Ta-Nehisi Coates on Barack Obama and Shirley Sherrod:
More disturbingly, this is what happens when you treat the arrest of a black man, in his home, as something that can be fixed over beers. This is what happens when you silently ascent to the notion that racism and its victims are somehow equally wrong. The ground, itself, is rigged with a narrative of inversion that goes back centuries. When you treat the two side as equals, expect not just more of the same. Expect worse.
I agree. The administration’s behavior on Sherrod was disgraceful, but I’d also argue that this is also what happens when you expect the president of the United States to teach national college seminar on race while running the country, just because he happens to be black. Obama isn’t here to save any of us, that’s just not his job, and it’s somewhat baffling that we’ve expected him to do it. The man has to get elected in a country that is mostly white, and that incentive overrides any others he might have about speaking about race in any way that might make white people uncomfortable with him. The same goes for any other politician.
