# "The anti-Obama people are just mad because the president is black." Discuss. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 10, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129 "2011-03-10T03:24:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/61 "2011-03-10T13:51:24Z")
Another thing that rubs them the wrong way is that Obama is clearly more intelligent than they are. It’s not just that he’s black, but that he’s uppity and educated. Right wingers have an inferiority complex about liberal intellect anyway, and Obama just mashes that button for all it’s worth. It’s not just intellectually either, he’s better than them in every other way - physically better looking, more successful academically and professionally - they resent it. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/62 "2011-03-10T14:10:21Z")
[What if the Tea Party was black?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtH7vH4yRcY&tracker=False) ---
**Author:** ![donnie\_darko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@donnie\_darko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donnie_darko)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/63 "2011-03-10T14:11:36Z")
totally ridiculous. some people just think obama isn’t keeping his promises. im one of them ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/64 "2011-03-10T14:12:46Z")
At least he uses capitalization. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/65 "2011-03-10T14:14:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > he’s trying to use the free market to end Republican-entrenched socialism. I am clicking to maximize these comments; please expand. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/66 "2011-03-10T14:46:57Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > So you’re agreeing that the Tea party are a phenomenon that didn’t exist in any meaningful form before Obama took office, just like all those other internet trends appeared suddenly, despite many right-wing claims that the Tea Party groups existed under Bush and campaigned against his policies too? > > How good of you to admit it. I’m not aware of anyone claiming that “Tea Parties” existed before Obama, but if they are, yes, they’re mistaken. I am aware that there were people complaining about spending and deficits before Obama, because I was one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/67 "2011-03-10T14:52:41Z")
Returning to the OP for a moment: it’s one thing to call someone a racist for criticizing Obama’s educational policy (for example). The person being criticized in the other thread was buying a gun and stockpiling gold in preparation for the “Obama wars.” It’s true that the racism thing is just an assumption, but it’s not that unreasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/68 "2011-03-10T17:15:44Z")
Accusations of racism are often simply a way to put someone on the defensive. I don’t these are any different. Look at the shit **Diogenes** is spewing. After a point, it becomes impossible to take seriously. Blah blah blah - Obama is perfect, anyone who doesn’t like him is racist, any black who doesn’t vote Democratic 100% of the time is an Uncle Tom, yadda yadda. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/69 "2011-03-10T17:21:38Z")
who said Obama is perfect? Who said anybody who doesn’t like him is racist? ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/70 "2011-03-10T17:24:56Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > who said Obama is perfect? Who said anybody who doesn’t like him is racist? I’m eagerly awaiting the response to this as well. There are plenty of liberals for whom Obama is not liberal enough----he promised to walk a picket line, so why isn’t he in Wisconsin? But the Baggers lived through the high tax era of Bush and his dual wars with cushy contracts handed out to Halliburtion and Blackwater and only when Obama gets elected do they suddenly get outraged at—what exactly? Bank bailout happened on Bush’s watch. Economic crash happened on Bush’s watch. Near depression happened on Bush’s watch. No Tea Baggers then. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/71 "2011-03-10T17:46:24Z")
Well, as well as being white, Bush was also a Republican. Is there an element of racism? Sure. I think the larger element is IOKIARDI, though. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/72 "2011-03-10T18:40:19Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > There are nutty fringe beliefs about every president, that’s true. (I doubt 30 percent of Republicans ever said Clinton probably killed anyone and another 28 percent said it was possible, or whatever the current poll numbers say.) The reason this stupidity has a hold on people is they believe deep down that Obama is not ‘one of us,’ and that expresses itself as the belief that he’s not eligible to be president, that he’s a potential sleeper agent, a Muslim, and don’t forget the story that he’s the son of Malcolm X. Nevermind that a Google search returns the correct information in 0.2 seconds and that news reports always make it clear the whole birth certificate theory has been debunked; the whole story is so transparently nuts that there’s no reason to believe it unless you already want it to be true, and for most of these people, it’s because they’re pissed off that a black guy is in charge. > They didn’t have any deep seated doubts about McCain’s Americanism. Which is a fancy way of saying they trust him because he’s a white guy. > [@Gyrate](#): > > I think that’s the key - his race is a big factor but it’s part of the larger point that Obama is “Other” - he’s not just black, he’s a Democrat, he’s an intellectual who uses big words, and he’s just not the kind of guy you could sit down and have a beer with. In other words, he’s the opposite of GWB who was white, right-wing, folksy and someone the Republican-voting base could understand. And once someone is seen as the Other, they are presumed to be capable of anything - being a closet Muslim, promoting terrorism, eating babies and so forth. [QUOTE=monstro] Do I think most of them are racist? No. I just think a good portion of them are very uncomfortable with Obama for reasons that have nothing to do with his politics. They don’t like that he’s “urban”, that he’s “well-educated” and “well-traveled”…which I would think would be good attributes since it’s rare we’ve had a president that we could say these things about. But I don’t think these are “race-based” insults. However, when people say things like “He’s not one of us”, my eyebrows can’t help but rise up a little. He’s not one of us? Like Bush was? “He doesn’t know how it is in the “real” American, in the “country”, around hard-working folk like us.” I didn’t know the country was the bastion of work ethic, and the last time I checked, more Americans lived in metropolitan areas than the “country.” So I don’t think the majority of right-wingers (Tea Party folks or otherwise) are racist racist…but I do think there’s a whole lot of xenophobia and reverse snobbism when it comes to our president. He doesn’t look “American” to them. See, “Americans” can get red necks