Racism on SodaHead

The entire vacation brouhaha is a tempest in a teapot. Such ridiculous criticism reflects the desperation of Obama opponents. Such critics ("haters"?) may be frustrated Birthers, eager to pelt the POTUS with whatever imaginary offenses they can find. Next they may criticize him for pronouncing "often" with or without the "t" sound.

The United States has a sordid history double standards for minorities, above and beyond the standards demanded of more favored citizens. This was a common tactic in our history of repression:

[QUOTE]
To former abolitionists and to the Radical Republicans in Congress who fashioned Reconstruction after the Civil War, the 15th amendment, enacted in 1870, appeared to signify the fulfillment of all promises to African Americans. Set free by the 13th amendment, with citizenship guaranteed by the 14th amendment, black males were given the vote by the 15th amendment. From that point on, the freedmen were generally expected to fend for themselves. In retrospect, it can be seen that the 15th amendment was in reality only the beginning of a struggle for equality that would continue for more than a century before African Americans could begin to participate fully in American public and civic life.

African Americans exercised the franchise and held office in many Southern states through the 1880s, but in the early 1890s, steps were taken to ensure subsequent “white supremacy.” Literacy tests for the vote, “grandfather clauses” excluding from the franchise all whose ancestors had not voted in the 1860s, and other devices to disenfranchise African Americans were written into the constitutions of former Confederate states. Social and economic segregation were added to black America’s loss of political power. In 1896 the Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson legalized “separate but equal” facilities for the races. For more than 50 years, the overwhelming majority of African American citizens were reduced to second-class citizenship under the “Jim Crow” segregation system. During that time, African Americans sought to secure their rights and improve their position through organizations such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League and through the individual efforts of reformers like Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and A. Philip Randolph.


(Information excerpted from Milestone Documents [Washington, DC: The National Archives and Records Administration, 1995] pp. 61-63.)
[END QUOTE]
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/...

Details of these political barriers are widely available. For example:

"From 1890 to 1908, ten of the eleven former Confederate states completed political suppression by ratifying new constitutions or amendments which incorporated provisions to disfranchise blacks and poor whites. These included such methods as a poll tax, record keeping, timing of registration in relation to elections, felony disenfranchisement focusing on crimes thought to be committed by African Americans,[19] complex residency requirements, and a literacy test. Focusing on both blacks and poor whites ensured that there would be no coalition between them as had arisen in the elections of 1894, when Populist-Republican tickets wrested power away from Democrats. Prospective voters had to prove the ability to read and write the English language to white voter registrars, who in practice used subjective requirements. Blacks were often denied the right to vote on this basis. Even literate blacks were often told they had "failed" such a test, if in fact, it had been administered. On the other hand, illiterate whites were sometimes allowed to vote through a "grandfather clause" which waived literacy requirements if one's grandfather had been a qualified voter before 1866, or had served as a soldier, or was from a foreign country. As most blacks had grandfathers who were slaves before 1866, they could not use the grandfather clause exemption. Selective enforcement of the poll tax was frequently also used to disqualify black and poor white voters."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...


The "Birther" campaign is reminiscent of these double standards, wherein minorities had to meet standards that did not apply to majority group members. The FACT that his short form was accurate and legally sufficient was ignored by those spreading Birther propaganda. The FACT that most Republicans doubted his short form, although it constituted irrefutable evidence according to Federal standards, illustrates the power of the Conservative Disinformation Network. (see http://kaleokualoha2878577.ne...

The FACT that he met federal BC standards for Natural Born Citizens, yet Birthers are still in complete denial, indicates that his origin is not the underlying issue. The FACT that Birthers continue to grasp at such straws (despite unequivocal confirmation of Obama's Natural Born Citizen status by the State of Hawaii), in conjunction with the FACT that political double standards have historically been imposed on minority group members to suppress their political aspirations in America, strongly suggests that Birthers (and other critics) may have ulterior motives and a hidden agenda.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"
- George Santayana