Why Won’t Obama Publicly Say The Word Racist?

On Letterman, when President Obama was asked if he thought racism played a role in a profusion of wildly fearful and frantic anti-Obama public sentiment, his response was to joke that “I was actually black before the election.” It’s possible he meant that those same people were also opposed to him before his election because of his race, but the issue began to fade from the headlines afterward so it looks like it was interpreted to mean he did not think it was racist because they weren’t so vocal and agitated before he got elected…when he was also African American .
The idea that how other people, the public and the media, should think about the role race is playing is dependent on President Obama’s own opinion is as anachronistic as what the president actually said.
In order to accept Obama’s statement you would have to ignore the possibility that racial fears could have been stoked after he was elected, for example by calling his policies reparations for slavery or saying he has a deep seated hatred of white people . His statement also uses a definition of racism that cannot separate a racist action from a person who hates another race. While a bully is rubbing a child’s face in the mud, if you ask the child whether the bully is being cruel and they say no, it should have no bearing in whether it’s deemed cruel or not by the rest of society. Similarly if in the cafeteria a bully starts a hilarious rumor about a child’s mom, claiming that he only wanted to be funny and because he doesn’t hate or dislike the child it’s not cruel, this argument also should have no standing in determining if it the action is considered cruel or not by others. Substitute race for cruelty and you have arguments that are uncritically put forth to protect the racist rhetoric behind the movement. This definition is used by people like Arlen Specter defending Trent Lott’s comment that the country would be better off if Strom Thurmond, a segregationist, was elected president and by Rush Limbaugh to defend his playing the “Barrack the magic negro” song on air .
Condoning a culture of not speaking out against things that are racist and embracing the tactics used to cover racist actions by the president, I believe, hurts the nations progress toward racial equality. A strategy to avoid public debate on issues of race so that policy can be worked on behind the scenes, preventing messy public dialogue, would fit in the same category. Progress does not come from policy alone. There’s only so many policies that people haven’t morally progressed to you can pass before they notice and all those policies are on the table at once. Our racial policy should not be crafted by power but by moral determination. A strong moral argument is the only thing that can counter a fervent, irrational protection of privilege. Obama’s hands have been tied in responding to these attacks, for example calling him racist, when he actually had a prime opportunity to make the strong moral arguments for why we should to stop racial profiling, why we should have healthcare for the poorest citizens including African Americans, etc. Maybe Obama can’t be (and maybe shouldn’t even try and be) a MLK from inside the white house, but he can at least say the word racist when it needs to be said.