{"id":596,"date":"2012-10-05T21:33:11","date_gmt":"2012-10-06T01:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=596"},"modified":"2012-10-05T21:33:11","modified_gmt":"2012-10-06T01:33:11","slug":"why-the-obama-videos-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/10\/why-the-obama-videos-matter.html","title":{"rendered":"Why the Obama Videos Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Daily Caller <\/em>just released a five-year old video featuring Barack Obama.\u00a0 But it is at least as relevant today as it was when it was first made.<\/p>\n

Actually, it is more relevant today.<\/p>\n

In June of 2007, at Hampton University inVirginia, then Senator Obama delivered a speech to a group of black ministers\u2014including his pastor of over two decades, the now notorious Jeremiah Wright.\u00a0 This last is worth noting, for during his address, Obama sounded less like a politician and more like his old \u201cspiritual mentor,\u201d Reverend Wright.<\/p>\n

Showcasing the one ability that so enamored him to Senator Harry Reid\u2014his prowess at adopting a \u201cNegro dialect\u201d whenever the occasion called for it\u2014Obama castigated America for neglecting the victims of Hurricane Katrina.\u00a0 The federal government, he said, refused to be as generous with its resources in assisting New Orleans to rebuild as it had been in helping Manhattan in September of 2001 and those who had been harmed by Hurricane Andrew in Florida.<\/p>\n

The reason for this neglect, Obama confidently insinuates, is \u201cracism.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people down in New Orleans they [the federal government] don\u2019t care about as much!\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the black ministers in attendance at this conference needn\u2019t lose any sleep, for Obama assures them that \u201cblack folks will survive.\u00a0 We won\u2019t forget where we came from.\u00a0 We won\u2019t forget what happened 19 months ago, or 15 years ago, or 300 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

First of all, Obama\u2019s claims here are simply false: the federal government, along with the white majority of America that he implicitly, and not so implicitly, derides, were enormously generous toward the victims of Katrina.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, not only is Obama guilty of dishonesty.\u00a0 He is equally guilty of acting with bad faith towards the country that he was then aspiring to preside over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Secondly, and more importantly, this video is but another piece of evidence (not as though we needed any more) that Obama is and has always been a racial demagogue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2008, he styled himself as the one and only figure who could redeem America of her legacy of racial oppression and usher blacks, whites, and everyone else into a \u201cpost-racial\u201d millennium.\u00a0 Yet when Obama had the opportunity to do what he could to assuage the anger and distrust of a group of aggrieved black ministers, he refused to take it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, he added fuel to the fire by confirming their hostility toward their fellow white Americans.<\/p>\n

The reason why this video is arguably more relevant today than it was five years ago is that it sheds light upon what it is that motivates Obama the president.<\/p>\n

Blacks will not forget where they came from or what has happened to them.\u00a0 They will not forget the cruel treatment to which the government of their country has subjected them\u2014whether this occurred within the last few years or the last few centuries.\u00a0 This is what Obama promises in his 2007 speech.<\/p>\n

In other words, blacks will get theirs.\u00a0 Things will be made right.<\/p>\n

More specifically, if Obama is elected president, he <\/em>will make things right.<\/p>\n

Is it so implausible, especially within the light of this video and the last four years of Obama\u2019s presidency, that it is this desire to make good on his promise to Wright and company that has been the single greatest force driving his policies?<\/p>\n

After all, ostensibly for the purposes of helping \u201cthe poor\u201d\u2014among which blacks are disproportionately represented\u2014Obama has seized a gargantuan federal government and grown it exponentially.\u00a0 In doing so, he has spared no occasion to demonize \u201cmillionaires and billionaires\u201d\u2014the vast majority of whom are white.\u00a0 This makes sense, for in order to give to the poor, the government must first take from the non-poor.<\/p>\n

What is called \u201cclass warfare,\u201d though, has an unmistakably racial subtext.\u00a0 At least in America this is the case.<\/p>\n

There are other considerations.<\/p>\n

Obama has had other opportunities to ameliorate racial strife.\u00a0 However, he chose instead to either pass on them or exploit them for the sake of increasing interracial tensions.<\/p>\n

When black Harvard professor Henry Gates had an altercation with white police officers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Obama sided with Gates\u2014before he was privy to the facts of the situation, and before it became common knowledge that the police were in the right.<\/p>\n

When the captain of a neighborhood watch group in Florida, George Zimmerman, shot and killed black teenager Trayvon Martin, Obama\u2019s ignorance of the circumstances didn\u2019t stop him from reinforcing the media-contrived narrative that Martin\u2019s life was extinguished for no other reason than that of his race.<\/p>\n

When orgies of black-on-white violence\u2014i.e. \u201cflash mobs\u201d\u2014erupted in cities around the country over the last few years, Obama said nothing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2008, this video could have been used to forecast the future.\u00a0 In 2012, it is even more valuable, for we can now rely upon it to make sense of the past\u2014the past four years.<\/p>\n

And while we are at it, maybe we can prevent four more years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Daily Caller just released a five-year old video featuring Barack Obama.\u00a0 But it is at least as relevant today as it was when it was first made. Actually, it is more relevant today. In June of 2007, at Hampton University inVirginia, then Senator Obama delivered a speech to a group of black ministers\u2014including his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy the Obama Videos Matter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/10\/why-the-obama-videos-matter.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why the Obama Videos Matter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Daily Caller just released a five-year old video featuring Barack Obama.\u00a0 But it is at least as relevant today as it was when it was first made. Actually, it is more relevant today. In June of 2007, at Hampton University inVirginia, then Senator Obama delivered a speech to a group of black ministers\u2014including his…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/10\/why-the-obama-videos-matter.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-06T01:33:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why the Obama Videos Matter","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/10\/why-the-obama-videos-matter.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why the Obama Videos Matter","og_description":"The Daily Caller just released a five-year old video featuring Barack Obama.\u00a0 But it is at least as relevant today as it was when it was first made. Actually, it is more relevant today. In June of 2007, at Hampton University inVirginia, then Senator Obama delivered a speech to a group of black ministers\u2014including his…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/10\/why-the-obama-videos-matter.html","og_site_name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","article_published_time":"2012-10-06T01:33:11+00:00","author":"Jack Kerwick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/10\/why-the-obama-videos-matter.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/10\/why-the-obama-videos-matter.html","name":"Why the Obama Videos Matter","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-10-06T01:33:11+00:00","dateModified":"2012-10-06T01:33:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/10\/why-the-obama-videos-matter.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/10\/why-the-obama-videos-matter.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2012\/10\/why-the-obama-videos-matter.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why the Obama Videos Matter"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/","name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jack Kerwick","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5","name":"Jack Kerwick","description":"I have a Ph.D. in philosophy from Temple University, a master's degree in philosophy from Baylor University, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and religious studies from Wingate University. I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":597,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions\/597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}