Obama got himself into a spot of trouble last week. It was a week which ended with a chat over a beer or two. The American president said in taking his friend Professor Gates into custody police had “acted stupidly.” The political fire storm created by his comment and by Gates’s arrest (while trying to get into his own house) has been illuminating.
Firstly, the approval ratings of America’s first black president have fallen to the lowest readings to date in his presidency. The dip most probably begun before the Gates’ arrest but one poll found that 41 percent of people asked disapproved of the way Obama handled Gates’ arrest.
Secondly, the American “wing-nuts”, those crazy guys with crazy things to say, have been having a field day. Let it all out. All that pent up anger, resentment and racism, let everybody know about it. Go guys! Mad and bad public statements on race are always good for a country with lingering racial tension.
One police officer, in an email, described scholar Gates as a “banana-eating jungle monkey”. Another “wing-nut”, the commentator Glenn Beck, said on national television that the first black American president has exposed himself as a person with “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.” Defending his opinion, Beck explained that “I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people. He has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist.”
This racial furor exploded at a time when the “birthers” seem to have been on the loose again. The “birthers”, that group of fringe conservatives, or “wing-nuts”, oppose, not politely, the idea of a black man as their president and are challenging Obama’s eligibility for the presidency on the crazy and incorrect belief that he wasn’t born in the US.
We’ve had our fair share of “wing-nut” statements too. Just a few short months ago, the young Ju-Ju Malema spewed one of his gems when he said that Helen Zille, “the racist little girl, must remember that Zuma is her boss… (she) must give report to Zuma about the Western Cape … the racist girl has not won … all of them must call President Zuma, president.”
Such thoughtful words can’t be good for delicate racial relations.

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