Rinata
Gold Member
- Oct 5, 2009
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Whether people admit it or not, it exists and is going to be a big problem for this country. There are so many articles on this topic. I like this one by Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D., of Harvard Medical School. Here is some of what he said:
These days, the political climate has renewed the sense of urgency around the question of extreme racism as a form of mental illness. The red-faced freak-outs by many of the whites who turned up at Town Hall meetings around the nation through August, Poussaint said, are indications that conscious and subconscious racist beliefs among some whites have found a ready repository in the form of the 44th President.
It is not rational, but they see America as their country, which translates in their minds that this President is not legitimate, Poussaint explained. If they are unemployed, if they are struggling to keep their families together, they will blame Obama instead of Bush, even though it is obvious that the Bush Administration was actually in charge when the economy went bad.
But these folks shouting at the President wont blame Bush, in large part because Bush is a white man. Obama is black, blacks are inferior and cant do anything right, so in their thinking, he is to blame for it, Poussaint said.
Misplaced anxiety and anger over lost jobs, or diminished finances or perceived threats to ones safety by a political changing of the guard, appear to be exacerbating in those who previously managed to keep racist opinions or beliefs in check, Poussaint said. And when we decline to accurately identify this misplaced animosity as racism, or to write it off merely as partisan politics, it is not just foolhardy, it is potentially dangerous, Poussaint said.
With an eye focused perhaps on the increasing volatility of partisan politics, President Obama said recently that he doesnt think that racism is the main instigator of the anti-health care reform protests. But Poussaint says that now is not the time to be in denial about the potential harm that extreme racism can visit upon the American body politic.
President Obama has been subjected to more death threats than any president in history, Poussaint said. Gun sales went way up after his election, and they continue to climb. You had an elected Congressman [Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican] calling the President a liar in the middle of a formal speech! Since when has anything like that ever happened? And you actually have other elected officials defend the Congressman who acted out so disrespectfully against the president, Poussaint said. Not in the case of Wilsons outburst, but in general, after a point, this sort of thing can become delusional thinking, Poussaint told TheDefendersOnline. And the danger grows once the individual reaches the point where they think the only way to solve the perceived problem is to kill the person they believe is causing it.
With a black man leading the U.S. for the first time in history, we have to be unafraid to ask hard questions in this regard: Are whites who rail against President Obama driven crazy by racism? And might they be considered dangerous?
Has Fear of a Black President Driven Some White People Crazy? | The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog
These days, the political climate has renewed the sense of urgency around the question of extreme racism as a form of mental illness. The red-faced freak-outs by many of the whites who turned up at Town Hall meetings around the nation through August, Poussaint said, are indications that conscious and subconscious racist beliefs among some whites have found a ready repository in the form of the 44th President.
It is not rational, but they see America as their country, which translates in their minds that this President is not legitimate, Poussaint explained. If they are unemployed, if they are struggling to keep their families together, they will blame Obama instead of Bush, even though it is obvious that the Bush Administration was actually in charge when the economy went bad.
But these folks shouting at the President wont blame Bush, in large part because Bush is a white man. Obama is black, blacks are inferior and cant do anything right, so in their thinking, he is to blame for it, Poussaint said.
Misplaced anxiety and anger over lost jobs, or diminished finances or perceived threats to ones safety by a political changing of the guard, appear to be exacerbating in those who previously managed to keep racist opinions or beliefs in check, Poussaint said. And when we decline to accurately identify this misplaced animosity as racism, or to write it off merely as partisan politics, it is not just foolhardy, it is potentially dangerous, Poussaint said.
With an eye focused perhaps on the increasing volatility of partisan politics, President Obama said recently that he doesnt think that racism is the main instigator of the anti-health care reform protests. But Poussaint says that now is not the time to be in denial about the potential harm that extreme racism can visit upon the American body politic.
President Obama has been subjected to more death threats than any president in history, Poussaint said. Gun sales went way up after his election, and they continue to climb. You had an elected Congressman [Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican] calling the President a liar in the middle of a formal speech! Since when has anything like that ever happened? And you actually have other elected officials defend the Congressman who acted out so disrespectfully against the president, Poussaint said. Not in the case of Wilsons outburst, but in general, after a point, this sort of thing can become delusional thinking, Poussaint told TheDefendersOnline. And the danger grows once the individual reaches the point where they think the only way to solve the perceived problem is to kill the person they believe is causing it.
With a black man leading the U.S. for the first time in history, we have to be unafraid to ask hard questions in this regard: Are whites who rail against President Obama driven crazy by racism? And might they be considered dangerous?
Has Fear of a Black President Driven Some White People Crazy? | The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog