Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ManintheMiddle]

With increasing frequency, President Obama has been saying and doing things that strongly suggest he is far from immune to the tendency among many American minorities to act on a self-serving sense of entitlement nurtured by social engineering projects, most notably affirmative action, and White liberal guilt.

Recent cases in point:

Veteran news anchor Charlie Gibson asks Obama to comment on the conservative backlash to Supreme Court appointee Sotomayor's observation that she felt a Latina would be able to show sounder judgment than a White man.

His glib reply: "We need to stop focusing on those who spew out this sort of nonsense."

Because he chooses his words carefully, Obama's choice of "spew" is revealing. It conjures up images of someone foaming at the mouthing, of emitting toxic waste, of spitting out venomous ideas. And "nonsense" is by any interpretation indicative of a dismissive attitude.

His reply both distorts and dismisses those who have the audacity to hold him and his judicial discretion to the same high standard he and his fellow Democrats set for Bush court appointees in the past.

Much ado about nothing? Not if one cares about consistency of expectation on the high court and public perceptions of hypocrisy.

Not if you consider that had a Bush appointee uttered the same words in reverse he would not only have been castigated but denied the bench. Robert Bork was denied as much for perceptions of his meanness and narrow-mindedness as for any specific positions he held.

But Obama, being Black, gets a pass.

Shelby Steele, the Black intellectual and member of the Hoover Institution, a think tank at Stanford University, referred to phenomenon in his now classic collection of essays, The Content of Our Character. He describes it in terms of White liberal guilt--the need to assuage Blacks activists (Steele is not among them but his estranged brother Claude, a social psychologist clearly is) by bending over backwards to accommodate their often inflated and sometimes ill-deserved sense of victimhood.

The mainstream media, including Gibson during his interview, immediately back off from any hint of resentment from minority politicians who aren't willing to face the same music they play for Whites.

No matter what one thinks of Rush Limbaugh, the fact is painfully obvious that he's gotten under Obama's skin--and Gibbs, his press secretary, as well. Rather than take the high road and ignore his on-air bluster, they respond in kind, tit for tat, diminishing the office of the Presidency (something Bush never resorted to doing despite relentless demonization).

And to the second case:

Come to find out yesterday that three members of the New Black Panthers who clearly (as shown on YouTube video and news footage) attempted to intimidate both voters and White poll workers in the 2008 election in Philadelphia. Now Eric Holder, Obama's Attorney-General, has decided that the Justice Department will not prosecute them.

But had these same men been wearing hoods made from bedsheets you can bet your sweet ass they would have been tried in earnest.

So what accounts for the obvious (to anyone with an ounce of objectivity) double standard, the sanctimonious tone, and the utter hypocrisy of the Obama Administration?

I contend it's a never-ending, all-consuming inflated sense of entitlement borne of decades of social engineering policies in the U.S., most particularly affirmative action in hiring and college admission decisions.

Obama himself was likely a beneficiary, having been able to transfer from Occidental College in California to Columbia University, an Ivy League school, in New York in his junior year. And there is just as much likelihood that the benefited from being held to a lower standard in test scores for admission to the Harvard Law School, although neither in known for sure.

What is certain, however, is that Obama has had a relatively easy go of it over the decades. That he has made the most of his unusual opportunities is to his credit, and that he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School cannot be denied either.

But when there are so many social enablers among the White liberal media, and college admission officers, and when Punahou, the most elite private school in Hawaii is required by its own trustees to admit a certain number of Black students regardless of comparable merit, one cannot help but wonder how much of a sense of entitlement has sunk in--and so inconspicuously because it is so much the norm that no one, least of all its primary beneficiaries, ever reflects enough to question their paths to empowerment.

But power and empowerment are two different things, as Bush had to find out the hard way, having himself benefited from being a legacy admission to Yale, thanks to his father, who merited being there in his own day irrespective of the family's wealth in New Haven. But then Bush never expected to get kid glove treatment from the press and consequently never responded with unearned indignation, as Obama is already showing signs of doing.

