Obama:
Guilty of Being President While Black
Review by Kam Williams
by D.T. Pollard
Book Express
Paperback, $14.95
180 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9824606-2-7
“This book is an
inspiration that came to me after witnessing the disrespect and
venom expressed towards President Obama... people bearing signs
depicting him as Hitler, a socialist or a tyrant. Something much
deeper was at play and it centered on race.
One thing I know like the back of my hand is what it is like to
be a black man in America. I have been in that position al my life
due to the circumstances of my birth, growing up in a small town in
the South. Obama: Guilty of Being President While Black takes a
unique look at the racism faced by President Obama and how vestiges
of Jim Crow laws infest the thoughts of many people today.”
Excerpted from the Introduction (page 1)
Part of the daily burden of being black in America are the frequent
reminders of your second-class status in a racist society. And you
don’t have to try to hail a cab in the city or to rent an apartment
in a lily-white enclave, you’re humanity can be just as easily
diminished in an instant by simply walking into a room full of
strangers inclined to judge you based on your color as opposed to
the content of your character.
This sad truth was ostensibly operating in the mind of D.T. Pollard
when he reacted to all the irrational hostility being directed at
Barack Obama since becoming President. Besides a 400% escalation in
death threats reported by the Secret Service, he observed everything
ranging from a website selling an Obama sock monkey to a
photo-shopped portrait of the White House lawn filled with
watermelons to a U.S. Congressman interrupting the President’s
speech by shouting “You lied!”
Worse than such insults have been the subtle calls for his
assassination, such as the one leveled by Steven Anderson, a Baptist
minister in Tempe, Arizona. On the day the President was coming to
town, he informed his parishioners from the pulpit that he hated
Barack Obama and wanted him dead, adding that “I hope it happens
today,” before asking them all to join him in prayer. Yes, the Bill
of Rights guarantees the fundamental Freedoms of Speech and
Religion, but the incident makes you wonder whether we’re being too
open-minded when we let a preacher leverage Christ to send such a
theologically-evil message of unalloyed hate?
As compelling as the author’s recounting of the resentment of Obama
is the chapter dedicated to quoting Jim Crow laws mandating the
segregation of theaters, schools, libraries, trains, parks,
restaurants, hospitals, bathrooms, cemeteries, mental institutions
and even homes for the blind. America is obviously not long-removed
from that shameful legacy, when you hear the author testifying so
emotionally about the mental scars left by the mistreatment he
experienced during his childhood.
A powerful reminder that the past isn’t dead. In fact, judging by
the color-coded dissing of Obama, it ain’t even past.
|
Lloyd
Kam Williams 