Perplex

Ok. I'm admit to being a little perplexed by this latest development.

On July 16, a multicultural police response investigated a report of a break in at Henry Louis Gates' house. According to the police report, Mr. Gates accused the police of harassing him based on his skin color. The confrontation moved out of the house and ultimately resulted in Mr. Gates' arrest for disorderly conduct. Six days later, President Obama said that the police acted
"stupidly".

Meanwhile...

On August 6 at a public forum wherein President Obama's health care reform was being discussed, a man by the name of Gladney was physically assaulted by a multicultural group of union affiliated event organizers. According to the video footage of the incident and Mr. Gladneys attorney, Gladney was at the event passing out flags and buttons when he was approached by another black man, called a "nigger" and subsequently assaulted by 2-4 assailants. Two were arrested and a third ran before police responded. Although it has not yet been six days like last time, I am worried because President Obama has not yet denounced this racially charged incident.

I must abmit to entertaining miniscule, lingering doubts about whether or not He (Obama) is being as post-racial and post-partisan as I was told. However, those doubts could easily be assuaged by President Obama if he would clarify some points:

• In the first incident, the arresting officer did not use racial epithets of any kind, whereas the man alleged he was being harrassed for being black. President Obama said the police acted "stupidly" in this case. In the second incident, the man had racial epithets directed at him and he was physically assaulted. President Obama has not commented. Does this mean that it is okay now to say "nigger" if you're committing a crime?
• Does President Obama's silence regarding the second incident validate neocon allegations that He is both racist and anti-capitalist insofar as He, through silent consent agrees that young, black entrepreneurs should be beaten in the streets?
• IF President Obamas silence is in fact motivated by political considerations, specifically that the victim in the second case may have been a "conservative" (the evil sibling of the neocon phenomenon), then is the dream that "all men be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character" made obsolete by a new political reality that "all men be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their political orientation"? Or, to ask the same another way, does President Obama believe that a conservative man can be black?

I really need Presidnet Obama to answer these questions soon. Maybe he could arrange something with the television people to do something on TV like a national discussion on race. Thats a radical idea that hasn't been tried yet.