Obama Calls Black People ‘Mongrels’ On TV

A major criticism among the black left is that President Obama is able to get away with acts that would incur the wrath of the public if committed by a white person.

Examples include his tendency to abandon independent-minded black people for political expediency (Jeremiah Wright, Van Jones, Shirley Sherrod), publicly shaming the black community (the infamous Father’s Day speech), and refusal to make statements about displays of racism in the criminal justice system (Jena 6, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant).

In all of these instances, I have given him a pass, assuming he was overcompensating for white fears of a Black president (a failed strategy, because you can’t use logic to deal with racism), but that he really did have a level of respect for African-Americans.

But I think he went too far with his July 29 appearance on The View. As if it wasn’t insulting enough that Elizabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd are seen as capable of interviewing the President, he delivered his most disturbing statement yet about race.

According to the transcript he said:

“the interesting thing about the African American experience in this country is that we are sort of a mongrel people. I mean, we’re all kinda mixed up.”

What is that supposed to mean? I can’t think of any circumstance in which mongrel has a positive connotation; most definitions associate the term with animals.

African-Americans have a history of dehumanization, starting with slavery but also evident in the contemporary prison system and poor living conditions in urban areas, as well as workplace racism that can cause people like Omar Thornton to snap.

And now the President is describing African-Americans as mongrels, implying that whites are “pure.” Unacceptable!

Yet I have not seen the mainstream black media give this incident one-tenth the coverage as the manufactured controversy about Essence hiring a white fashion director. This is as revealing a demonstration of their priorities as was the NAACP’s initial reaction to Shirley Sherrod.

What a sad state of affairs. African-Americans have more education, money, and public influence than ever before, yet many of our leading institutions appear incapable of using common sense when it comes to defending African-American interests.