A crack is forming (or, perhaps reforming) in American social fabric. It’s the chasm between blacks and the rest of American. It’s forming around one figure: President Obama. The latest Gallup Poll clearly shows this divide.
Almost 40% of whites still approve of Obama, but this is down 22 points from his inauguration. Every other racial group, except blacks, also indicates growing dissatisfaction by no less than 5 points.
However, 91% of all blacks in America still approve of President Obama. This is up 1 point for the same period. By anyone’s standard, Present Obama has had a miserable first year. With the economy nose diving and unemployment in heavily minority areas skyrocketing, what can account for such loyalty among blacks other than race?
In the past few days I witnessed three events explaining the 91% approval number.
First, Jessie Jackson said this last Wednesday:
“We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill from Alabama. You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”
I think many blacks won’t disagree with Obama for fear of being labeled ‘not black’ or Uncle Toms.
Second, I saw young black boy, maybe 11 years old, wearing a t-shirt saying, Obama is my Homie. Is ‘Homie’ inner city slang for ‘Big Brother’?
Finally, I saw several elderly black women wearing oversized t-shirts with the front and back completely covered with President Obama’s face. No slogans, no political commentary...just Obama’s face. In many black churches, pictures of Obama are displayed next to Christ. This is how followers of third world dictators, like Castro and Chavez, behave. This isn’t pride. This isn’t celebration. This is worship.
Black people in America are rightfully proud someone with their skin color was elected president. However, pick any figure, any issue, in America and it is almost impossible to find 91% agreement about it. This overwhelming number speaks to a group which isn’t applying critical thought, it states blacks are circling the wagons around Obama because he is one of them. It’s a cult of race and personality which goes way beyond cultural pride.
Why is this important? How can one have a rational discussion on policy with cult followers? How can there be dialogue when one side frames the debate around nothing but race? Jessie Jackson’s statement is a perfect example of what one faces if they attempt to do so.
Where does this lead? How will blacks handle it if the economy continues to sour, the war in Afghanistan doesn’t turn around, and support for the president drops farther among non-blacks? Will blacks then remember Obama was elected through the overwhelming votes of supportive whites, or will they paint the first black president as a victim of white oppression? Will they let him stand or fall on his own merits, or claim the deck was stack against him? Will they say, ‘It’s a free country, you are entitled to you opinion?” Or will the response be, “Its straight-up racism!” As the political heat gets turned up on our president I think many blacks will get defensive, angry and retreat farther into the victim mindset. I also think they will openly lash out against any black (or white) person who openly criticizes Obama.
What is happening now is nothing less than tribal in nature. An entire demographic is not thinking and acting like informed individuals. They are acting like an ethnic enclave. Their leader speaks for all of them only because he looks like one of them.
This line of thought leads to a slew of very legitimate questions. What will happen when the first Mexican-American candidate wins the presidency? Will Hispanics support their man no matter what? Will activist lash out at his Mexican-American detractors for not being ‘Hispanic’? What will whites do when faced with minorities voting strictly down racial lines regardless of the issues? When whites become just another minority, will they be given the same latitude?
We’re entering a new place as a country, a place we’ve never been before. It’s moving beyond ‘identity politics,’ and strangling the Great Melting Pot. It’s called Balkanization, right here in 21st Century America. Our politics and leadership has taken the plunge down the dark roads of the lesser nations of the Old World.
We are becoming Amerikastan.