Some will object to the use of the word Nigger in the title of this post but it is there for two reasons. First, its use is germane to this piece and its conclusions about some views of Barack Obama's performance as President of the United States of America. Secondly, it ignores the pretense that the word isn't prolific in conservations all over America.
My friend Craig was a Negro Child of the 40s and 50s and a Black Product of the 60s and 70s. He did not grow up an angry kid; desegregation made him that way. How? All his young life he had been taught that white people were very smart and that black people had to work extra hard and be super smart black boys and girsl just to compete with even the worse of them. And so he, like a lot of other Negroes, watched with awe and admiration as a few "First Negroes" emerged and were given the chance to compete against superb white talent and white mediocrity. And it motivated many young blacks of his generation to excel at something even if it meant that, because of racism, they might never got a chance to show it.
Of course, the reality of a young intelligent black mind observing the behavior and speech of white people in a small southern town, debunked much of what he had been taught about the intellligence of white people. But the approaching world of desegregation in politics, business, public schools, colleges, and universities loomed before him ready to expose what he had been taught were his inherent black weaknesses. So he approached desegregation with some degree of apprehension about his abilities to compete with the educated people of the "superior race".
But desegregation lifted the cloak of apprehension that had been created by a lie and replaced it with anger. He acknowledge that he met many smart white people. And even admits that some were smarter and more accomplish than he. Of course he had met black people who fit that same description. That wasn't what made him angry. What made him angry was "The Lie". He met too many white professionals, some in important positions, who "were not as smart as (him); "and some who were outright dumb."
And yet he was forced to either accept the fact that even though he was acknowledged as being a "bright young man" by his white superiors and and that he got his training and degrees from the same universities his white counterpart got their degrees, for some reason they wanted him to participate in a "special program for Blacks" if he wanted to move up in the organization.
It was an insult he could not accept. And so he watched whites with less abilities and talent be promoted. And he watched and listened to the media rants about unqualified blacks being promoted under Affirmative Action, however true some of that was. Promoting "unqualified blacks" under the guise of affirmative action was a transparent ploy that, "every competent black person who was passed over could readily see". Hiring "unqualified blacks" was being used by some racist administrators to guarantee failure. It allowed them to say with conviction: "See, affirmative action is a failure. We told you, they couldn't do the job" and by transfer cast the same label on every other black person, whether guilty or not.
So even though Craig had lived most of his life hearing over and over the ludicrous notion that blacks were not qualified to be policemen, firemen, coaches, quarterbacks, bus drivers, airline pilots, teachers of white children, and university students, among other ludicrous notions. There was a flaw in the system. The flaw was the Super Nigger; niggers so talented that even racists couldn't ignore or deny them.
They might not let them live in their neighborhoods or join their clubs, but they would acknowledge their skill set and even accept them if they lived up to expectations and didn't disappoint. But sometimes the bar was set too high for these Super Niggers. They couldn't be just as good as their white counter-parts; they had to be better. And that part of Craig's childhood lessons rang true anyway.
Such is the situation in which President Barack Obama finds himself. When he became president, Mr Obama was expected to be a miracle worker, a Magic Negro, or, if you will, a Super Nigger. Even with die-hard conservative Republicans in the House and Senate actively engaged in obstructionist behavior because they wanted "Obama to fail, even if it means America fails", many Americans who claimed they liked President Obama were disappointed that he did not perform the miracles of a true Super Nigger.
While the countdown on his accomplishments began with the first "100 days" of his presidency, President Obama was expected within 2 or 3 years to dig America out of a hole that it took a Republican administration eight years to create. No president white or black, Republican or Democrat, even with a cooperative congress, could have accomplished that. Expecting him to do it with an obstructionist congress rife with rhetoric, policies and stonewalling behavior bodering on sedition and treason is ludicrous. Still, in spite of all that, Mr Obama has accomplished a lot. But he isn't judged on what he did, he is judged on what conservative obstructionists did not permit him to do. Such is the fate of a Super Nigger.
And the ire of thinking Americans will be worse than Craig's if America decides to put back in the White House the obstructionists who got us into this mess in the first place.