1502 Birth of a Nation

Sometimes you look at world events and say, really? When President Obama released his long form birth certificate that was my reaction. Really? It's come to this? But polls showed that 25% of Americans and 45% of Republicans believed he was born in Kenya.
Really?
So I ask, and be honest with yourself, did you have a little tittle of belief in the birther thing? And if you did, then ask yourself this. Would you have had that tittle if Barack Hussein Obama's name was Barry Henry Abrams?
Would you have had that tittle if his dad was born in Czechoslovakia? If his last name was Lebowski? What about if he was born in the exotic backwoods of Minnesota and his dad was an exchange student from Sweden? One of those crazy Swedish socialists.
Would you have assumed he must be born elsewhere simply because his father was a different culture than his mother? Or was it because his dad was a different race?
People think of racism as segregated drinking fountains and KKK lynchings. But racism is deeper than that. Racism fuels your underlying assumptions.
As does sexism. What if Obama's dad had been White Baptist American and his mom had been Black Muslim Kenyan. Would there have been any doubt?
I doubt it.
But the president managed to trip all kinds of fears at once. A weird name—a name with Hussein in it for gosh sake. An African father. Raised in Hawaii, a state many of us consider a foreign country anyhow. Raised by a single mom. Born of a mixed race marriage.
Prejudice runs deep. And pushes fear to the surface in bad times. Ready to explode like a volcanic crater of folly.
I'm glad we didn't burn ourselves too bad.
America, ya gotta love it.