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Home » Obama the Expert weighs in on Critical Race Theory

Obama the Expert weighs in on Critical Race Theory

The New Neo Posted on by

Oh, for the days when ex-presidents were silent in their post-presidential years, only to emerge for a ceremonial role or two. Those days are gone.

I believe that Obama is still working behind the scenes as one of the people guiding the present administration. But every now and then he also pops up publicly to say a few words in his accustomed loftily superior manner.

This time the topic is Critical Race Theory, about which he intones:

Progress has been made, former President Barack Obama told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, but he finds it’s still hard for the “majority” of white Americans to “recognize you can be proud of this country and its traditions and its history and our forefathers, and yet it is also true that this terrible stuff happened. The vestiges of that linger and continue.”

And what is Obama actually saying there? Does he really believe that the majority of white Americans who themselves have pride in their country are unaware that “terrible stuff” (such as, for example, slavery) happened? Obama is mendacious, among other things, because of course he knows that proud Americans who are white are well aware of the long hard struggle of black people for equality under the law, and its repercussions. Obama’s statement is nonsensical, but you have to actually stop and think about it to perceive that, and he’s counting on the fact that most people probably won’t.

But Obama is presenting himself as the authority on white Americans and how they think – just as he was the authority on that “typical white person” – the grandmother who raised him (see this post for a discussion of Obama’s 2008 reference). Obama has developed to a fine art the ability to say something incredibly racist in a way that masks not just how racist it is, but how condescending and accusative it is, while somehow preserving a calm professorial air of being above it all.

The title of that post I linked in the previous paragraph – which was written over two years ago – is “Obama paved the way for anti-white rhetoric.” And indeed, he did. He was a trailblazer in opening up that particular Overton Window and so many others, and the changes in race relations and race rhetoric since the day he took office have been both extreme and uniformly destructive. Obama has done more to harm relations between the races in this country than any other president in my lifetime, and he has managed to do it without most people even catching on.

[NOTE: Obama also uses one of his favorite words – “stuff” – in that paragraph I quoted. I wrote a post discussing how often he uses that word.]

Comments

Obama the Expert weighs in on Critical Race Theory — 59 Comments

  4. Oh, for the days when ex-presidents were silent in their post-presidential years, only to emerge for a ceremonial role or two. Those days are gone.

    Recall that pensions for the former president were instituted in 1958 as it was known that Harry Truman was cash poor. In the ceremony establishing the Medicare program, he and Bess were the 1st and 2d to sign up. The insurance came in handy for them. Richard Nixon, who had legal bills, was flayed in the media for taking $600,000 from David Frost’s production company for 29 hours of one-on-one unscripted interviews. If I’m not mistaken, that was a one-off. The practice of cashing-in on the presidency began with Gerald Ford, though not every president is equally culpable. George W. Bush was paid quite handsomely for engagements billed as confidential. By some accounts, his father was stunned at the amount of money people were willing to pay him for his speeches’

    Note: speaking fees, book royalties, and what not are often a hygienic way of saying ‘money laundering’.

  5. Obama is mendacious, among other things,

    I have a suspicion that Obama and Anthony Fauci live in a mental world where there is no truth, just what’s convenient. Point out their lies and they just think you’re trash-talking them.

  7. Critical Racists’ Theory presumes diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment), including racism, sexism, ageism, and other class-based bigotry. Americans, including people of white, do not generally exercise liberal license to indulge diversity. When they could have taken a knee, they instead stood against slavery and diversity.

    That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one. Baby Lives Matter

  8. … to say a few words in his accustomed loftily superior manner.

    That’s close to my take, but he always struck me as being on a combination of Xanax and muscle relaxant drugs, figuratively speaking. During the 2008 campaign, Obama seemed to be impossibly casual and relaxed.

    The above Obama quote has a Clintonesque flavor. Start with an almost tautological truism,

    … you can be proud of this country and its traditions and its history and our forefathers, and yet it is also true that this terrible stuff happened.

