During a recent BBC interview, Oprah Winfrey said of President Obama, “There’s a level of disrespect for the office that occurs. And that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he’s African-American. There’s no question about that and it’s the kind of thing nobody ever says but everybody’s thinking it.”
Last night Bill O’Reilly interviewed black Harvard Law Professor Charles L. Ogletree Jr. regarding Winfrey’s comments, where Ogletree agreed – even though he could not cite on instance of “racist” commentary in the mainstream media.
What continues to bewilder me is the incessant use of the race card to protect President Obama, to the point where it’s worn and disregarded. I wrote a piece for the Washington Times Communities on “Race is Obama’s Get out of Jail Free Card.”
The Left’s default position for any criticism of Obama’s policies is to portray him as a victim. The irony is that when the Left attacks black conservatives, there’s not a single outcry — trust me I know, as does Deneen Borelli in her book “Blacklash.”
But this is nothing new. The first black conservative, Booker T. Washington, advocated a three-pillar principle of conservatism: education, entrepreneurship, and self-reliance. Washington founded Tuskeegee Institute — now University -to promote those principles and inspire a thriving black community towards economic growth and opportunity.
To this day Washington is attacked as a sellout, an Uncle Tom, and worse. Why? Why is it when those in the black community put forth a principled approach for self-reliance and growth, they are viciously attacked by white liberals, with no response?
However, when anyone speaks out against the failed progressive socialist policies of President Obama — which are certainly decimating the black community — they must be castigated as racist.
Last night Professor Ogletree spoke in very general and nebulous terms never answering the inquiries of Mr. O’Reilly. Ogletree continuously tried to create this specter of an institutional racial hatred toward President Obama that does not exist. Are there outliers? Of course.
However, as O’Reilly pointed out, Obama was elected and reelected, by an America which is predominantly white. After all, black Americans represent only 13.9% of the population. America has a right to question its president, it’s called the First Amendment right to free speech and to petition the government for redress of grievances.
What I found laughable was at the end Ogletree’s interview, he said he loves President Obama and thinks he’s doing a great job. This post-modern liberalism rooted in progressive socialism is completely based on irrational emotionalism. It is not objective and fails to see its own faults.
As I watched Professor Ogletree, I completely understood why our young Americans in college possess such a skewed perspective of our Constitutional Republic. Those of us who are parents must take a greater role in the education of our children because the goal of these progressives is to indoctrinate them from K-college. I’m not a Harvard law professor, but thank God my parents taught me the difference between right and wrong.
