Is It Now Open Season On Our Nation's Police?

The attempted murder of two cops in Ferguson was inevitable. My guess is, it won't just stop there.

When the two top law enforcement officials -- President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder -- declared that the Ferguson cops are racist, it became music to the ears of those who already hate police.  Further, to some, it may have been a green light to even the score for the shooting death of Michael Brown and others.

But, Obama and Holder didn't just label the Ferguson PD as being racially biased, they went on to say that the problem wasn't limited to Ferguson.  Thus, the crazies who may be inclined to murder police officers may not be limited to that now-famous town in Missouri.

Simply, racial tensions are on the rise because of the way Ferguson and other similar racial issues have been handled by the President, the Attorney General, and many black leaders.  In a CNN/ORC poll in 2009, 6% of whites and only 2% of blacks thought race relations had gotten worse.  After 6 years of Obama's presidency, that same poll -- taken just last month -- found that 45% of whites and 26% of blacks think race relation have worsened.

These stats are horrible and not what was expected to happen with a supposed post-racial President in charge.

References:

Eric Holder believes all cops are racists: http://nypost.com/2014/12/07/eric-holder-believes-all-cops-are-racists-targets-unconscious-bias/

President Obama Acknowledges Ferguson's Racist Police Practices. Not an 'Isolated Incident':   http://www.politicususa.com/2015/03/06/president-obama-acknowledges-fergusons-racist-police-practices-isolated-incident.html

Chief: 2 officers shot in Ferguson were 'ambushed': http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/12/shots-fired-ferguson/70194012/

2009: Henry Louis Gates arrest controversy: Obama: "police acted stupidly":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Louis_Gates_arrest_controversy

CNN/ORC poll: http://www.pollingreport.com/race.htm

Because Obama Is Black?

Recently, a number of polls have been taken to see if race relations have improved since President Obama took office.  Polling that was mostly driven as a result of two Grand Jury decisions following the shooting of two unarmed black men.  A recent Bloomberg poll showed that 53% of Americans sampled believe that race relations have deteriorated since Obama was sworn in.  In a CBS poll, 46% of blacks and a total of 36% among all races thought race relations have worsened.

But, don't think that race relation have just recently turned downward because of the Grand Jury decisions. In 2013, an NBC/Street Journal poll found that, among whites, the belief that race relations had gotten "very bad" in this country has gone from 4% in January 2009 to 13% in July 2013.  In that same poll, the opinion among whites that race relations had become "fairly bad" went from 13% to 32% in the same relevant time frame.  Among blacks, the "very bad" answer went from 12% to 33% and, for the "fairly bad" question, the percentages rose from 18% to 25%.

So, why have race relations gotten so bad in just 6 years?  Obama was supposedly our first "post racial" President; thus implying that racism had to be pretty much nonexistent in America.

Well, I firmly believe that you can blame four words, "because Obama is black", for the deteriorating situation between the races.  Ever since Obama took office, his supporters, and he himself, have attempted to nullify any opposition to his policies by saying those four words.  If you don't believe it, just Google "because Obama is black" (link below) and you will finds hundreds, if not thousands, of links to stories where any number of Democrats, black leaders, celebrities, or the President himself, claim that any difference of opinion regarding everything from ObamaCare to Immigrant Amnesty is based on Obama's skin color.

Ultimately, this makes everyone angry. Blacks are angry because they believe the first black president is being unfairly treated because of his race, and whites are angry because they are being unfairly labelled as racists if they oppose Obama on anything.  

So, simply, the people who claim to want to improve race relations in this country are the ones hell-bent on destroying them by scapegoating the President's skin color, and are just using it as a political tool in the battle of left versus right in everyday Washington, D.C. politics.

References:

Bloomberg: Most Americans See Race Relations Worsening Since Obama's Election: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-12-07/bloomberg-politics-poll-finds-most-americans-see-race-relations-worsening-since-obamas-election

CBS: POLL: Race Relations in U.S. at Low Not Seen Since 1990s: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/12/10/poll-race-relations-in-u-s-at-low-not-seen-since-1990s/

IBD/TIPP poll: Obama Poisoned Race Relations In America: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/110314-724708-new-ibd-poll-shows-obama-poisoned-race-relations-in-america.htm

July 2013: NBC/Wall Street Journal poll: Page 14: Question: In general, do you think race relations in the United States are (ROTATE) very good, fairly good, f airly bad, or very bad?: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/A_Politics/_Today_Stories_Teases/130724-July-NBC-WSJ-poll.pdf

Post-racial America - Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-racial_America

Google search: because Obama is Black: https://www.google.com/search?q=because+obama+is+black&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=because+obama+is+black&safe=off&start=30

The "Teachable Moment" On Race That Nobody Seems To See

Amid all the firestorm over race relations with regard to the white Cambridge policeman versus the black Harvard Professor, there is an obvious fact that is being totally ignored.