    Well, duh. Then segue into something questionable or misleading.

    The vestiges of that linger and continue.

    That might be true only because vestiges are usually small and not terribly significant. But is that why we’ve had riots and businesses burned recently?

    I thought the most outrageous Obama comment was when he said that Republicans seem to think that CRT is the most pressing issue facing America today (or words to that effect). Ha, ha, ha. (Aren’t those right wingers silly.)

  9. I might give Obama’s take a smidgen of credit were it not for the fact that those most vigorously pushing CRT are quite clear that they hate America AND everything that it stands for.

    CRT is a handy Big Tent for anti-Americans on one hand and stone cold racists on the other to come together. If they triumph, I probably won’t be around to pop a schadenboner when they turn on one another in a bloodbath of revolucion-ary proportions.

  10. A recent article on Critical Race Theory and Harvard (6-9-21):
    https://thefederalist.com/2021/06/09/critical-race-theorys-poisonous-roots-trace-back-to-harvard-university/

    I recall a huge article in the NYT Magazine in the early 1990s on Harvard Law School and Critical Legal Studies. Using Google to get better top results, “new york times magazine article on harvard law school 1990s” produced:

    1. First Black Elected to Head Harvard Law Review, NYT, February 6, 1990

    2. Harvard Law School Torn by Race Issue, NYT, April 26, 1990

    4. When Legal Titans Clash, NYT Magazine, April 22, 1990

  11. Neo – I think the problem here goes much deeper than what could be solved by just getting people to stop and think. I’m sure you know that many actually believe what Obama says here — that the real issue is about whether to acknowledge the more shameful aspects of our history and that white people in general and Republican voters in particular want to bury the truth. Remember when the media got away with framing Trump’s belated moves against CRT as banning sensitivity training?

    It’s a classic strawman, but they get away with it again and again.

  12. Art+Deco writes, “The practice of cashing-in on the presidency began with Gerald Ford, …”

    The first four ex-presidents all attempted to write books on their presidencies and autobiographies with the proviso they be published after death.

    Thomas Jefferson was the first to actually have an autobiography of sorts published.

    James Buchanan was the first ex- to have his biography published in his lifetime. It was mostly about all the people who had done him wrong or failed him.

    US Grant is probably the most famous ex-president before the modern era to publish his memoirs albeit a week after his death.

    Calvin Coolidge wrote his short autobiography that was a best seller in 1929.

    Herbert Hoover wrote “The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover – The Great Depression, 1929-1941.”

    From Dwight D. Eisenhower on to the present, except John Kennedy, every ex-president has written memoirs in their lifetimes.

    Books are a modern cash cow for modern former presidents and wannabe former presidents to profit from their time as Sun King. For some, like Truman, the book provided much needed income. For others, like Obama, publishing multiple memoirs made them multi-millionaire. It’s capitalism at its finest and worst.

  13. From Dwight D. Eisenhower on to the present, except John Kennedy, every ex-president has written memoirs in their lifetimes.

    Don’t mind that if they can reflect and write. Otherwise, sit for extensive interviews with a historian and a court stenographer. Dump the transcripts in an archive and let serious researchers peruse your raw remarks.

    The other aspects of the ex-presidency – decades of federally-supplied bodyguards, brobdingnagian speaking fees, those clownish memorials called ‘libraries’, corporate directorships, need to go away and be swept away in law if necessary.

  14. Rather remarkable how quickly the nabobs of socialization went from the absolute need to cultivate the SELF ESTEEM OF EVERY CHILD to the absolute, divinely mandated shibboleths (from which there is no escape) of “ALL WHITES ARE INNATELY RACIST” and congenital “White Fragility” (which must be inculcated in every child “from California to the NY Islands”, etc….)

    I guess “it takes a village”…of woke ignoramuses (including so-called intellectuals and shoddy elites)—to wreak havoc and destruction across the land….

  15. While it’s true that “terrible stuff happened,” I think it happened in the period 2008 through 2016. But I agree that “The vestiges of that linger and continue.”

  17. We all know why Obama was elected in 2008 as well as re-elected in 2012 despite having a horrid first term. His ultimate legacy will be the Biden presidency which will make the awful and conceited Obama seem like Teddy Roosevelt by comparison.

  18. I’ve always found Obama to be utterly insufferable whenever he opines, pontificates, and/or bloviates on just about any topic, but in particular race relations, which of course is a favorite topic of his. It’s all so predictable and tedious. He is always and endlessly using of strawmen, condescending generalizations about “white folks”, all while blending blatantly obvious truths with outright lies and unfair mischaracterizations.

    But of course there are few personality types I dislike more than the academic faculty lounge know-it-all who enjoys the sound of their own voice above all others. Such people have a special combination of ignorance and a vast overestimation of their own understanding of whatever topic they’re on about. But since they’re articulate and well mannered they greatly appeal to certain idiots.

  20. He was a terrible president in his first two terms and he continues to be a terrible president in his current term.

  21. US Grant is probably the most famous ex-president before the modern era to publish his memoirs albeit a week after his death.

    –Indigo+Red

    Grant was broke and dying of throat cancer. He wanted to leave his wife some money. Mark Twain, a friend, offered Grant a 70% royalty on his memoir.

    I recommend all Americans read the deeply moving chapter on Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender:
    _______________________________________

    When I had left camp that morning I had not expected so soon the result that was then taking place, and consequently was in rough garb. I was without a sword, as I usually was when on horseback on the field, and wore a soldier’s blouse for a coat, with the shoulder straps of my rank to indicate to the army who I was. When I went into the house I found General Lee. We greeted each other, and after shaking hands took our seats. I had my staff with me, a good portion of whom were in the room during the whole of the interview.

    What General Lee’s feelings were I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity, with an impassible face, it was impossible to say whether he felt inwardly glad that the end had finally come, or felt sad over the result, and was too manly to show it. Whatever his feelings, they were entirely concealed from my observation; but my own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I do not question, however, the sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to us.

    General Lee was dressed in a full uniform which was entirely new, and was wearing a sword of considerable value, very likely the sword which had been presented by the State of Virginia; at all events, it was an entirely different sword from the one that would ordinarily be worn in the field. In my rough traveling suit, the uniform of a private with the straps of a lieutenant-general, I must have contrasted very strangely with a man so handsomely dressed, six feet high and of faultless form. But this was not a matter that I thought of until afterwards.

    https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4367/4367-h/4367-h.htm#ch67

  22. huxley:

    And the Antifa and BLM tore down statues of U.S. Grant last summer, tells me all I need to know about them and those who apologize for them.

  24. The destruction of our culture really accelerated under Obama. Race relations especially. And let’s not forget all of that trans crap.

  25. I won’t comment on Obama directly because anything worth saying has been said; and I completely agree.

    To me, the most discouraging, I might say frightening, aspect is the quality of men that the U.S. electorate have been willing to vote into the Presidency. I know that there are many factors. Modern campaigns have become quite good at hiding frailties. Big media and big money have become dominant players. The process has become so toxic that many good men or women refuse to compete, and often the only option in the end is choosing which is the least noxious. Even so, that determination seems to be beyond the scope.

    So, for reasons that are simply inexplicable we put our faith in the likes of Carter, Clinton, Obama, and (God help us) Biden.

    I do not give Republicans a pass on putting forth flawed individuals; but, I don’t think of any in the modern era who is in the class of those four. I would actually place LBJ in the top 5; but, he was more or less thrust on the country uninvited.

  26. huxley, I rejoice at your recall of that text. I just read it last week myself, in fact – finally finishing the whole book after a few years of having let it lie at around the battles at Chattanooga.

    om, the Grant statue in particular is when Antifa made it a little bit personal for me.

    I see what Neo means, I think, in pointing out the straw-man aspect in His Majesty’s latest statement: the notion that so many white Americans supposedly reject the very idea that any of the “terrible stuff” even occurred. It’s somewhat tangential in context, I believe, but it’s there. The whole question, though, is whether, the “terrible stuff” having occurred, it necessarily follows that we must now have racially apportioned society, reparations, etc. Clearly, His Majesty takes the answer to that question for granted at this point, but will he ever sit down with an interviewer who is savvy enough to detect his subtle argumentations, highlight and challenge them? Or is he afraid? And as shown in the argumentation over what really happened at Tulsa in 1921, even the basic nature of some of the “terrible stuff” can be disputed.

    In the first part of his reign, I found that I was usually capable of giving His Majesty the benefit of the doubt when it came to interpretation of interviews such as the one quoted above. But lately, I’m afraid I find myself having greater sympathy with the more cynical view of his motives. And I will admit that the fact that an even-keel person like Neo is so distrustful of him leads me to be more open to such a thing.

    It’s too bad that we have to put all this effort into sifting His Majesty’s words when, if he would just speak directly, we could get down to business.

  27. So, for reasons that are simply inexplicable we put our faith in the likes of Carter, Clinton, Obama, and (God help us) Biden.

    One of these is not like the others. Jimmy Carter was a f/t politician for about 11 years, if that. Electoral politics was his 3d career, after the Navy and agribusiness. He was an experienced executive before he ran. He had a mess of disinterested policy positions. He also had some shortcomings, which grew increasingly evident.

  28. Like Snake Oilers everywhere Obama is an utterly empty suit. Flim Flam on steroids. And, since the American Left is blather, lies, emptiness and endless appetite, the Boy King (Vast Testicular Concavity), is perfect.

  29. When Obama was elected, I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. I voted against him in part because I thought his policies would be all wrong and in part because I thought he was a racist. He proved me right on both counts, alas. Now, my first reaction on seeing his face, hearing his voice, or reading his comments, is nausea, and the second is anger over the massive damage he helped inflict on the country.

  30. Oldflyer,

    Carter turned out to be an ineffective President, but, as a candidate, qualifications-wise, he is one of the best, on paper, in the past 50 years, or so.

    Graduate of U.S. Naval Academy (top 1/4 of his class?)
    Educated in nuclear engineering
    Senator of one of the larger states in the Union.
    Governor of one of the larger states in the Union.
    Successful farmer and businessman.
    Decent orator. Telegenic.

  31. Obama has done more to harm relations between the races in this country than any other president in my lifetime, and he has managed to do it without most people even catching on.

    I am glad you addressed this interview. I agree with your points 100%.

    As someone who, in the beginning, really liked Obama, I have caught on to his mendacious persona. It was predictable that he went on his rounds of interviews and attempted his ‘charm’ offensive. What ever he had, he has lost. He has morphed into a racist fool and he is behind, if maybe, managing the former Vice President. Not shocking, but disgusting as a used car salesman. It explains why so many people who voted for Obama turned around and voted for Trump. His mask came off.

  32. “To me, the most discouraging, I might say frightening, aspect is the quality of men that the U.S. electorate have been willing to vote into the Presidency.”

    Female Suffrage, Black Civil Rights, Insane amounts of immigration both legal and Illegal, and the slow-motion multi-century death of Christianity as a Given all play their parts.

    But remove the female vote from every election they have participated in this Century and I think you’d be seeing a better class of presidential candidate — especially since Television became ubiquitous.

  33. Zaphod,

    I once made a similar claim regarding the effect of women’s suffrage on the Presidential elections of the past, 100 years and Neo took me to the woodshed. With accurate data.

  35. Rufus, I do have female friends in the Right who very much agree with Zaphod.

    But then, one in particular studied military history before the law — not a combination of intellectual influences much exhibited by the typical woman.

