Opinion: Obama's 2007 Speech is Disturbingly Racist
While there’s nothing wrong with an African-American president speaking in a black dialect, there is something terribly wrong with him speaking in a black accent and cadence when undoubtedly inciting racism to a predominantly African-American audience.
President Barack Obama gave a speech in 2007 to religious figures, primarily African-American religious figures, in which he spoke regarding the United States’ reaction to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Furthermore, he made a direct comparison to the federal government’s financial assistance to New York City’s 9/11 devastation in 2001 to the federal government’s financial assistance to New Orleans’ catastrophic devastation in 2007.
He also tried to incite anger in his audience by comparing the suburbs of New Orleans and its people to the city of New Orleans and its people.
Whether Obama had a point to be made or definitely not is not the issue. Angering the masses is not how results should be accomplished by a future president. As a United States senator at the time, his concerns were misdirected by not being voiced where a “change” could have been addressed – in Washington.
Shockingly, the video shows President Barack Obama speaking unlike many – make that “most” -Americans have ever heard him speak before. The president obviously designed his “performance” for his primarily black audience by not only stressing a black dialect which is totally foreign to his regular public-speak, but also accompanied by an anger like we haven’t seen before from the president.
Which Obama is the “real” Obama? The Obama on the 2007 video before African-Americans or the Obama we see nearly-daily speaking to his racially-mixed audience? It can easily be believed that one of the two is obviously a complete act.
Die-hard and defensive Obama supporters on the political “left” say that the video is not newsworthy because it has allegedly been available for five years. Try telling a spouse that an affair is no big deal because some people knew about it five years ago. There is absolutely no logic in the “it’s-been-around-for-five-years” defense – absolutely none at all.
Those on the political “right” who are aghast by the video say that the video has obviously been hidden by the liberal media. The total support for the opinion of the political “right” is in the undeniable fact that many – if not “most” – Americans have not seen or even heard about this video-speech until yesterday.
Aside from concerns that Obama has now been caught targeting specific audiences with a “performance” hidden from many Americans is the content of the speech he delivered. President Barack Obama – then-Illinois Senator Barack Obama – was race-baiting during that speech. He was intentionally attempting to anger a segment of society by trying to convince them that they had been terribly wronged.
This is not how an American elected official – especially a presidential candidate for “all” of America – should address any concerns he has with the federal government as Obama did in this 2007 speech. As a sidebar to the entire story, it’s interesting to hear and see Barack Obama fawn over – or as Obama said in the video, give a “shout out” to - the Rev. Jeremiah Wright who was his pastor. Just months later, Obama disowned the Rev. Wright after his viral “Godd---, America” and other videos went viral. As one remembers, Obama said he was not influenced by Wright during the 20 years that he sat in his church and heard him preach – yet he was full of praise for the man during the now-infamous 2007 Obama speech.
Will the “real” Barack Obama please stand up. As Dinesh D’Souza said in his controversial and very popular movie documentary “2016: Obama’s America”, we don’t know Barack Obama.
About Scott Paulson
Scott Paulson writes political commentary for Examiner.com and teaches English at a community college in the Chicago area. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
