to meet and greet some of Washington’s political movers and shakers.

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