According to allies of President Obama, all opposition to Obama's policies is driven by racism. "We think all of it is!" shouts Gwen Dawkins, a Democratic "activist" from Michigan. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) explains that "As far as African-Americans are concerned, we think most of it is." Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) agrees, stating that "There's a very angry, small group of folks that just didn't like the fact that Barack Obama won the presidency. With some, I think it is [about race]." As Jimmy Carter famously stated, "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American."
Apparently, racism must be spreading like wildfire. According to a Gallup poll released this week, only 47 percent of Americans now approve of President Obama's job performance. Only 42 percent of independents approve. In the white community, according to a Nov. 24 Gallup poll, his approval rating has slipped from 61 percent in January to 39 percent. In the black community, his support has actually increased, from 90 percent to 91 percent.
The fact is that it isn't the racism of the white community that explains President Obama's plummeting job approval -- the skyrocketing deficit, unemployment rate and inflation take care of that.
It's the racism of the black community that explains his approval rating's continued buoyancy.
How can blacks truly approve of Obama more highly than they did when he was elected? The black unemployment rate is 15.6 percent today, as opposed to 11.9 percent in December 2008, over 50 percent higher than the white unemployment rate. There is no rhyme or reason to the continued support for a man who has driven the economy off the rails.
But there is racism.
President Obama fulfills the three requirements to receive the approval of the black community: he is black; he is not currently having sex with a white woman; and he is liberal. And he receives the lifelong and unwavering loyalty of the black community for it.
By contrast, the black community hates another prominent half-black man. This half-black man happens to be a political independent who has sex with white women. His name is Tiger Woods.
Just listen to the black community's evisceration of Woods. Tom Joyner, a syndicated black radio host, ran a parody suggesting, "Thankfully, Tiger, you didn't marry a black woman. Because if a sister caught you running around with a bunch of white hoochie-mamas." Then there's Denene Millner, author of books on black relationships, who writes, "Why is it when they get to this level … they tend to go directly for the nearest blonde?"
There seems to be less consternation in the black community about the fact that Woods cheated on his wife than the fact that his wife is white and his mistresses are white. Nobody in the black community has claimed that Shawn Kemp, the former NBA star who famously sired seven children out of wedlock, is a racial sellout. But according to the Associate Press, 26-year-old black woman Ebonie Johnson Cooper says that Tiger, who has so far fathered zero children out of wedlock, is "quote-unquote not really black." That's because "we still see [Tiger] as a black man with a white woman, and it makes a difference."
Not coincidentally, Cooper explains, "Had Barack had a white wife, I would have thought twice about voting for him."
This is a country still torn apart by racial tensions. But those tensions largely spring from the black community these days, not from the white community. It is approval for President Obama that evidences greater racial animosity these days than opposition to President Obama's policies.