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Ex-pres. Jimmy Carter playing the race card to defend Obama

9/17/2009 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

Joining New York Times’ Maureen Dowd in blaming racism as a reason for the growing unpopularity of Pres. Barack Obama, ex-president Jimmy Carter joins the irrational reflex of raising the race factor as the main reason why Obama isn’t as popular as before and faces opposition from his critics. However, those who blame racism like Carter are at a loss of satisfactory explanation(s).

Why is the mere expression of contrarian views against Obama suddenly constitutes racism. If racism is involved, how come the first black president got a commanding mandate over white man Sen. John McCain in the last election? Obama's popularity was stratospherically above the clouds only to fall when his rhetoric starts to show it doesn't match his performance. Many who voted for him are disappointed.

In spite of the slobbering of the biased media for Obama, overspending, lack of accountbility, and increasing government intrusion to private life are apparent and people are opposed to them. Even the healthcare overhaul which promises medical services for all doesn't guarantee that it will be cheaper than the status quo which Obama wants to change.

What critics believe is the administration is faced with serious queries and doubts on the economy, social engineering, and the healthcare reform that cost a lot of money. While the govenment assures against scare tactics, exaggerations, lies, misleading interpretations of Obama’s plan, the uncertainty, confusion, and doubts persist. That’s because the pathway to recovery that Obama proposes is expressed in hazy generalities. When asked for details of the plan, the mumbling, incoherence, and confabulations stand out. Raising racism in the debate of the issues is another incoherence. (Photo Credit: PBS.com) =0=

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Labels: Barack Obama, poltics, Pres. Jimmy Carter, race, race relaton, Totie Mesia

Race-relation in the White House: mending the “stupid” comment of Pres. Barack Obama

7/31/2009 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

As a photo-op to mend the racial controversy sparked by Barack Obama’s siding with his friend, the black Harvard professor Henry Lewis Gates, Jr, the White House welcomed the two warring personalities----Cambridge police officer Sgt. James Crowley who was accused by Obama to have acted “stupidly” in arresting Professor Gates. The teacher was rowdy, belligerent and angry after being asked to produce an ID, prompting Crowley to arrest him..

Sgt. Crowley went to Gates’ house in response to an alleged break-in the latter’s residence. He found the black teacher suspecting the white police officer of “racially profiling” him. In truth, Crowley was just there to help.

The supposedly educated black Harvard mentor escalated the simple situation by raising a race issue----something he professed to be an “expert” of. Many viewed this case as a “Do you know who I am?” kind of thing by a teacher known to Obama which brought the incident to national attention.

In the White House on Thursday, July 30, 2009 Crowley and Gates got time with Obama. They talked and tried to mend fences over a drink of beer.

What resulted was an embarrassment for Obama who joined the controversy by siding with Gates without first knowing the facts. So they had to meet in the South Lawn of the presidential house, most likely to minimize the negative backlash. There were criticisms against the president from the police force nationwide for his “uncalibrated” comment against the police officer.

In simple terms, I believe, Obama didn’t have to meet the two in the White House. He has more important national issues to tackle. Instead of trying to deflect the real issue from himself and his black friend, he could just have apologized for a mistake----a racial bias (a Freudian slip of sorts) he expressed against Crowley. The public is smart to understand. (Photo Credit: CBS/ AFP/ Saul Loeb) =0=

RELATED BLOG: Obama backtracks from “stupid” statement against a white Cambridge police officer Posted by mesiamd at 7/27/2009

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Labels: Barack Obama, Cambridge, Harvard, Henry Lewis Gates, political correctness, politics, race, race relations, Sgt. James Crowley, Totie Mesia

Obama backtracks from “stupid” statement against a white Cambridge police officer

7/27/2009 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

Without knowing the circumstances between in the altercation between a white police officer and a black Harvard professor, Pres. Barack Obama, jumped in siding with the black professor----only to learn later he should know better. The police officer wasn’t stupid and he was just doing his job.

Sgt. James Crowley, the police officer responding to a break-in report in the home of Harvard teacher Henry Louis Gates Jr. found himself dealing with a belligerent acidic professor who didn’t want to show his identification. It boiled down to Gates’ unfounded paranoid suspicion that he is being “racially profiled’ by Crowley.

Pres. Barack Obama who is a friend of Prof. Gates reacted quick without knowing the facts:

"I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "Number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And number three -- what I think we know separate and apart from this incident -- is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."---http://wb.tv (07/23/09,

In truth, the Cambridge police officer was there to help black teacher----but Gates probably expected that people like Crowley should first know him because he is a “Harvard professor(?)”. Call it hubris in the academe's ivory tower, a demand for respect or an overreaction, but in the police report, Gates was described as tumultuous, uncooperative, and upset.

It is disgusting that this happens in America on people who are supposedly educated. This kind of “Do you know me?” challenge by people of influence and arrogance commonly occurs on simple folks who need to deal with the “VIP’s” like fragile porcelains. Self-importance and inappropriate reaction are most likely operant here.

