Al Jolson, black face entertainer from the early 20th century
Pretty offensive title, eh? The accompanying photo is also illustrative of just how short of time ago it was when we regarded African Americans as second rate citizens. Al Jolson, a white musician, made a living portraying African Americans (called Negros at the time) in black face as dumb, subservient, second class people not even deserving of citizenship. If I could display Donald Trump in white face, I would; but he’s just too orange.
I wrote an article on Donald Trump yesterday because he purports to be a serious contender for the 2012 Presidential race and we are doing articles on all serious contenders. I personally don’t think he is serious about running against President Obama and I don’t think many in professional politics do either. But Trump has been able to whip the Republican base and the media into a frenzy of late by banging the “where’s the birth certificate” drum. Now that this three year old non-controversy/media circus event has been definitively closed (aside from the few fringe elements still examining typewriter fonts of the sixties), Trump is banging a new drum asking for legitimacy of President Obama’s higher education bona fides. Really? Harvard Law doesn’t give passes to just anyone. Look, Donald, it’s understandable if you’re jealous. What was your undergrad GPA at Wharton?
Goldie Taylor
Let’s put aside the fact that Trump is manipulating the media for personal gain and focus on the message for a moment. Birtherism is code for ‘I can’t tolerate a black man as President’. Trump is guilty of inflaming that racism.
Questioning the legitimacy of the President’s education is essentially a complaint against affirmative action. Questions about George W. Bush’s education were summarily dismissed despite serious evidence contesting his credibility. I think everyone is pretty sure ‘W’ was a spoiled frat boy who skated through academically by the seat of his pants and with the help of more than a few phone calls from Daddy ‘HW’. Calling President Obama’s rise from obscurity to higher education in question and challenging the breadth of his political experience is, again, also racism.
The Grio‘s Goldie Taylor had this to say:
For the first time in recorded history, a sitting president of the United States found it necessary to produce his original birth certificate for public inspection. Not once, in 235 years, have we ever demanded proof that our president was born on American soil.
In a stunning display of unchecked ego, Donald Trump quickly hosted a news conference, during which he took credit for forcing President Obama’s hand. The sometime real estate developer, socialite, author and television personality went on to caution onlookers to let “experts” examine the document. Lest the president continue perpetrating was Trump has called potentially the “biggest fraud in American history.”
For weeks, the thrice married, comb-over construction magnate has enthralled news reporters with his apocalyptic ranting. Trump openly questioned whether President Obama belonged in the White House, a boardroom, or even an Ivy League lecture hall.
And we let him.
I have to agree. The media took Trump’s trumped up objections at face value and reported it as if it were fact. The seething sense of entitlement off of the Donald was quite palpable. It was as though the media was enraptured by Trump’s fake fame and fortune and took everything that he said to be gospel. I’m surprised and somewhat ashamed that our media, and in particular NBC, has let it go on for so long. MSNBC hosts both The Apprentice and Lawrence O’Donnell; the one lone dissenting voice at MSNBC. They also link with the Grio; a voice for African Americans (or the ‘blacks’ if you’re Donald Trump). If NBC had any cajones at all, they would fire Trump on May 16th. It would be such a PR coup. And it would force Donald Trump to either put up or shut up over whether he was running for President in 2012.
Trump is playing to the lowest denominator of our population. I, for one, won’t tolerate it.
I was disappointed that the President even had to address these issues that Sideshow Don brought up but I’m glad he did it. We need to move on. As much as I want this website to be a legitimate source for political views, I occasionally feel the need to object strenuously to anything that distracts from the seriousness of running this nation. Anyone who continues down this road of attempting to discredit the legitimacy of a popularly elected president on the grounds of country of birth or quality of education is tipping their hand as to their real feelings.
As the President said, we’ve got bigger things to do. Let’s get down to serious business, shall we?
538 Refugees 
Very Nice entry here. I actually find it a wee bit entertaining that Trump is concerned about the college education of the President. I mean, why draw attention to the fact that at the moment, we have one of the most intelligent men in the White House since, well, probably at least most if not all of my lifetime. Or is it that people want “A person they can relate to” doing that very important job?
m-girl,
like there’s a LOT of folks who can relate to Trump? Particularly in HIS mind?
🙂
I’m with Max. The media comment about Trump that resonated most strongly with me was by Jon Stewart, suggesting that actually Trump is merely the host of an alien parasite which came to Earth, landed on his head, and now pretends to be his hair while controlling his every action.
So, in regards to “relating to Trump” — the concept is frightening. My family has its share of crazies and criminals, but not a single one of them is so profoundly dishonest and outrageously manipulative as The Donald.
It’s very disturbing to me that a significant segment of the American populace lurches from latching onto one disastrous avatar (Palin, Bachmann, either Paul, now Trump) to another. It raises the question “what are they looking for?” and provides a hint of an answer that grows, honestly, more and more frightening.
“I wrote an article on Donald Trump yesterday because he purports to be a serious contender for the 2012 Presidential race and we are doing articles on all serious contenders.”
