Racism in US: Barack Obama seeks to kill debate

White House suggests Jimmy Carter and Maureen Dowd are wrong to blame racism for recent attacks on America's first black president

LAST UPDATED 9:10 AM, SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

The White House has sought to put a stop to the conjecture that a wave of racism is to blame for the difficulties President Barack Obama is having selling his health care and spending plans to the American people. Press secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday that Obama "does not believe that the criticism comes based on the colour of his skin".

Gibbs continued: "We understand that people have disagreements with some of the decisions that we've made and some of the extraordinary actions that had to be undertaken by this administration."

Obama's team was responding to comments made this week by former President Jimmy Carter who said the vitriol directed against Obama was "based on racism" and a column by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times which suggested the same thing.

Carter was referring to the controversial interjection by Republican Joe Wilson during Obama's recent address to Congress - when the South Carolina representative shouted out "You lie!" - and to recent incidents at public meetings where some people have accused Obama of "tyranny" and promised to "reclaim America".

"Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national programme on healthcare," Carter told a meeting in Atlanta.

Carter's comments followed a Maureen Dowd column in which she said the most telling aspect of Wilson's intervention was what he didn't say. She wrote: "What I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"

Other commentators are divided. The Daily Telegraph's right-wing blogs editor Damian Thompson called Dowd a "nasty piece of work" and said her insinuation in the "Obama-worshipping" New York Times was "outrageous".

The BBC's Kevin Connolly wrote today: "It does not really matter whether Joe Wilson is really a racist or not. Whatever his motives, his words are a brutal reminder that the election of Barack Obama did not usher in a new age of post-racial politics in the US if anyone was naive enough to think that it might."

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Of course Maureen Dowd and President Carter were right in their summation that the outburst by Joe Wilson (now a hero in the eyes of many rednecks and a few others) was racist in its intent. As ineffective and sometimes downright bad as George Bush was, did anyone ever, even when we knew he was being very economical with the truth, (Iraq springs to mind) dare to call him a liar to his face? President Obama has a real dilemma on his hands, apart from the vitriol being spewed at him from so many directions. Should he make the race thing an issue or let other people take it up on his behalf? Perhaps the latter is the wiser course. This is a president who is truly representative of America, the first one ever, Americans voted for him in a colourless way. He inherited a mine field of problems which he needs to solve to help the hundreds of millions of suffering Americans, the race debate will have to be conducted by others not so burdened.There is no doubt that racism has reared its ugliest head so far in this society. A retrogressive step to many dismayed people everywhere.

Posted by Yolande Agble at 5:35pm on September 18, 2009