The Burden of Proof

I think that it is ironic and lamentable that Barack Obama is the one who has the burden to prove that he is not racist. We haven’t really seen that from Hillary or McCain. When their surrogates, spouses, or endorsers say something ridiculous and offensive, they simply reply, “I have a strong track record on …” or they temporarily distance themselves.

I just read this headline from Politico — “Obama racial issues may extend to Pennsylvania“. Why is it that Obama is the one with the”racial issues”? Isn’t that what Billary tried to do in South Carolina? Wasn’t Billary thinking that white people would reject an African American who was ¨too black“? I imagine that Pennsylvania is the one with the “racial issue” if it bases its vote on race.

This Politico headline, like those now in other media, is bothersome. It reminds me of the typical headline that reads, “Woman raped in Philadelphia . . .” By saying “woman raped”, you’re essentially blaming the woman for having been raped. Instead of saying, “man raped woman”, you reorder the sentence’s structure so that the raped appears to be the subject followed by the predicate “raped”.

As I have also mentioned, there is nothing “shocking” about Wright’s speech. At least maybe not to me — I live abroad, and Wright’s view of the U.S. is similar to that of our allies. We have an appalling history on so many levels. We also have a positive story as well. But, do we live in a country where even questioning the government is sacreligous? Maybe the lesson is that we do live in a very segregated world. Supposedly only white Americans were shocked by Wright’s sermons; whites are simply ignorant of African American church culture.

That was the whole purpose of Obama’s speech. Obama is the only candidate with the guts to take race head on, and yet now, after months of campaigning, the press thinks that Obama has a serious racial issue. If Hillary were truly a leader, you’d think she’d come out and support Obama fully on this matter. But because she hasn’t, you can only imply that she is hoping that Obama’s race is the key to her coup strategy. Meanwhile, the press want to keep this primary alive, no matter what.

Maybe Hillary and Bill are in fact evil geniuses.