The anguish of the United States of America was brought out in one word used by Barack Obama. It is a word no modern US President has uttered in public in a long time. In giving vent to his tormented feelings on the racial divide in his country, Mr Obama was probably only making public his angst, but his use of the word “nigger” in a podcast sparked a US-wide uproar.
As a President with about a year and a half to run in his second term, Mr Obama was not so much seeking votes for the Democrats as being philosophical about race relations. As the first black man to be President, his very presence in the White House has been a unique counterpoint to racial divisions unhealed since Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery on January 1, 1863.
The attack on a black church in Charleston, once a Confederate hotbed, may have been an aberration carried out by a racist. But it has to be seen against a series of events in which race was clearly a factor — as in police action against the blacks and other minorities being completely different from the more acceptable behaviour when tackling whites.
No wonder Mr Obama said of racism, “We’re not cured of it,” and adding, “And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not.” A retiring President can afford to take up such issues. If it helps make the “haves” think about the “have nots”, then Mr Obama has achieved something.
