{"id":4700,"date":"2011-04-28T02:42:08","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T09:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4700"},"modified":"2011-04-28T02:42:08","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T09:42:08","slug":"birther-is-another-word-for-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/28\/birther-is-another-word-for-racist\/","title":{"rendered":"Birther Is Another Word for Racist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will Obama obtaining the long form of his birth certificate settle the issue?  It would if the issue had anything to do with the document.  It does not.  Obama is guilty of being President while black, and birther is just another term for racist. I remember all too well the signs at Republican demonstrations calling Obama an African, a Halfrican, and even the N word.  Disclaimer: the graphic I chose for this article is an example of Republican racism directed toward Obama, while also defaming the poor.  Its offensive content does not reflect the views if this author.  The opposite is true<\/em>.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"28racist\"<\/p>\n

If there were any doubts about the racial animus driving Donald Trump\u2019s attacks on Barack Obama, the billionaire reality-show star exposed himself with his latest conspiracy.  On Monday night, Trump questioned how Obama could possibly have been admitted to Ivy League schools, since Trump \u201cheard\u201d Obama was a \u201cterrible student.\u201d  Trump told the AP<\/a> that he was investigating the issue, whatever that means, just as he claims to have dispatched investigators to Hawaii in order to find the president\u2019s famous birth certificate.\u201cHow does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?\u201d Trump said. \u201cI\u2019m thinking about it, I\u2019m certainly looking into it. Let him show his records.\u201d<\/p>\n

By charging that Obama was not admitted based on merit, Trump is suggesting that Obama was admitted because he is black<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Launching an investigation into Obama’s birthplace in 2011 is not really objective journalism – it’s an overreaction to conspiracy theories masquerading as fact-checking.<\/p>\n

In GOP politics, attacking racial minorities as the underachieving beneficiaries of affirmative action<\/a> is a very old move. Senator Jesse Helms produced the most notorious example<\/strong>, an ad<\/a> against his black opponent Harvey Grant that blasted affirmative action for taking jobs from deserving white people and giving them to minorities. Even that dark salvo, however, was putatively linked to jobs and active policy debates. Trump is not so smooth. He is blatantly attacking Obama\u2019s teenage qualifications for college\u2014a topic so obscure, it was a non-issue in Obama\u2019s exhaustive, two-year-long presidential campaign. Coupled with the rage of the Birthers, Trump\u2019s adopted conspiracy crowd, the mogul looks more like he is auditioning for a talk radio gig than the presidency.<\/p>\n

Still, racial dog whistles<\/a> only work when a lot of people play along<\/strong>. Otherwise a coded attack\u2014aimed at the racists but clinging to deniability\u2014curdles into public, blatant racism. (That\u2019s bad in politics and business, so it would restrain even a business candidate like Trump.)  So far, the press has been quite delicate when confronting Trump.<\/p>\n

The editor-in-chief of CBS News<\/a>, Dan Farber, sounded rather strained when explaining Trump\u2019s Ivy League attack: <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026how could a person from Mr. Obama\u2019s humble background and academic achievements get into Harvard? Trump\u2019s inference is that Mr. Obama is a cipher, cannot be trusted and is concealing a dark secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is this dark, untrustworthy cipher-secret?  I don\u2019t see Trump saying that the president of the United States is a cipher\u2014a zero or nonentity\u2014but rather that back in the day, Obama was not good enough to get into college without a racial boost<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <The Nation<\/a>><\/p>\n

Here is the Jesse Helms ad discussed above.<\/font><\/p>\n