Sunday, November 21, 2010

Racist tirades against Obama

It looked so promising in 2008

Those who followed my blog in 2008, knew how excited I was about Obama's victory at the 2008 Presidential election. I remember how closely I followed the whole campaign since 2007. Obama particularly caught my attention by that time, I had the feeling that he may go really far. And man, he really went further than my wildest expectations. His speeches gave me goosebumps and sometimes they still do. I won't ever forget that night and his speech in Chicago. in front of thousands of people, knowing that he will be the next president of the United States. It was about 4am in the morning, when I watched that speech live on CNN and I won't ever forget that moment, when Jesse Jackson cried. I guess I was moved a little, too, even though I'm not American. I think there probably wasn't a single African American, who wasn't somehow touched that night. But this was beyond America, the whole world was amazed by what just happened in that moment.

And then 2 years later at the midterm elections, Obama and the Democrats lose their majority in the Congress and the general mood in the country seems anti-Obama. And there seems to be a small but loud group of people, who think it's OK to voice racist comments. I read this article on Yahoo! News (this is just a snippet):


Since the expectations were so high in 2008, Obama couldn't possibly meet them. 2 years are too short for a decade of wrong decisions and failed policies. But well, everyone expects super things from Superman, right? Even though I admire Obama and support most of his policies, I can understand that some Americans are disappointed. But what I don't understand is the disgusting racism against Obama, that seems to be OK now, almost mainstream (I'm talking about online). I remember, when everyone ridiculed the birthers and the tea party a year ago, but now they're getting elected! Now they're mainstream. Same was with the racists: They seemed to be totally nonexistent in 2008 (with few exceptions), now it seems they can spew out their hate against Obama and even get applause from a lot of people (especially online). If you read any article about Obama on Yahoo! News these days, I guarantee you, that you'll come across a lot of flat out racist comments (accompanied with many "likes"). Let me show you some comments on the article above (published a day after Obama lost the midterm elections. I highlighted the worst parts):


Since I'm not American and my impressions about the current situation in America base on what I see on TV or read online, I wonder: Is it really so bad? Judging by the comments on Yahoo! News, America is ruled by an "African born Muslim who is an anti American racist, that can't run the country and needs to be imprisoned, if not executed". That's scary. How can someone in their mind really believe such things? Or am I making too much of it?

What I'm reading these days is a total opposite of what I was reading in 2008. America, what happened? Hope my American followers can enlighten me on this. But please, explain to me why are there more and more racist comments online on Obama. Or is my impression completely wrong?

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