Monday, May 02, 2011

Contemplation of the Birther Paradigm

As much as I don't want to make this a racial issue, I cannot help but notice that a lot of the objections to the Presidency of Barack Obama sound just like the descriptions, considerations, perceptions and applications ascribed to black folk in the days of slavery, Jim Crow and Segregation. I mean, what is the whole deal about President Obama's birth certificate? From the time he announced his aspiration to run for President to now, folk have demanded that President Obama show his birth certificate to prove his citizenship.

And in a move to end all the speculation and perhaps in response to Donald Trumps tirades of late, the President provided the nation and indeed the world with the document that proves that he is, in fact, an American.

So.. President Obama had to show his papers in order to pass, play and politic.

Kind of like the days when Slaves were out and off the plantation... If they were seemingly out of place they would have to show papers... to prove they belonged.

Kind of like in the Jim Crow south when Folk had to show proper "papers" in order to vote.... to show they belonged.

Kind of like in Apartheid South Africa, black folk had to show papers in order to move about.... to show they belonged.

To not have your papers in order had dire consequences....


And now we are learning that even though he has demonstrated his citizenship, the "birthers" are not over the subject. They are pressing in the courts, that the displayed birth certificate is a forgery. What????

Seemingly black folk always have to qualify ourselves.. We have to validate ourselves.. It matters not your station in life... It matters not the struggle and battle you fought to get where you are... You will still have to show your "papers"....

The more things change, the more they stay the same...