Why did you do that? There’s a difference in those two things–you’re talking about serious contenders; he’s pretending to be one. This shows that even people who know better have trouble ignoring him (or treating him as the mindless boob/alien he really is).
It’s disturbing to me that the mainstream media has covered him so seriously.
I think it’s pretty clear that much of the questioning of Barack Obama’s legitimacy is driven by a visceral mistrust of “other” by a significant segment of our population. Call it racism or whatever, but it’s definitely a real factor driving this narrative. If I recall, there were more questions about McCain’s eligibility, given that he was born in Panama, but the Senate passed a resolution to clarify that he was eligible, and that was the end of it. No one in the media gave it more than a minute of airtime. The Senate has also passed resolutions declaring that Obama was born in Hawaii, but the issue doesn’t go away. Two years into his Presidency, and it’s still a regular subject on Fox and other media. Also, there were questions about Bush’s academic career, and Kerry’s, and Gore’s, and others… But no one has belabored a demand to see transcripts and the media doesn’t blink. There were actually much more serious questions about Palin’s academic bona fides, but no one really cared. And suddenly Obama’s “cum laude” transcript from Harvard is a must-see?
If they didn’t care about the other candidates, then you’ve got to wonder why would they care so much about Obama. There’ve been dozens of various “conspiracies” to somehow paint him as “not American,” and these get serious press attention when similar conspiracies would be laughed off or ignored for any other candidate. Why? What makes his case different?
Hmm…
I think that if he were a white dude named “Bradley O’Bannon” there would be no lingering questions. Heck, by “birther” logic, Donald Trump isn’t eligible to run for President, because he doesn’t meet their definition of “natural born” either. The birther argument is that even if Obama was born in Hawaii, he can’t be “natural born” because his father was a British citizen. Well… Trump’s mother was a Scottish/British citizen and Donald probably even spoke Gaelic in the home growing up. Furthermore, by all accounts, Trump was a terrible student. But no one is seriously going to challenge Trump’s legitimacy to run or demand to see his transcripts (or his finances, or his baptism record, or his church attendance, or whatever). Even if some fringe idiots decide to push those issues, they’ll get zero traction in the media. Again, just ask yourself why…
To be clear, I think that Trump (just like Obama) is a perfectly legitimate citizen. Most legal scholars uphold “natural born citizen” to mean the common law definition of having citizenship from birth. By US law, a child has citizenship either:
1) By being born to a US citizen parent anywhere in the world. Such children have been recognized as citizens since 1790 (with certain restrictions about prior residency of the parents).
OR
2) By being born on US soil under US jurisdiction.
Trump (like Obama) satisfies both conditions when merely one would be sufficient to meet the eligibility requirement, so he and Obama are both undeniably eligible for the office of President. Nor do I particularly care to see Trump’s school transcripts or whatever. My point is to call attention to the discrepancy in the way these subjects are treated for Obama vs. all other Presidents or Presidential Candidates.
What makes Obama different?
If you want to convince me that race isn’t the driving issue, then you’d better present some pretty compelling evidence. And don’t say it’s his “liberal” policies, because Ezra Klein at the Washington Post has a solid article about how Obama’s policies are really pretty much the same as the mainstream Republican policies from the early 1990s. Obama is not Dennis Kucinich or Bernie Sanders, not by a long shot. So save your claptrap about it being his “socialist/liberal” policies. The birther stuff started before Obama’s policies were even established.
BTW @mizunogirl
While I don’t dispute that Obama is a smart dude with the academic bona fides to prove it, don’t be so quick to dismiss the intelligence of some of the prior officeholders. For example, Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar. Say what you want about him, but he was a very smart dude, too. I would be hard-pressed to determine which was smarter between Obama and Clinton, though evidence might suggest that Bill has a stronger political acumen while Barack may be a bit stronger on Constitutional Law…
I’m sure there’ve been other brainiacs in the White House, but the obvious example of Clinton just jumped to mind.
Hey mclever, isn’t Bradley O’Bannon Catholic? If so, he’d better be a galldarn good-looking s.o.b.
In my mind, Mr. O’Bannon has all the charisma of JFK! 😉
Maybe the Prez should just signed his name: “Barry O’Bama” and the whole issue would never have come up!
@lind
It’s disturbing to me that the mainstream media has covered him so seriously.
Agreed. I hope for this to be the last I have to say about it. Mclever echos the sentiment that Goldie Taylor states in her quote. Why have we taken Trump so seriously? Is it because he’s rich? Does wealth give one an automatic pass on policy in this country? That can’t be because by all accounts, Obama isn’t too bad off in the money department. He makes more as an author than he does as President. I sure hope Trump fades into obscurity after this is over.
@Max
Well, he is part Irish! 🙂
I’m part Irish too — and it’s black Irish, name o’ Doyle. Probably why I feel he’s the best man for the job among the rabble and detritus littering the political landscape at present. Unconscious ethnocentrism.
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I own a Brown Krotky,
I own a Brown Krotky Ferguson Tucker Background..I quess that makes me a swamp yankee..My late Dads favorite.description of US.
Sigh..Green quilt still lovely….I read your posts Trump is an asshole..Why don’t we talk about thr shake up of the National Security Team?