These days are still those days....

In honor of the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball, I wanted to post something nice and reflective.

But as it seems to be the case these days, I am finding it increasingly hard to note the progress made. Instead focusing on the distance we still need to travel.

Two stories caught my eye this week:

Via Balloon Juice, Mickey Kaus is a Jackass. Now you might be wondering why someone would say that, here is the offending text in a blog post Mickey wrote about President Obama's badness as a politician:

Cost doesn’t go into why Obama managed to get to the top of politics without being all that good at it. The answer is distressingly obvious: Obama’s the biggest affirmative action baby in history.

Now this bothers me. It bothers me on a personal level. We are not talking about Flava Flav being the President, Jay-Z or even Al Sharpton. We are talking about a Harvard trained constitutional lawyer, who was a state legislator and then a U.S senator. Despite what you think of the Presidents politics, he earned his place in life. Fighting against the constant racial inequities that most individuals of a fairer heritage have no inkling of.

This is very personal to me. That someone who seemingly knows nothing of the individual he comments on or how he won his office would make such a comment is jaw dropping. That I have had people say similar things about myself probably doesn't help matters. Evidently because I am black getting into Northwestern/U of I is impossible with out the help of affirmative action.

The President is a Harvard trained constitutional lawyer, who was a state and national legislator. That hardly sounds unqualified. Bad at politics? That is completely possible. But an Affirmative Action baby? Not hardly. Implying such is the worst sort of bigotry out there.

Combine that with this and you don't have to wonder why minorities are quick see bigotry, or to comment that racial issues have not noticeably changed.

The Weekly has obtained a copy of an email sent to fellow conservatives this week by Marilyn Davenport, a Southern California Tea Party activist and member of the central committee of the Orange County Republican Party.

Under the words, “Now you know why no birth certificate,” there’s an Obama family portrait showing them as apes. (I won't post the picture, because I find it offensive)

I know that Mr. Robinson, would have just held his chin up, smiled and took it. Because that was
the only way he could get that door open for rest of us. He had to take it and endure, so that we all would even have the chance.

That is courage. I wish I had it.

The President has some of it. Sometimes it is easy to forget, the risks he has taken to get to the White House. The vitriol he has to take and endure, all the while keeping up that smile. So that the rest of us have a chance.

Savage his policies. He doesn't deserve this sort of attack.

-Cheers