Speaking of New Haven, they have a fire department there filled with disgruntled White and at least one Hispanic firefighters. They're justifiably sore because they passed their promotion exams with flying colors only to be denied promotion by two panels of judges, the second including the one and same Sotomayor. Their apparent crime was studying too hard and taking the exam more seriously. But so as not to offend many of their Black co-workers who didn't pass, the courts punted.

And Obama has had nary a word to say about it. No, he'll leave it to the confirmation hearings to slug it out knowing, smugly, that he has enough votes in the Senate to get his nominee approved regardless. That, too, reveals a sense of entitlement: Sotomayor satisfies to politically correct categories: she's a woman and she's a Latino. As a practical matter, Obama kills two birds with one stone. As a matter of fairness, it should be recalled that Bush, Sr. first appointed her too.

But what really chafes me is that no one intimately involved in the process seems to have bothered to even ask the question of themselves: How much of her appointment is rightly attributable to who she is rather than what she really stands for?

Obama cannot be blamed for being partisan. He is, after all, a hardened Chicago-bred politico despite efforts to paint him otherwise. But if he aspires to more than mere pretense in serving all the people all of the time, he'll have to confront his own entitlment more than he has to date.

Note: this post is based on a soon-to-be published, featured article in a prominent online U.S. newspaper next week.

[DC in Suwon]

I supported and voted for Obama, but I'm an independent. I think this move was totally political by him. Get a latin (AND female) into the Supreme Court. Thus, if Republicans vote no, the latinos in their state/district will not be voting for them next time around. Obama is a politician first.....and a great one at that. I'm not really liking the things she said too. I saw a clip of a senator who said something along the lines of "imagine if that were a white man that said the things she said."

[rollo]

I actually havent noticed that mindset in what Obama has said. I am not looking for it. if I was I am sure i could parse some of his statements and find it. I also could read some Republican statements and find examples of rascism. Sontomayor is of course a selection based on politics. All Supreme court selections are. Hispanics and women deserve representaion on the court!!! Her biggest problem is going to be Ricci I think I spelled that right. She was put on the court by Bush senior, is center left on most issues, not an activist judge. Pretty good choice. Probably be confirmed fairly easily once the dust and feathers settle.
One thing about obama and i am by no means completely sold on him. He rolled up his sleeves and went to work!!!
I would stay clear of anything Limbaugh said. He can barely hide his rascism. Also he is a ticking timebomb for the Repulicans. His drug use, past criminal history, and what he has admitted were Oxy-fueled rants are going to bite the party in the butt. When I read conservative media i usually read Krauthammer, or Andrew Sullivan. They stay away from all the drama and name calling.

[RufusW]

[dporter]

It doesn't matter. It's like two teams playing a footie match. Regardless of what happens the other side will always call foul.

[Pink Freud]

No.

[Fox]

[rollo]

Obama was the son of two highly educated people who placed a lot of value on education. If he were white there would never be a question of whether he was given a pass. They do not give away grades t harvard law you have to earn them. One professor has stated and this was done before obama ever held elected office that he was one of the most gifted students he had ever taught. The real harm that affirmative action has done. When a minority suceeds many assume it was because they had "help".

Rush Limbaugh who is so anxious to start yelling the N--- word that his head is about to explode, flunked or was thrown out of South WEst Missouri State in his first quarter. Rush or as Jeff Christie as he was know a few years ago, well while Obama was wowing his professors was arested for cruising for underage males in Pittsburgh. He simply is not someone who I would lisen to when discussing Obama's academic record or character.

[Kuros]

[rollo]

What little bit i know about Harvard is my father attended there as an undergraduate. I have visited a couple of times. If you attended then maybe you can fill me in. What gives you the idea they give grades away Sullivan for the humor and that he changed on Iraq. Not a deep thinker but where are the conservtive intellectuals at?
I am really curious to know why you think Harvard inflates grades, quite an allegation.

[On the other hand]

[bacasper]

[RJjr]

[gogohorrorshow]

HAHAH minority entitlement? are you kidding me?

[RJjr]

G. Gordon Liddy is the latest angry white male to have a meltdown.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/liddy-lets-hope-sotomayor-who-speaks-illegal-alien-isnt-menstruating-at-conferences.php