The media coverage of any news story does not necessarily reflect its actual importance; for instance, the death of the singer Michael Jackson dominated the news cycle throughout all the different forms of media, and over many weeks that had also witnessed wars, terrorism and the ongoing economic collapse. In contrast, the media coverage of the terrorist attacks of 11/9/2001 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is justified and was quite necessary. In fact, President Barack Obama faced a busy week that started with his speech at the UN, and then the subsequent meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu, before concluding the week with the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, and between this and that, he had daily meetings with various presidents and heads of state. Yet, the dominant news story that has been circulating for two weeks now – as evident by the sheer magnitude of its coverage in the media – focused on the issue of racism in the United States against the black President. The racism against blacks in the United States is as old as the country itself. I have closely followed this issue since the beginnings of my political awareness in the sixties, which witnessed the known civil rights movement, and I still follow it. However, this racism cannot be considered more important than the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the threat of the proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, the ongoing global financial crisis, or poverty and disease. This new debate on the issue of racism in the American society was limited during the presidential election campaigns, although Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill both tried to insinuate that Barack Obama is a black President, meaning that he will be a president solely for the blacks. However, the controversy blew out on the 12th of this month; while Obama was giving a speech that was well received in a joint session of the Congress, the South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson heckled him and kept shouting at him “You lie”. Wilson apologized to the President, and the controversy would have been put to rest had the former President Jimmy Carter - a southerner like Wilson – not “poked” the hornets' nest: He did so by saying that what happened was not an honest debate about the healthcare plan, but that there rather was a clear hostility against the President because he is black, and that this is not restricted only to the South. Carter is an octogenarian, has nothing to fear or lose, and has publicly said what many others opt to conceal. Furthermore, there were 70 thousand extreme right wingers demonstrating against the healthcare plan, which is aimed at the poor and benefits Obama in nothing. The demonstrators did not stop at carrying pictures of Obama with Hitler's moustache, or Che Guevara's beret, but also carried the confederate flag, or the flag of the southern states that fought in the civil war against the north in defence of slavery, and then resisted the civil rights movement up to this very day. Meanwhile, Barack Obama refuses to be considered the Black American President, and wants to be considered merely the American President. He tried last Sunday to deny that racism is behind the right wing's attitude towards him, and conducted five interviews with television stations and newspapers: He said that while it is true that some do not like him because of the colour of his skin, the controversy is caused by the lack of confidence in the U.S government on the part of the Americans, and the latter's perpetual desire to reduce the government's role in their daily lives. He then said jokingly on television: I was black before I was elected President. While the above is true, it does not negate the validity of the other opinion which states that Obama is being subjected to a racist campaign caused by the colour of his skin. In fact, prominent figures from the right-wing attack him every day, and for any random reason. When a black kid beat a white kid on a school bus, the headline read that white people are being assaulted in America, and the degenerate radio host Rush Limbaugh said that the President will perhaps defend the black child. The issue here is not about one fool or two, but rather thousands of extremists from all kinds of media outlets to websites. One of the claims made prior to the elections and that is still being spread by these extremists, is that Obama was not born in the United States, but in Kenya, and that his birth certificate mentioning Hawaii as his birthplace is forged or even nonexistent. The election of Barack Obama was supposed to herald an era of “post-racial” politics. However, the attitude of the right wing against him proves that racism is still alive and dormant, especially when some consider that a black man is not fit to be a president for non-blacks, and that White Americans are engulfed in a black sea? I read that Obama receives around 30 death threats every day, and that one third of these threats are racially motivated, compared to seven or eight threats that Bush used to receive. This is despite the fact that the latter was involved in losing wars where thousands of Americans perished. Even if Obama denies it, this is nothing but blatant racism.
