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A story was released on NPR today about how Obama’s comment that the Cambridge police “acted stupidly” has stained the president’s image. Stained his image? Are we reading about / watching the same story pass over and over again on the news? I disagree completely with this comment, and in fact am proud that our president has the guts to go up in front of the American public and say that he made a mistake in choice of words.
(I don’t even have to go into our past experiences with presidents misspeaking, but just for a cultural reference to Brazil: Ronald Regan in a diplomatic meeting in Brasília announced that he wanted to make a toast to the people of “Bolivia”)
Maybe Obama should have “contrived” a more diplomatic response to the question, but the response was on his feet without the whole story. When Obama received all the information, he had time to rethink his answer and decide to go up infront of the American people and exclaim, “I should have chosen my words more carefully, and I didn’t mean to offend anyone.” Obama was BIG enough to admit his misktake, and that shows a lot of self-assurence.
Obama might have “acted stupidly” by saying a phrase that wasn’t carefully contrived as to not hurt anybody’s feelings. Probably this initial reaction was based a little on Obama’s own life experience, and therefore race. I ask the question, however: Is it really that different from any white president mistakenly judging occurences and American history based on their own racial experiences?
Obama might have been one step towards a more equal society, but it is clear, especially after this controversy, that we still have a long fight ahead.
{spell checked and edited}
It’s amazing how psycholoygy causes people to jump to controversial conclusions when it involes two human beings
of two different skin tones having a dispute.
Even though Gates deemed the situation to be race related,
Obama did not make any suggestion or corroboration.
Commenting on the stupidity of police was simply a that – a comment of how ridiculous it is to be arrested for being outraged that someone thought you were breaking into your own home.
That is indeed a stupid thing to experience, and did not have to result in arrest. That is was is stupid! Surely there are higher priority people to arrest, other than an irate professor?
Yet, true to form, the media spin the situation as if Obama is condemning the ‘whole’ police force.
Despite all this, the media ignores the commendable efforts of Obama to bring all parties together to resolve the issue and understand each other.
But dammit, resolution doesn’t make good news or sell papers does it, only the bad sounding stuff is of interest.
Btw, I am not American and not an Obama lover or hater.
I am just a British person that sees the world without
spin, bias, hatred or brain washing.
Peter-
Thanks for the comment! It is always interesting what the media can do to spin situations, and in this case both from the left and the right. The fact that “psychology causes people to jump to cause controversial conclusions when it involves two human beings of two different skin tones” really shows where race relationships in the United States stands, underneath the superficial layer there still are lots of underlying racial tensions. Unfortunately, this case didn’t reveal Obama’s efforts for resolution and didn’t lead into people in general talking about these feelings and bringing them out in the open and instead was used to try and “stain” Obama’s image. But yes, “resolution” doesn’t quite seem to be interesting enough, and nobody wants to go on the news and say “maybe I still have some controversial feelings regarding race, but lets talk about them.”
Btw, I’m pro-Obama, and have hopes, but also know that he is a president and not a miracle worker.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111456650&ft=1&f=1014