mikey1597 wrote:What bothers me about the whole thing is that it seems that instead of doing something to solve the problem of racism he perpetuates it. He is suppose to be the leader of the U.S. and should lead by example but that's usually not the case with his actions.
I don't know. Obviously, we'd all love for it to be "solved", but that means really different things to different people.
I'd argue that given his historic position (the first black american president) he's done a decent job of balancing. There are groups who think it's his job to weigh in as a black man on almost every racial issue in the US. Notice, he's only commented on a handful of them over 6+ years of being in office. He's in a challenging position from that angle.
Hell, look what happens when he makes a pretty innocuous comment... people throw a fit, it becomes a news story, some groups are clearly now upset... it's amazing to me because it's a trivial statement acknowledging that at some time in his life he was treated differently because he was black.... he's not really complaining... he's president of the USA. He's just acknowledging it... Imagine what an outcry there would be if he said something substantive about race.
I certainly don't see how he's "perpetuated" racism.... maybe you see some actions, but none have struck me as doing so.