The American Presidency: Obama's Thankless Task

Let's not kid ourselves about why so many people hate Barack Obama.

Regardless of the good he does, the good he wants to do or how he carries himself, he is the first American of African descent to be elected president of the United States. Arguably the most powerful man in the world is *gasp* black.

Many who have grown up in households and neighborhoods where minorities washed the cars, mowed the lawns, scrubbed the toilets then scurried elsewhere at sundown are simply unaccustomed to, and often unaccepting of, the idea that someone they see as little more than the audacious offspring of a domestic might be sitting in the White House. Pow, booyah, bing, eureka and case closed, no matter how his detractors try to sugarcoat it, regardless of how right-wing media tries to spin it. Any person who has ever been the object of hate for hate's sake understands this intuitively.

Is this merely the opinion of a plebeian with a limited understanding of the world in which he lives? Perhaps, but I can write the following with total conviction: I have seen first hand that there are plenty of whites, though definitely not all, who, when encountered with a capable person of color, seem somehow threatened. In the context of collaboration, whether subconsciously or not, they seem to actively undermine such a person. Why? For the simple fact that, for many whites worldwide, the idea that a person of African descent can be her/his intellectual peer -- or even superior -- is folly unworthy of articulation. And it isn't their fault. They are simply working off of an old playbook passed down through the generations -- not unlike Jews and Arabs, Sikhs and Muslims or Tsutsis and Hutus.

Yes, the race issue in America is right up there with the world's longest standing feuds based more on the human capacity for such foolishness than any real differences between those engaged in the conflicts. Likewise, the race issue in America may never be completely sorted out; I fear there may always be parties on either side of the racial divide who, for whatever reasons, cannot fully let this sad thing die a long overdue and undignified death.

In the context of such struggles, to hope or suggest that people simply wake up one day and turn their backs on ingrained hatred of others that is almost part and parcel of their ethnic identity is the real folly. A better strategy for capable people of color is to continue to defy odds and expectations, to thrive where others expect them to fail.

Doing as much is not just cathartic for those driven to live up to their potential, it's beneficial to the greater society, which brings me back to my original point: The fools who cannot bear the thought of a successful Obama presidency and work feverishly to block him at every pass ultimately hinder the progress of us ALL.

Think of the energy and time wasted by these people that could be better spent fixing what ails America. It's simple: When people on either side of an impasse work toward a resolution, it's one thing for the sides to contentiously seek compromise, but entirely another for one side to block the progress of ALL by refusing to concede anything.

It's clear that many rich, influential people figure Obama's seemingly populist agenda threatens to break their stranglehold on the finer things in life. It only makes sense that they would fight to maintain the status quo. Many may feel they are sitting on enough to ride out the tide of another election, another muddled transition of power and another shock to an already battered economy. What they misunderstand is that their dogged efforts to exclude all comers from the kind of lifestyle that most only aspire to breeds in others the kind of seething resentment that fuels revolutions. And I have news for them: They are hopelessly outnumbered. Just as Custer learned too late at Little Bighorn, there comes a time when arrogance must yield to good common sense.

So block away, a-holes. Throw all kinds of mud at Obama to see what sticks, though nothing has yet. Then, after your herculean efforts to obfuscate any positive achievements of the Obama administration have paid off, usher into the White House some spokesperson who better fits your image of the American presidency. He or she will look and sound great while saying nothing, and accomplishing even less. At the end of the day, when you're on your therapists' couches trying to work out why your kids left Harvard to Occupy Wall Street and hate you even more than you hate Obama, you can parrot that rubbish about fighting to preserve "core American values" as the rest of the country suffered terribly for want of progress -- and the world moved on.