Why do so many want President Obama to fail?

I have never seen a time quite like this one, this year, this age, this generation. Since I was a child I knew about evil. How could I not? Bible-thumping fundamentalism was what I was expected to eat, sleep and breathe and that meant being always vigilent against evil. Looking back on it, the evil was simple. Thou shalt not lie, cheat or steal or thou wouldst get a whipping thou wilt not soon forget.

No matter how much you wanted to you didn't push your little brother into the outhouse pit or you'd visit that place too. You didn't fail to answer when called in for supper or you couldn't go outside to play the next day. Never admit to boredom or there would be so much wood to carry in, and water to haul, that when you finished there was no energy to complain. Whatever you did, you did not say out loud you didn't like some of the food or you'd go to bed hungry. Evil was simple and the wages of ignoring the rules were straightforward. We were raised as racists. The word nigger was the only word used to refer to black people. I have since come to believe that racism should be added to the original 7 deadly sins; it is the eighth deadly sin.


Our country is polarized by much hatred due to the evil of racism. Regardless of why some say they can't stand, or even hate, Obama the real reason is that he is African-American. Many whites consider black people inferior and they should not be in power positions over white people. Even though he is of mixed race he identifies with being black. Regardless of how intelligent he is, regardless of the degrees he has, regardless of the schools he attended he is still a black man and "ain't no nigger smartern no white man." The quote is from an aquaintence who made the statement when I told him I was voting for Obama. He and his ilk are avowed racists and they are proud of it. They identify with one another, group together based on their beliefs and they are not shy about expressing racist opinions.


There is another group who is racist and they know it is wrong, but nonetheless they have racist feelings and can't seem to overcome them. Recently, I was at a high school band fundraiser and the people next to me had a table with baked goods. They happened to be black and I asked them how they felt about Obama being elected President of the United States. They looked at one another as if to ponder whether they should answer or what they should say. Seems there was a fear that he may be assasinated because of the extreme level of racist feelings. As the conversation turned to racism one of the women said she had a friend whose best friend could not stand black people(emphasis hers) and that she and her friend could not do things together because of the other friend's racism. I asked the woman if she had told her friend how it hurt her and she said they had discussed it several times. The woman who was racist did not know why she felt the way she did but she did not want to be round black people at all.

I have another friend who has an intense dislike for 'slanty eyed people,' read Asians. She does not recall any instance, in which she was involved, that would cause her to feel as she does. They give her the 'creeps' and she has no particular reason to feel this way. A lot of white people do not know why they feel the way they do toward outwardly different others. Other races have the same feelings toward whites and may not have a particular reason for those feelings either. Ambiguous feelings are rooted deep in our childhood experiences through verbal , and non-verbal means.

Racism is inculcated into us as children, and once a part of our pattern of thinking and feeling, it is extremely hard to overcome without constant mindfulness to the futilty and wrongheadedness of bigotry. That so many celebrate the apparent losses of President Obama and continually wish for his failure is the personification of the evil of racism. It is a pathetic footnote to American history which will not be undone in the lives of people currently living. Until there is one race, not divided by skin color, we will experience the cold winds of hate based on skin color.