People like Gates are absorbed in their self-awareness and that a simple showing of identification to a police officer becomes a race issue or a contention to start an argument. The black professor is said to be an “expert” on racism---and in my opinion he has carried his expertise too far.

I am amazed, a US president went down so low to quickly comment erroneously on an issue that is parochial and least deserving of his attention. This split second decision to defend a friend by the president offers clues on what goes on the way he thinks of race relations. Is the preferential option for friends becoming common in the Obama administration?

As a consequence of Obama’s rushed response, he has to patch up,---short of an apology, admitting that he could have used a "calibrated" response. He is correct that the police disproportionately arrest blacks and hispanics more than other races. The reason is obvious--- Blacks and Hispanics have high rates of criminality than other races.

Sgt. Crowley could have over-reacted in arresting this black teacher, but the officer isn’t pleased by the president’s partisan reaction---and so are his colleagues in the police force who try to do their duty as officers. The irony of it all, Crowley, in his career, has been a resource person on avoiding "racial profiling" and in the past, tried to revive a black guy in an emergency, by mouth to mouth resuscitation. (PHoto Credit: WBZ.com) =0=

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Labels: Barack Obama, black box, Cambridge, discrimination, Harvard, Hispanic, Latino, political correctness, race, race relations, Sgt. James Crowley, Totie Mesia

A “nation of servants” insults Filipinos in Hongkong

3/30/2009 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

The Philippines has been a recent target of a snide remark from a pea-brained Hongkong journalist who described the country as a “nation of servants.”

In a magazine write-up entitled on March 27, 2009, “The War at Home” Chip Tsao mockingly wrote that he told his Filipino maid she’d lose her job if she won't tell her countrymen that Spratly’s islands for which the Philippines has long-standing ownership claim, belongs to China.

Tsao allegedly asserted that the Philippines’ claim on Spratlys was “reproachable," adding that “as a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.’"----GMA TV News. (03/27/09)

This is again an insult that parallels the “Desperate Housewife” episode when Fil-Am doctors where maligned as incompetents in a US soap-opera. Some years ago, there is also that dictionary that equated "Filipino" as a synonymous to maids. The disparaging comment of Tsao is certainly foul---another insensitive verbal abuse that could only come from a loose cannon.

Susan Ople, a former labor undersecretary said the Chinese columnist must be declared “undersirable foreign employer” for his racist and arrogant remark. Such can be a weak retaliation to a blistering insult. She also needs to stress that the country must find ways to make jobs available at home and curb the sending of Filipinos abroad. In the long term, the deployment of maids to foreign countries is exploitative, unsustainable, and bad for national pride. (Photo Credit: MattViews x 2) =0=

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Labels: Chip Tsao, Hongkong, insult, journalist, OFW, overseas worker, race, racial slur, Spratly Islands, Totie Mesia

Recalling Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream”

1/20/2009 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.”---Martin Luther King, Jr. (08/28/63)

Today, January 19, 2009, is a federal holiday in USA honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr (MLK,) the martyred black Baptist minister who was a preeminent pillar of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. His heroism is celebrated on the third Monday of the first month of the year, proximate to his birthday on January 15.

Known for his “ I have a dream” speech which galvanized blacks to pursue it’s relentless fight against racism and discrimination, MLK is remembered today coincident to the White House ascendancy of the first black President: Barack Obama. During the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” Dr. King delivered the inspiring speech on August 28, 1963, from the steps Lincoln Memorial during a rally of about 250,000 people.

To remember and pay homage to eloquent black leader who dared to dream and presently enjoys an 86% positive approval rating across demographic groups in USA (Rassmussen Polls, January 2009,) the full text of "I have a dream" may be accessed and viewed at:

www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

Delivered more than half a century ago, the speech remains a unique barometer on how far United States has gone in improving its track records on civil rights, justice, and race relations. Admirable strides have been made to realize MLK’s cause, but there are still much to accomplish in the name of liberty, justice, and equality that USA and all nations of the world should do. (Photo Credits: Martin Luther King PD; traqair)=0=

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Labels: hero, I have a dream, Jr. civil rights, Martin Luther King, martyr, race, Totie Mesia

Viewing a picture in the prism of race

8/13/2008 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

Offensive or Innocuous? A picture of the olympic basketball team of Spain showing players slanting their eyes in reference to the Beijing Games can be dismissed as an innocent joke or a racial insult depending on one’s mood or point of view. Yet in this age of delicacy and political correctness, the picture which appeared in the Spanish newspaper La Marca has drawn some ire and criticisms. To quash further debates, extinguish anger and avoid racially-motivated violence, an apology has been recommended. YahooSports (08/12/08, Chase,C.)=0=

Labels: China, human interest, Olympics, political correctness, race, Spain, sports

UP Ibalon Bicol

Ex-pres. Jimmy Carter playing the race card to defend Obama

Race-relation in the White House: mending the “stupid” comment of Pres. Barack Obama

Obama backtracks from “stupid” statement against a white Cambridge police officer

A “nation of servants” insults Filipinos in Hongkong

Recalling Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream”

Viewing a picture in the prism of race

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