As a white person, I’m sick of the white hate being directed at President Barack Obama. It’s indecent, and I’m not going to be silent in the face of it.
Aaron Wiener of the Washington Independent notices that the far right march on Washington today basically consisted of like, well, all white people erecting their hate on Barack Obama:
The turnout to today’s Tea Party was indisputably high — likely in the hundreds of thousands (though organizers claimed it reached 1.5 million). But racially diverse it was not. And according to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), that’s the fault of the event’s timing and the media coverage. “If anyone does a fair analysis of the crowd, it’s a cross-section of the population,” he said in a phone interview. I agreed that it was a geographically and economically diverse crowd, but I mentioned that the protesters were at least 99 percent white — in fact, in my four-plus hours at the event, I’d only seen three African-American demonstrators.
And some of the signs and flags being carried conveyed racial hatred, projective paranoia, and general maliciousness and hysteria.
I’m a white person and I love Barack Obama. I’ll say it loud: I’m white and I’m proud to be a supporter of Barack Obama. The people in those streets carrying racist and fanatical signs and flags do not represent me. When I see Barack Obama, I see the hope represented in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and I wish him more than well. I wish him success and a long and happy life. He represents what’s best about my country, and I want him to go down in history as a great man.
This blog post is my counter-protest to those racial haters and xenophobes on the streets of Washington today. I respect the protesters’ right to protest, and I believe that their grievances and fears should be heard, and I want them to exercise their rights. But here at this blog I’m going to have my say too. Barack Obama represents extended human brotherhood and the expansion of human dignity and freedom in the world (not its reduction). The Rush Limbaugh right does not speak for me, and it is treating a good man badly and unjustly, and I’m angry about it.
Prometheus Unbound 
Literally *hundreds of thousands* of signs… and these were the ones that best proved “paranoia”? Yeah… nobody ever pointed out (for example) that a politician lied, ever. They only do that if they are racist.
BTW, it’s more than a bit ironic that you decry the alleged “treating a good man badly and unjustly” while claiming that millions of people you have never met are “racist and fanatical” “xenophobes”.
dhydar:
White people erecting their collective hate, and projecting the evil in themselves, onto a black man, is a form of racism. I’m sorry that you don’t like it called what it is. But if you look around you, most white people have not made it their mission in life to express public disgust and disrespect toward the nation’s first African American president. What ought to be a source of pride for every American is being turned into the locus of hate for a small minority of very vocal (and fanatic) Americans. The people pumping these vile signs in the air at hysterical rallies against Obama are tapping racist parts of their psyches. They’re in the role of Young Goodman Brown (in Hawthorne’s classic short story). They project devils onto decent human beings (like Barack and Michelle Obama) and imagine themselves to be some righteous remnant of a bygone age. They’re actually racist fanatics impervious to reason or adult emotional restraint and maturity. Among that mass on 9/12 was walking the next Tim McVeigh. The next act in this sick charade will be a violent one, and I’m angry at Fox News and the general stupidity that gives this hate cover, and fans it. It will be an enormous tragedy for our country if Obama is shot, or a federal building is attacked by militia-like elements over the next few years. No sane or decent human being acts like the protesters are acting towards Obama. Obama is a human being. Disagreeing with someone’s policies needn’t result in erecting your hate on the person you disagree with, especially our first black president. Given our history, you know what this is likely to lead to, but those on the far right keep on, without any moderation or restraint. The excess reveals the evil heart.
—Santi
Dhydar:
Oh, and the chin jutting image that accompanies your name suggests that you are an admirer of Mussolini and Italian fascism, is that correct? Why else the Mussolini-like posturing? You just like authoritarianism in general? Or do you imagine it a postmodern spoof—a way of making fun of authoritarians?
—Santi
I’ve always been quietly horrified at how frequently anti-Obama administration protests have been hijacked by racists. To be honest, I’d be equally horrified if I was the organiser of these protests, or even if I agreed with the goals of those organisers (which I don’t). I might not live in the USA, but I am an American citizen, and this kind of thing makes it difficult for me feel very supportive of one half of my dual heritage.
And dhydar, there is a very big difference between criticising a politician for his policies and ostensibly criticising a politician for his policies while simultaneously comparing him to Muslim terrorists (themselves the ultimate boogeymen of our age, together with, apparently, Communists). Do you think these kinds of comparisons would be made if Obama was white? Of course not, because the twisted racist ‘logic’ at work here would fail to engage with anybody.
Your also STUPID