About this time four years ago, many people did not believe Barack Obama would be the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States over his formidable rival, Hillary Clinton. But disbelief slowly gave way to belief, and ultimate seminal hope and euphoria when he ultimately became President Barack Obama. At least for some….
There were those who optimistically believed that America had truly turned a page in history in terms of improving race relations, finally putting to rest many ugly bigoted beliefs, prejudicial practices, and decades of discrimination that had persisted despite the laws and policies that had been passed. But there were also those equally determined to hang on the racial divides and they have played out in one way since President Barack Obama took office.
A new Newsweek poll confirms that since the election of Barack Obama, many people believe that not only has his election not helped race relations, but may have done more to widen the racial divide. According to the poll, “nearly 60 percent of Americans are now convinced that race relations have either deteriorated or stagnated” since President Obama took office.
This opinion is prevalent among whites and blacks.
But should we be surprised. The vestiges of racism and the conditions that bred and continue to breed its perennial presence were implanted and nurtured in every aspect of American society long before Barack Obama was elected president. One could argue, based upon history and the rancor that has played out during his presidency, that his election was an aberration. That electing a black person will be a “norm” that will continue to elude us for generations to come.
The divides and perceptions of them among blacks and whites run deep.
The poll confirms that given the same scenarios, blacks and whites come away with different conclusions. For example, while both black and whites can agree that racial stereotyping still occur, they disagree how it affects black people’s lives. When it comes to affordable housing, 70 percent of whites think that blacks have an equal chance of buying one compared to only 35 percent of blacks believing the same. Only 25 percent of blacks believe that they receive equal treatment in the job market compared to 70 percent of whites. And when it comes to police and the court system, 84 percent of whites believe that blacks receive the same treatment as whites compared to 52 percent of blacks.
With such opposite views based upon life experience, how do we hope to ever get to a place where we work together to achieve meaningful and lasting improvement in relations among the races?
How?
If President Obama gets re-elected, should improving race relations be high among his priorities to address during the next four years?
Comments
race relations
Obama is completely out of touch with reality. In an interview he said that no one could accuse him of dividing America. Other than dividing America, what has he done
The biggest relating to race is White genocide
How is this program of White genocide being carried out you ask? Like this:
1) Immigrants from the “developing world” are flooded into the West.
2) These immigrants and any national minorities are then forced integrated with the White populations, communities, and institutions. This is made law by removing freedom of association, creating affirmative action and requiring racial quotas. Whites who wish to move from these dangerous, integrated communities are forced to live in expensive suburban or exurban areas (which will be forced integrated over time anyway) which makes having large families difficult. Anyone who objects to this is denied economic opportunities, status, and in some cases freedom itself.
3) An information campaign is implemented which demonizes Western culture and history. The old myths that helped form the identities of the West are replaced with new mythologies that make Whites into enemies of humanity and non-whites (like MLK) as morally superior heroes. People who oppose mass immigration and forced integration are portrayed as mentally ill, evil, and lacking positive human qualities. Miscegenation is encouraged and glorified. The people of the West are constantly reminded of the inevitable brown future and that anything short of celebrating this makes you a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
This system leads to the end of the White-European people.
Article 2 of the UN convention on Genocide:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
8(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
8(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Until the program of White genocide is ended,race relations will continue to be a challenge.
So called "anti-racists" claim to support humanity unless the humans in question are White (people of European origin).
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-White.
Peoples understanding of President Obama
I firmly believe that since Obama’s election into office the racial standpoint of Obama has been overanalyzed. I have noticed that many people in society uneducated in Obama’s actions and goals for the country’s wellbeing have placed their vote for Obama purely out of hope for a response that it will improve race relations. Although, a black president has been a huge page turn for the United States, many of Americans have misread the purpose and reasoning for Obama’s run as a president. If re-elected, President Obama should focus on the economy and lifestyle of Americans rather than race relations. With the help of Presidents, as well as the people, America has taken great strides in eliminating racism and bettering race relations. I believe that as President, Obama should continue to encourage these steps toward a better race-relating community, while remaining his focus on the larger and more difficult tasks as president. It is now in our hands, the people of America to better ourselves in race relations and make it a better country for all.
I agree that we have been
I agree that we have been dramatically taking steps to improve race relations, and Obama has helped this division. With his re-election hopefully they could improve ever more. Would he truly focus on the lifestyles of American, when we have so much more going on like the war? It truly is now in the Hands of the people to make the changes that are left
I do believe that the
I do believe that the division between the African American and White community division has became more apparent after the election of Obama. I have never seen so much speculation on one person, especially a president. The huge controversy of where Obama was born and if he was a United States citizen. It even came down to the affiliation of his religion. With all this speculation there are too sides. This controversy was most likely prevalent in the white community over the black.
Impact on Race
I do believe that President Obama has made a radical change and he is increasing racial relations drastically, but I also believe that if he is re-elected his policies and priorities shouldn't revolve around race. He has already broken the racial barrier and from now on racial relations can only go up. Our nation should focus on other issues such as our financial deficit, international relations, and environmental improvements. Slowly but surely the race barrier is dissipating, why focus on something as small as skin color when there are greater threats in the world?
I feel the same way. Yes,
I feel the same way. Yes, when he ran for president race was a big issue in the election, however; its time to have his policies and the priorities that are important to really shine and become the vocal point of his presidency not his race.
I feel that the economy should be the biggest thing that he focuses on this election. While I also feel that his domestic and foreign policy should be an issue as well even a vocal point that is brought up frequently.
For best results, read this with Phil Hartman's voice in mind.
I don’t think electing a black man as president has impacted race relations at all. If anything, the fact that it is being brought up and presented as an issue gives it more credence and attention than it would merit otherwise. The article features two exaggerated assertions that there exist two separate groups of people. One group, SOME SAY exhibit “a disbelief and a seminal hope and euphoria once Obama got elected[...and will signal a new dawn in improved race relations(commenter’s addition)].” And another group SOME SAY “…are determined to hang on the racial divides…”. These two camps are presumed to describe large swaths of the American populace. However, I feel that these words describe a small subset of the population in both cases. Perhaps this comes with hindsight, seeing as this article was written nearly 8 months ago. Now that he has been reelected it is no longer news that a “black man” is a public figure in American politics.
The heart of my opinion is this; discussing race relations in American politics is similar to a situation that occurs in scholarly articles in the field of literature and writing studies. There persists an idea that classic works were not written by the authors commonly attributed to them. It creates a sensationalist hoopla that implies a greater interest then there ever could have been before the subject was broached.
To believe that electing and reelecting a “black man” to the presidency will certainly change the ideas of every single person in America about a relatively insignificant topic such as race relations is, at best, a little bit foolish. This isn’t to say that every subject that I don’t have an interest in his foolish, I merely believe that just because a “black men” is elected and then reelected president and by focusing and publicizing the issue of race and insinuating widely held beliefs that there is anything significant in the slightest about the whitest acting black man America has ever seen serving out two presidential terms.