I feel that there is some racism being implemented on President Obama. It is evident that the rude outbursts during Obama’s speeches are due to either the fact that they disagree with his plans for the country, or that they truly have racist feelings for the president. Some see Obama’s universal healthcare system as totally impractical and unrealistic, hence the offensive comments and gestures. There is clear controversy over this matter and it is not unlikely that this provoked such disorderly conduct.
Yet studies show that ever since the 9/11 al qaeda terrorist attack on the World Trade centers, racism across the country has showed a drastic increase. This statement supports the possibility that the government officials are racist. It seems to me that if someone with such governmental influence were to act in such a admirable way, they would have strong racist feelings towards the president. If they were not to act out of conduct against what Obama was saying, it could be assumed that they would be able to control their disagreement with the president’s statements because they solely don’t agree with his beliefs, not that they are racist.
In today’s society, one doesn’t commonly encounter someone who is racist, however there still are many racist groups that exist such as the Ku Klux Klan. They preached the extermination of African Americans, because they believe that the white race is far more superior. Therefore, there is definitely a possibility that people outside of this group are racist, and prefer to express their negative feelings towards other races by being impolite during the president’s speeches.
When Senator Wilson shouted out during president Obama’s speech, Obama had just finished stating that his healthcare system would not cover illegal immigrants. Having said this, either Wilson didn’t like the fact that illegal immigrants would still get healthcare after the reform, or, that they will get healthcare, but they should not because he is racist. It could go either way, but normally if someone were to read an article on Wilson’s interruption, they would think he simply disagreed with Obama’s idea for healthcare not being given to illegal immigrants. Yet isn’t there more than one person who feels that illegal immigrants should not get free healthcare?
So is Carter right when he says racism is the reasoning behind discourteous comments and actions against Obama? Truth is, no one really knows because the answer could go either way. Yes, there is undeniably a chance that Carter is racist and created a disturbance during Obama’s speech because of this. However, being a senator means being open minded, so he must have gone into this job acknowledging the fact that there will be other authority figures of different ethnicities. Knowing this, there could have been no way for him to be racist; therefore, he merely disagreed with Obama’s healthcare system reform.http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism#RacisminNorthAmerica
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkkk.htm
Jenna -- to your comment on the escalating racism towards President Obama because of the 9/11 attacks, I do not believe that is true. The men who orchestrated and performed these acts of terrorism were not, in fact, black, or half-black, which is what Obama is. Yes there is increased racism, as there has been since the founding of this country. WWII saw to it that Japanese and Asians in general were looked upon with hatred and scorn, and Native Americans were treated like the scum on the shoes of our people. My point is that our country’s racism is not mainly directed towards blacks, but Middle Easterners, for lack of better words. I agree that racism towards blacks is still present in today's society, and will for a while yet. We must not, however, forget that the blacks are not the only ones that are racist. To take a line from the play Avenue Q, “everyone’s a little bit racist.” Simply put, every person on the planet has racial biases according to their environment. Someone can claim that they are unbiased, but really, who on Earth is completely unbiased? Aliens maybe, Gandhi maybe, but not us. Until we can all accept that the blacks were the first people on the planet, and at one point we all had black skin and were living in Africa, we will continue in the circle of racism.
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