  36. Some on the left, mostly feminists, complained that it was white women who elected Trump in 2016.

    In blues and jazz, the woodshed is where ambitious musicians go to perfect their chops.

  37. If it’s Blues and Jazz Edumacation, a Talented Tutelary Woodpile Deity is just the ticket. One can’t be too doctrinaire.

  38. Thank you Huxley for reminding us that General Lee was not the monster that the left wishes to make him. Ken Burns made an excellent series about the Civil War that documented historically the people and events that occurred during a very complex time. Learning about the Civil War helps explain the USA. Unfortunately, nuances and complexities are too difficult for for the left or extreme right in this day in age.

  39. Art Deco and Rufus do not agree with my assessment of Carter as a candidate.

    Hmm.
    Finished in top 1/4 of Academy class. No leadership positions in the Brigade. (BTW, he successfully avoided the draft, having become eligible in October 1942)

    Served a total of 7 years in the post-war Navy. Three in submarines and the rest in schools, or on Tender type ships.

    Resigned as a Lieutenant to run the family business after his father died. Some would laud that.

    Did not complete nuclear power school before resigning.

    Took over a successful local business from his father, and apparently ran it well enough.

    Was a STATE senator for 2 two year terms following the lead of his father who had been elected to the Georgia legislature before he died.

    Was a one term Governor of Georgia. Ran on a ticket that appealed to segregationists, then shocked them by doing a complete flip-flop after he was elected.

    I am unaware of any particular accomplishments as Governor.

    So, Carter does not rise to, or rather sink to, the level of Clinton for sleaze; Obama for total lack of qualifications; Biden for any number of reasons. On the other hand, I choose to leave him in the category of avoidable mistakes. He was elected in the aftermath of the Nixon debacle; and during the national hangover from Vietnam. It did not take too long for the country to experience buyer’s remorse.

  40. JHCorcoran:

    Thank you!

    I’ve forgotten what blogger nudged me to look at Grant’s memoir. It was such a gift.

    Once upon a time, America had politicians (politicians!) who could speak plainly and to the best in people. JFK (for all his faults) and Reagan seem to have been the last of those.

    I’ve come around to Trump, but still wish he wasn’t such a loose cannon when his mouth was open.

  41. Carter cannot have been any kind of moron if Hyman Rickover didn’t have him out the door on his ass stat. But character and judgement are separate issues.

    With regard to Carter’s great character flaw, Devious Levanter, Nassim Taleb in one of his books pointed out that the way to bribe an Ostentatiously Honest Man is to offer him up opportunities to display his rectitude to the masses. I find it hard to believe that Carter didn’t Take the Ticket on that one more than once either during or post his Presidential Term.

  42. Haven’t read all the comments. Excuse me if this repeats someone else’s opinion of Obama.

    Obama was mentored by Frank Marshall Davis, an avowed Marxist. In his biography Obama made the decision to turn his back on his white side and try to be authentically black. He was an avowed Marxist while at Occidental and no doubt while at Columbia (a hotbed of Marxist thinking.) His friendship with another Marxist, Bill Ayers, is another clue. All these things point to the fact that he has been and remains a Marxist. CRT is a Marxist ploy to divide the USA into the oppressed and oppressors – Chinese cultural revolution style. He knows it, he’s on board with it, and he plans to be a member of the Central Committee when the Marxists take over. He has always been very good at disguising his true colors, but the mask slips often enough that anyone paying attention can see him for what he is.

  43. It gets worse given that Frank Marshall Davis was a creepy pederast homo and there’s a distinctly Bearded Vibe about Michelle.

    In a sane society with just the right leavening of Hygienic Bigotry (Yes, Virginia…) vermin like Obama wouldn’t get a leg up from the Axelrods and Pritzkers (for it was so) of this world to lord it over normal decent folks… Even normal indecent folks deserve better for that matter.

