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Turning Points: A Racialized Presidency Intensifies

In case people's memories get foggy and fuzzy about the racial text and subtext of President Obama's presidency and reelection candidacy, here is an older interview from The Ed Show on MSNBC.

This brief interview (video below), from October 26, 2012, and nearing the end of the President's successful reelection campaign against Mitt Romney, features two Republicans making the case for why President Obama was the right choice for President, and why he should be elected to another four years in office.

Moreover, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, the white and Republican military leader, as well as General Colin Powell's chief of staff during his time as Secretary of State, offers a very clear analysis of the racism and racial politics that undergirds a significant amount of Republican opposition to President Obama:

My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people, not all of them, but most of them, who are still basing their decision on race. Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists. And the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House  has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin. And that’s despicable.”

I would offer that this analysis doesn't end with the Republican party (in terms of elected officials), but unfortunately extends to a large segment of the country's population.

The larger point, however, is that the racial character of President Obama's time in office is enduring, and has only intensified during each of the last four plus years.

It's only likely to intensify as this country continues to wrestle with the demons of its racial past (and present), and the prospects for its multi-racial future.

Racism and white supremacy is so embedded in some people's psyche that they can't imagine any other way of relating to other people.  White people who know better must do better, and do more.

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