when they clear the brush. Obama can’t, so that makes him no good. [/QUOTE] Republicans have always worked to make their Democratic opponents seem like they were “not real Americans”. Remember John Kerry, who “looked French”, and was suspect because he went to a Swiss boarding school and his wife spoke a bunch of foreign languages? Remember Al Gore, the kid with the silver spoon born in his mouth who was raised in Washington, DC hotel rooms and wasn’t _really_ from Tennessee? Bill Clinton faced less of that because he laid the southern accent and the Arkansas roots on very thick; but they did their best to remind everyone that he was a Rhodes-scholar-winning, draft-dodging leftie. It went without saying that all of them were overeducated, elitist, and out of touch. It’s not good, but it’s also not new to Obama - he just happens to have more that they can try to use against him. Imagine that every other detail of Obama’s biography was the same, except that his father had been a white Russian instead of a black Kenyan, and Obama was thus as white as John McCain. If we’re to believe that it’s just the color of Obama’s skin that is the root cause of all this, can you really tell me that in that situation you don’t think the right would be trying the exact same tactics? There’s probably still be a birther movement, and there’d be conspiracy theories that Obama was Stalin’s grandson and he was here to foment the worker’s revolution. Do you really think the right would look at him and think: “Well, he looks white to me - must be okay! Hooray!” Xenophobia, reverse snobbism, dirty politics, and opportunism? Sure. But that’s what we’ve had for years now. I still don’t see that there’s much new here because of his race. \*\*Not to mention that I don’t think most white Americans think of African-Americans as at all _foreign_. They may think of them as _different_ or some might have negative associations, yes; but foreign? No. Whether they like them or dislike them, the vast majority know that African-Americans have loooong been a part of the American experience. Americans have even been criticized for forgetting that there are black people elsewhere - as in Bush’s supposed surprise at learning that there were black people in Brazil, or white Americans’ notorious gaffe of unconsciously referring to black people abroad as “African-Americans”. Relatively few white Americans ever meet a black person with recent immigrant roots. If Obama were half Asian or Latino, it would be a different matter. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/73 "2011-03-10T18:43:31Z")
> [@margin](#): > > Ah, the ‘both sides are just as bad’ fallacy. Never gets old. I didn’t say they were equally bad - because, in fact, I think the left had much more justification for their hatred of Bush than the right had in their hatred of, say, Clinton. But that’s not the point - the point is we’ve been hyper-partisan about politicians for ages now. Politics has not been a gentleman’s game within my lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/74 "2011-03-10T18:45:36Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > They could be sincere conservatives, but there’s no way a smart black person could be conservative. Why? Because no smart person _period_ could be a conservative? Or just no smart black person? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/75 "2011-03-10T18:50:51Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Why? Because no smart person _period_ could be a conservative? Or just no smart black person? Well, I guess a smart person could be a Nazi, but no smart Jew would be. ---
**Author:** ![Khaki\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Khaki\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khaki_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/76 "2011-03-10T18:56:35Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Democrats don’t think this. This is pure talk radio mythology. For the record, I don’t have a dog in this fight. I don’t live in your country, and if I did, I’d have even less affinities for Reps (because of the religious fucknuttery) than for Dems. But getting that job just because of the color of your skin, that’s racism uh ? Oh. Right. It’s not discrimination when it benefits the Minoritay. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/77 "2011-03-10T18:56:49Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Republicans have always worked to make their Democratic opponents seem like they were “not real Americans”. The rap on Obama is not that he “isn’t a real American,” it’s that he is not an American. They use that line and still make time to say he isn’t patriotic enough (he spent time in Indonesia, he is an anti-colonialist, etc.). Some of these people think Barack Obama is Malcolm X’s love child. Do I have to explain how stupid that is? Seriously, the entire basis for the theory is ‘they’re both black.’ ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/78 "2011-03-10T18:59:38Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Well, I guess a smart person could be a Nazi, but no smart Jew would be. So conservatism, however defined, is inextricably racist, or at least anti-black…? What’s a black person who likes what he reads of Milton Friedman, believes in a strong military, doesn’t like the idea of teacher’s unions, and whatever-other-not-race-related-talking-points-you-can-come-up-with supposed to do? I have a feeling that chasing down this point is a fool’s errand. So I’ll end my part of it by saying that it strikes me as an amazingly narrow view. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/79 "2011-03-10T19:07:42Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > The rap on Obama is not that he “isn’t a real American,” it’s that he is not an American. They use that line and still make time to say he isn’t patriotic enough (he spent time in Indonesia, he is an anti-colonialist, etc.). > > Some of these people think Barack Obama is Malcolm X’s love child. Do I have to explain how stupid that is? Seriously, the entire basis for the theory is ‘they’re both black.’ I know how stupid it is. I just don’t believe that the major basis for it is his skin color. As per the rest of my post, if his father had been a white Soviet Russian, I think there’d probably still be a crazy - and equally stupid - birther movement. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129/80 "2011-03-10T19:21:31Z")
> [@](#): > > Blah blah blah - Obama is perfect, anyone who doesn’t like him is racist, any black who doesn’t vote Democratic 100% of the time is an Uncle Tom, yadda yadda. Some of us are comfortable only when debating strawmen. 😃 The singular of data isn’t anecdote, but the interview of Ron I posted above shows the “thinking” of one Tea Partier. Is it racist? > [@](#): > > … Ron says his problem with Obama is the integrity thing. “He exaggerates too much,” Ron says. “He’s not honest. … like that time he was saying he had a white mother and a white grandmother.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-obama-people-are-just-mad-because-the-president-is-black-discuss/574129.md?page=5)