  44. Huxley,

    I am grateful for Grant. He created the first National Park and Teddy Roosevelt took this idea to an amazing level!

    We need the plain speaking of the Mike Mansfields and Patrick Moynihans in Congress. The best President’s loved the country and it’s people. Also, they knew how to govern. Maybe a DeSantis?

  45. “Maybe a DeSantis?”

    So Grant held a Cabinet meeting from Israel just like DeSantis? And was more interested in prohibiting Anti-Semitism than in protecting your kids from Drag Queen Story Hour? No wonder the man was invincible 😀

    https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/741/BillText/er/PDF

    Instead of sending them all your politicians, can’t you just dig up Sherman and send him to help out your Greatest Ally? Just let them get the whole damn ME thing sorted out scorched-earth-wise and then everyone can forget about the place and get on with life.

  46. “…this terrible stuff happened….”

    “…Which is why we, as a country, MUST institute MORE ‘terrible stuff’ (in K-12, all institutions of “higher” learning, the military and private enterprise, etc., etc., etc.)…. Which is why we, as a country, must—for love of that country—destroy ourselves….

    “Simply because the ONLY way—the ONLY SENSIBLE way, the ONLY MORAL way, the ONLY DIGNIFIED way, the ONLY HONEST way—to get rid of “terrible stuff” is with MORE, MUCH MORE ‘terrible stuff’.

    (Remember, suffering is ennobling…it’s GOOD for ye’!! Trust me!!!)

    File under: Purge back better. (IOW, Vengeance! sayeth our elites and moral lords.)

  47. BTW, all those who moan and bemoan and ask HOW the country COULD HAVE elected someone like “Biden”, know ye’ and know ye’ well (though I’m sure that this reminder is getting tiresome if not irksome…) that the American People did NOT elect him.

    That he was NOT elected.

    That he is sitting in the Oval Office simply because of massive, widespread fraud. Extravagant fraud. Exquisite fraud. Clever, cunning, creative fraud. But fraud nonetheless.

    (Can’t say this helps all that much in the current circumstances…but this knee-jerk blaming of the American People is simply wrong.)

    There. I said it. Again. (One is allowed, of course(!), to disagree!)

  48. BTW (part 2), we have got to find a way to get those magic mushrooms out of, or far away from, that woodshed. (Probably shouldn’t recommend Roundup(TM). Build a skylight, maybe. Or just pave over the darn thing…)

  51. Autistic of me, I know… but does Roundup even work on a Fun Guy like me?

    As for the poetry, be nice to lock those delicate flowers up in a padded cell and pipe in Gehazi and Gunga Din until their eyeballs popped out.

  52. Funny you should ask. I was actually referring to the mushrooms.

    Oh, wait. You’re not saying…, can it be…, did you mean to say…”Fungus Guy”?

    Gosh, in that case, I really have no idea if it works. Maybe? Somewhat? A bit?

    Bayerly?

    Not that I’d try it, myself, but YMMV…

  53. Not being very grammatical… cf. old joke about Why did the Mushroom go to the party? Because he was a Fun Guy!

  54. It gets worse given that Frank Marshall Davis was a creepy pederast homo and

    ‘pederast homo’ contains a redundancy.

    Davis was married twice and had five children. His 2d wife was 19 years his junior. He was past 70 when Obama knew him.

    there’s a distinctly Bearded Vibe about Michelle.

    Not outside the breezy space between your ears.

  56. In the Art+Deco School of Rhetoric (fl. AD2021-?) Tautology was frowned upon. So was Rhetoric for that matter. A Most Subtle and Zen-like Sage there never was before nor ever after.

  59. Ditto on that, Barry. And wasn’t Frank Marshall David more hebephile than pedo? Allegedly a female in her middle teens? Back in the 1940s when early marriages and the young giving birth early in life much more common?

    No breaks given by our side’s Kapo’s.

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