Jimmy Carter says attacks on Obama are ‘racist’

Former president claims Joe Wilson’s outburst in the House of Representatives shows America is struggling to accept a black leader

LAST UPDATED 1:30 PM, SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

Former US president Jimmy Carter has added his voice to the groundswell of opinion that President Barack Obama is suffering a racist backlash less than a year into his term. The former Democrat leader said that Republican Representative Joe Wilson's outburst last week during Obama's healthcare speech to Congress was an act "based on racism" and rooted in fears of a black president.

In an interview with NBC's Brian Williams, Carter said the issue of race had informed much of the conservative opposition to Obama's programme. "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man," he said.

Carter, who comes from the southern state of Georgia, added that there was still a "belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country."

Carter said Wilson's intervention in the House of Representatives when he heckled Obama – shouting out "You lie" – was not sparked by the healthcare debate. "It's deeper than that," he said.

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd seems to agree with Carter's analysis. She believes the most telling aspect of Wilson's intervention was what he didn't say: "What I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"

Using the term 'boy' in America is tantamount to a direct racial insult - it was the word plantation owners used to address black slaves. In 2008 Republican Kentucky congressman Geoff Davis was forced to write a letter of apology to Obama for referring to him as "that boy" at a fundraising dinner.

Dowd added: "Wilson's shocking disrespect for the office of the president... convinced me: Some people just can't believe a black man is president and will never accept it."

The House of Representatives themselves have acted swiftly against Wilson, voting to rebuke him for a "breach of decorum" after he took issue with Obama's assertion that illegal immigrants would not be eligible for federal subsidies to buy health coverage under his reform plans.

And it gets worse for Wilson: not only has he been condemned for his outburst, it also seems he was wrong. Experts concur that Obama's reform package would not allow illegal immigrants to claim healthcare subsidies.

However Wilson does have his supporters, his eldest son Alan Wilson has leapt to the defence of his father saying: "There is not a racist bone in my dad's body."

LAST UPDATED 1:30 PM, SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

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A desperate and dishonest diversionary tactic. Just as everyone is waking up to the fact that Obama, as predicted, is a dead loss, criticism is branded as 'racist' by the Democrat faithful, so off limits. Even cartoonists and comedians in USA are not sure how to portray Obama to avoid the 'racist' charge. We all have to tiptoe around now. "Some people just can't believe a black man is president". Quite so - he's not black: he's a mulatto, and as much white as he is black. Why not call him a white president? Just because he has some black blood in him, isn't it racist to call him black? When Obama was born his mother was a white US citizen with mainly English ancestry, and his father was a black British citizen from Kenya. Exactly what race is a man if he has a white Caucasian mother and a black African father? Obama had practically no contact with his father all his life and was raised by his white mother (and his white grandparents), who, on his own admission, was the main formative influence on him. He's neither black nor an Afro-American: get over it.

Posted by Kevin McGrane at 2:59pm on September 16, 2009

Get this through your head, it's the DEMOCRATIC Party, not the Democrat Party. Get this through your head, most white Americans are afraid of black Americans (and vice versa). Out of fear of 'the other' comes racism (or xenophobia). Get this through your head, no matter how mild that racism may be, it allows people to be easily swayed toward a malicious voice. Get this through your head, put that voice in the nasty hands of a party grasping for power and you beget Rush Limbrut, Glen Dreck, the 'Pee Party' movement, the Birther Jerks and other distractions. You know, anything to prevent the President from governing. All old tricks, most ignored except the wearing of firearms to town hall meetings (by the by, a privilege not granted in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights and clearly against the law). So, get this through your head, PRESIDENT OBAMA is not African-American (not born in Africa) or a mulatto (a 19th century racist term if I ever heard one), he's an America Man. Get it, got it, GOOD!

Posted by Midyola at 2:43pm on September 17, 2009

No-one mentioned the Party, get-this-through-your-head-Midyola. We were talking about Democrats - those who faithfully support the Democratic Party. Oh, and by the way, in another comment you made about Sarah Palin's alleged hypocrisy, you said that "she's grandma to a bastard". The word that means the offspring of unmarried parents, and carries all sorts of negative overtones, is OK for YOU to use when speaking about a family of Republicans, but the precise term for a child who is the offspring of a black African and a white Caucasian (a mulatto - look it up in the dictionary) is somehow "racist" when speaking of Democrats. More than a whiff of hypocrisy with you. As for wearing of firearms being "clearly against the law", that's ignorance. If you think otherwise, why not try to take legal action against those who bear arms and see how far that gets you? Utah state law, for instance, states that "Unless specifically authorized by the Legislature by statute, a local authority or state entity may not enact, establish, or enforce any ordinance, regulation, rule, or policy pertaining to firearms that in any way inhibits or restricts the possession or use of firearms on either public or private property." Thus schools cannot even prevent carrying of firearms in Utah.

Posted by Kevin McGrane at 5:54pm on September 17, 2009

WOW! I've got a really attentive international fan club. Jimmy Carter is correct and you just proved it. This whole issue is a non-issue. Race, color (yes, race and color are two different things, Kevin) or creed should make no difference in the great melting pot of America. Kev, you are such a card!

Posted by Midyola at 10:48pm on September 17, 2009