{"id":35679,"date":"2011-04-28T10:59:28","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T15:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=35679"},"modified":"2013-11-11T03:19:35","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T08:19:35","slug":"understanding-the-demand-for-obamas-birth-certificate-the-history-and-psychology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/04\/28\/understanding-the-demand-for-obamas-birth-certificate-the-history-and-psychology\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Demand for Obama’s Birth Certificate Hurts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nI invite you to spend seven minutes listening to Baratunde Thurston<\/a> explaining what, exactly, is wrong with the fact that Barack Obama was hounded into releasing his long form birth certificate. \u00a0He does a wonderful job of historicizing the requirement that Obama prove that he is an American (to a man such as Donald Trump), at the same time that he explains why this questioning of Obama’s citizenship is deeply hurtful to all Black Americans and their allies.<\/p>\n

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Via BoingBoing<\/a>. \u00a0Transcript after the jump (via Racialicious<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a very difficult morning for me. Got the news that President Obama released his long-form birth certificate due to the increasing media circus surrounding claims that he is not one of us. That he is not an American. And it comes at a very interesting time for many reasons, one of which is, it\u2019s April 27 2011 and this just happened. So that\u2019s really interesting to me. Also because I\u2019m reading, right now, a book by Manning Marable called Malcolm X a life of reinvention and he unearths a lot of amazing detail and correspondence around this exceptional American. But through this book you also get a window into the civil rights movement throughout this country\u2019s history \u2013 especially the 40s 50s and 60s and you are reminded if you read this book or see a documentary special or know anything about the complete history of the United States, you\u2019re reminded of the extraordinary level of sacrifice that has been involved in allowing all Americans to exist as, be treated as, participate as Americans. To be that which they are took a lot of work. A lot of tears, a lot of pain, a lot of death.<\/p>\n

There were people who dropped out of their ordinary lives, sacrificed their personal safety, their reputation, their ability to earn money, to intervene on behalf of those who they also saw as American. They got on buses and Freedom Rides. They sat in, they died in waves and waves of domestic terrorism so that someone like me could go to a voting booth and not be asked by some racist poll worker to pay a tax or prove that my grandfather wasn\u2019t a slave or pass a literacy test that got increasingly difficult the more I passed it. And today, the President of the United States had to prove that he was an American, to the satisfaction of the 75 percent of Iowa republicans who doubt that or the 43 percent of National Republicans who believe that or the one heinous low-class individual who took credit for it after: Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

A man who was given every advantage \u2013 who inherited millions and lost it all twice but had that opportunity because no one\u2019s ever had to ask him to prove anything. A man who lacks intelligence, compassion, common sense, respect, decency, or an understanding of WHAT THE FUCK it means to be an American that he would come out moments after the President of the United States \u2013 and I stress that: the President \u2013 released his long-form birth certificate \u2013 and Donald Trump comes out moments later and says, \u201cI\u2019m really proud of myself \u2013 but it shouldn\u2019t have taken so long. I wanna see the birth certificate for myself. I want to test it for authenticity. I don\u2019t want the press asking me about birth certificates anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

I find it hard to summarize in mere words the amount of pain and rage this incident has caused. It\u2019s humiliating \u2013 not just to Barack Obama, not just to the office of the President, not just to Black Americans who died and those who supported our quest for freedom. It\u2019s embarrassing to the entire nation that we would sit and let this nation. We have all been debased by this incident. By a charlatan, by a con man, by a mere promoter of himself. And for him to take credit for this, and for him to revel in it, and yet not be satisfied makes him no better than a Klansman. No better than a Bull Connor. No better than an anonymous, privileged white man in the 1950s who, regardless of his position in society, knew his position was higher than that of a common nigger. And that is what the fuck Donald Trump has done to the President of the United States. To the office of the President of the United States. To me. And to you.<\/p>\n

I am disgusted. I have cried, because I know my own ancestors paid a very high price, and never would have imagined that we might have the President that we do, but certainly, part of their joy in the ancestral, celestial skies right now has been greatly diminished by what has happened here today. I hope that eventually, not just in the post-mortal world of karma and spiritual justice, Mr. Trump pays an exceptional price. I hope that price comes during his life. To then be able to walk around, a super-free, super-white, super-privileged man lording over all who would pay attention \u2013 which is far too many \u2013 at what you have done has got to cost you something in this life, as well.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t wanna hear about The Apprentice. I don\u2019t wanna hear about your new cologne. I don\u2019t wanna hear about the new tower you\u2019re building in whatever fuckin\u2019 town. That cologne smells of racism. That tower is built on the blood of disrespected slaves and freedom fighters, and that show is merely a showcase for the dishonor you have brought among anyone who would call themselves an American.<\/p>\n

My name is Baratunde Thurston. I\u2019m heartbroken over this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I invite you to spend seven minutes listening to Baratunde Thurston explaining what, exactly, is wrong with the fact that Barack Obama was hounded into releasing his long form birth certificate. \u00a0He does a wonderful job of historicizing the requirement that Obama prove that he is an American (to a man such as Donald Trump), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[253,2125,85,283,675,285,1760,1757],"class_list":["post-35679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-history","tag-immigrationcitizenship","tag-politics","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-psychology","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-blacksafricans","tag-raceethnicity-whiteseuropeans"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35679"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58895,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35679\/revisions\/58895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}