& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Racism and the Republicans

Make no mistake, although all three stories raised eyebrows and heated discussions, they created no racial tension or ill feelings. The stories have one unfortunate common denominator-racism.

Abdullah A. Dewan
THREE stories that have kept the US news media on a breath taking slew of commentaries in recent weeks, producing some of the worst racial hype in years. First: President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor -- a federal judge on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit -- to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter had stirred the Republican base to try to denigrate and defeat the nomination.
Sotomayor, a Princeton graduate and a Yale Jurist Doctor, has heard appeals in more than 3,000 cases and has written about 380 opinions in the Second Circuit, is considered more experienced than any of the present sitting Supreme Court justices.
Raised as a Catholic, Sotomayor is of “Puerto Rican descent and was born in the
Bronx, New York. Her judicial philosophy is moderately liberal and hence won't tilt the current imbalance in the US Supreme Court. Once confirmed, she will be the Court's 111th justice -- a first ever
Hispanic justice, and its third female justice.
Her three day’s of confirmation hearing in the Judicial Committee had turned out to be one of the harshest and most gruel-ing interrogations by Republican Senators. Her Achilles' heel was a line she used in her past speeches: I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.
Although, her detractors could not produce any evidence of any racial bias in her judicial rulings, her rhetorical comment -- taken out of context -- caused Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to dismiss her as a racist. Fox TV’s relentless negativities with race baiting remarks and conservative Republican's propagation of misinformation have vitiated the airwaves -- if nothingelse.
Second: Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates -- a nationally known academician - was arrested on July 16 from his home after a neighbour called the Cambridge police and reported that two men were breaking the back door of a nearby house. The police responded and encountered Gates and his driver after Gates had forced his entry into the house. Sergeant James Crowley arrested Gates when he refused to show his identification and did not comply with sergeant's order to come out of the house. The charge was "disorderly conduct," which has since been dropped.
Massachusetts Governor David Patrick -- an African American — characterized Gates's arrest as "every black man's nightmare." The incident captured the nation's attention when President Obama - a long-time Gates friend --commented in a nationally televised news conference that the "police officer acted stupidly." Fox TV commentators Glenn Beck and others accused Obama for racial profiling of the white policeman
and called Obama a "racist." Glenn said "Obama hates white people," knowing full well that his mother was white and he was raised by loving white grandparents.
Obama retracted his comment by saying that he should have chosen his words carefully. However, he apparently succeeded in defusing the racially charged situation by inviting Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley to talk it over a beer in theWhite House.
Third: This is the most bizarre of the three stories -- that Obama isn't US a citizen by birth and hence, is an illegitimate president. Such a baseless controversy was raised during Obama's presidential campaign as well, but quickly run outofsteam.
But now a group of people called the "birthers" (consisting of most Southerners and Republicans) has revived that controversy. Last week, even some US Congressmen refused to affirm Obama's US citizenship.
California attorney Orly Taitz - a leader of the birthers movement - has released a copy of "what appears to be" an Obama birth certificate from the Republic of Kenya. The problem is that "Republic of Kenya" didn't exist when Obama was born (on December 12,1961) said David Waldman in DailyKos. The alleged Kenyan birth certificate was issued by the Republic of Kenya on February 27, 1964, but according to Wikipedia Kenya became independent on December 12,1963, and declared itself a Republic a year later.
President Obama's actual Honolulu birth certificate has been produce0 many times, and has been reviewed by many people - it's also posted in the internet. But these deranged people won't accept it, regardless of any evidence. These people are just not happy that a black man is America's president. Their childish whining will continue endlessly in one form or another as long as Obama remains the president.
Make no mistake, although all three stories raised eyebrows and heated discussions, they created no racial tension or ill feelings. The stories have one unfortunate common denominator --racism. Bill Maher, in his HBO show "Real time with Bill Maher." said it all. Not all Republicans are racist but a racist is much more likely a Republican.
An appropriate answer to these people would be to remind them that in about 35 years blacks and Hispanics are projected to become the majority while whites will become the minority. Ask them, what if -- although it is an unlikely scenario -- the power structure turns into one in which today's minorities exercise real power over the whites 35 years from now?
Dr. Abdullah A Dewan. founder of pofiticonomy.com. is a Professor of Economics at Eastern Michigan University