A Marginalized President
Charlotte A. Williams, Author
A spotlight on McCain’s townhalls
became front stage for racist screwballs.
Bawling hysterically
some were heard to say,
“He’s not one of us;” and,
“He’s going to let all the old people die,”
just a prelude to the insanity
that would reach an all-time high.
For Rockwell’s image evaporated with you,
America’s 44th president, Barack Hussein, who?
The racially socialized long for yesteryears,
after you crashed through the glass ceiling -
bolstering their fears.
Some who even mirror you,
find it hard to chew, a realized U.S.
presidential family of their very own hue.
Suffering from Stockholm’s Syndrome,
they’ve adopted the negrophobe’s
view: “The White House is in no way
a place for you and your Black crew.”
Confused and misguided, some Blacks have also said,
“He’s not one of us.” And, “He’s not Black enough;”
“He’s not a real Black man,” based solely
on the hype that your mother was white,
too blind to understand.
Their plight is your plight, because
your mother could not shield her
Black-skinned son with negroid features,
from the slights of her dominant group.
By the way, who gave them the right to demean?
when they used the wrong measuring stick
while high on codeine.
Critics of all races have called you spineless.
Spineless? President Obama, who?
Surely not you? the same President Obama
whose strategies have gotten an unprecedented
number of policies through.
No. They’ve misread your cue, because
you’re courageous, smooth and calculating, let us
not forget astute.
Your critics are just upset because you’ve
chosen the checkmate route.
Give me, “I showed you,”
any day over the childish, up-in-your face scoff,
“There, I guess I told you.”
It is the browning of America that has
some consciously and unconsciously acting out.
Its touched off a wrongful nativistic revival
and spawned a hysterical stir,
all because some are afraid that Rockwell’s
idyllic image is becoming nothing more than a blur.
So desperate for an eidetic image of
his white-haired granny with
the inviting grin,
that some would stoop as so low
to vote - an inept Palin in.
Thoth, seems not long ago when
some begged for a constitutional
amendment, for if white, foreign-born
Schwarzenneger considered a run.
But with you, Mr. President,
they continually question your
nationality,hoping to mule kick
you out on your buns.
Irrational thinkers will not consider
your policies; they’ll just shoot them down.
Blinded by an aversion to your race,
they wouldn’t give a hoot if they were sound.
For their minds are open only to media
pimps who unspool the following unethical rule:
They target vulnerable listeners,
then exploit their inner fears,
so they can then shift and control,
their rational thinking gear.
How else can one explain
some parents acting like paranoid fools,
over you, a sitting United States President,
visiting their child’s school?
Or,
the everyday working stiff who
becomes miffed, simply because
you want to levy heavier taxes
on the underpaying rich?
Your fight for universal healthcare coverage
has the easy marks waving their fists,
and giving no sound reason
for miscalling you a socialist.
Using a semiotic tool, the pimps also target
Islamophobic fools.They enjoy stoking fear
and arousing suspicion of you,rhyming your
surname, Obama,with infamous terrorist, Osama.
Of course it sends a subliminal alarm
to equate you with Islam, and Islam
with evil, terrorism and harm.
The irrational fear of a Black president
has some tagging you the new antichrist.
Hmph. You sure have taken a lot of
abuse and licks from America’s
fringe lunatics.
Blacks, whites and people of all colors,
have been racially socialized to believe,
that no matter how impressive a Black
man’s credentials, he will never be qualified to lead.
Mr. President, you followed the precepts
to achieve the American dream.
Sadly, the entire world gets to see
how in America,racism, Stockholm Syndrome and
jealousies -
are staining a materialized dream
and possibly dashing future aspirations
for people of color, it seems.
Thoth, you are a role model of a world leader
and a man.
You, President Barack Hussein Obama,
are the leader of this majestic land.
Why back in ‘92, you even had
enough foresight to woo,
and to ask - a beautiful Michelle for her hand.
©2011 All rights reserved
Recited on Bev Smith Radio Talk Show 04/20/11.
This poem was recited five days
before the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. President
Obama was attending The White House
Correspondents Dinner, all the while keeping a poker
face while navy seals were moving in on Bin Laden.
After the assassination was reported, it seems
those who heard my recitation were able
to connect with the line , "Your critics are just upset
because you’ve chosen the checkmate route....,"
a direct response to people calling the president,
"spineless."
My analogy of the president making strategic
moves like in playing a game of chess caught on after
people started calling in to radio talk shows, which
was immediately after reports of Ben Laden's
assassination. I was listening to the same radio
station that I recited my poem on when a
man called a popular show and blurted,
"Checkmate, ch-ch-ch, checkmate!"as if
he were afraid someone else would beat
him to it. My analogy of "a game of chess"
has since been, and continues to be
cited by many respected public speakers.