At the heart of this entire flap, you have a noted "black" Professor at one of the most prestigious Universities in America. Secondly, you have a "black" President who is the leader of the most powerful nation in the world. Third, also weighing in, is the "black" Governor of the State of Massachusetts. Quite a "powerful" portrait of America.

To use Obama's own words, this too is a "teachable moment"! I would clearly think that this represents much of the "dream" that Martin Luther King once envisioned.

All too often we look at the "bad" in every situation. Encapsulated within this controversy is the "good" that nobody really seems to see.

Cowards by Conditioning

This week, our new Attorney General, Eric Holder, called Americans "cowards" when it came to any discussion of race in America (See Full Story).

I don't know what cave this guy has been living in for the last 4 decades but, the lack of discussion about race is a function of "conditioning" by the Black leadership of this country. Any time a white person wants to conduct a constructive discussion of race, especially when negatives are at issue, the person offering that discussion is generally labeled as being a racist. In this country, being a "racist" is even worse than being Satan, himself.

Another tactic used to blunt discussion is to accuse whites of stereotyping blacks. Additionally, any black person who attempts to side with a white opinion is shutdown by the using the social slam of being an "Uncle Tom." I think a perfect example of this kind of racial-tiptoeing that must be done in America is aptly contained within the context of this very timely story (Click To View It).

If Mr. Holder wants discussions over race, then call off the attack dogs so there isn't this constant social stigmatizing of whites and some blacks over even the slightest attempt at commentary, opinion, and/or discussion! If Americans are cowards about race, then, they've been turned into cowards by the political correctness of America itself. And, that's just my opinion.

The image of Eric Holder is in the public domain by virtue of the fact that it is an official U.S. government photograph.

The Dream Has Come?

On August 23, 1963, Martin Luther King gave his most famously remembered speech. That speech, "I Have A Dream," looked to a time, in the future, when Blacks and Whites would peacefully live together. Today, we celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday (relatively). Tomorrow, Barack Obama, as a black man, will assume the job of President of the United States. I don't quite think the premises contained within the "I Have A Dream" speech will simply be achieved by what happens in the next days to come. There still will be racial tensions in this country. And, just so we understand, those racial tensions aren't just restricted to Whites against Blacks and Whites against other races and religions. There are tensions between Blacks and Hispanics and vice-versa. Between Blacks and Koreans and other other Asians. For sure, some amount of Blacks are practitioners of reverse discrimination against Whites in anger over years of racial hatred.

Racial tensions will always exist in this country and in the world. It is exists in Darfur and in the streets of Paris with the burning of cars every night. Just look at the total history of the Jews. It is something that humans can't seem to dispense of. It is an attitude that can be passed on from parents to their children. New hatreds are always being brewed in the cauldrons of human groupings and within changing attitudes in our society. Absolutely, the hatred of Muslims by many Americans was set to brew as a result of 9/11. I am sure that the senseless and brutal beheading of Nick Berg, and others, just festered that hatred. It absolutely angered me to some level of hatred at the time it happened. And, to be truthful, I still feel hostility because of those events. Mostly, because of the sheer brutality of the acts and the cheering by other groups of Muslims over those acts. I also think back to 9/11 and those Palestinians and other Muslims who danced in the streets at the deaths of thousands of Americans. In many ways, Al Qaeda's hatred for us and their attack of 9/11 just conversely created the basis of a new hatred for many Muslims by many Americans. There are some Americans who are alive today who absolutely hate Japan and the Japanese as a result of the brutality that they saw while fighting in World War II. I know a couple of those people and, in theory, that hatred will only die when they do.

Tomorrow will go a long way to help heal this country's White/Black race relationships. But, it isn't the panacea that some would espouse. It will not, by any stretch of human imagination, bring an end to racism in America. Abolishing racial hate and racial tensions of any kind will always be a work in progress. Mostly, it is time, and time alone, that washes away hate. Christianity and other moderate religions go a long way to help reverse hate. But, make no mistake about it, new tensions and new hatreds will always take the place of those that have been been moderated by time and religion. And, moderation is the best we can every hope for from our imperfect human race.