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Obama racial stereotypes, falsehoods flourish
By LIZ SIDOTI – 10 hours ago
Disproved and disputed claims about his religion and citizenship, namely untruths that Obama is a Muslim and isn't U.S.-born, zip across chat rooms and dominate the blogosphere. Fringe critics largely are responsible for perpetuating the lies, but even elected officials have raised them.
All that underscores how the accomplishment of one man who broke the highest racial barrier hasn't entirely changed the dynamic of a country founded by slave owners. It also shows how far the nation has to go to bridge its centuries-old racial divide. In truth, Obama probably will continue to be dogged to some degree by entrenched stereotypes and viral fallacies.
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_An e-mail apparently in wide circulation refers to the biracial Obama as XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx [FreedomFirst is editing out something in the AP article itself which is regarded, first of all, as distasteful by FreedomFirst and, secondly, as an obvious attempt by a biased reporter to conflate the two issues of #1 an e-mail author's racism with #2 the earnest questioning relying upon legal research about the NBC issue which has many colorblind people concerned.] ......... It also alleges that Obama's birth certificate is fake.
In an argument popular on the Internet, Obama's critics claim he is ineligible to be president because he is not a "natural-born citizen," as the Constitution requires. Critics assert that his Hawaiian birth certificate, which Obama's campaign posted online last summer, isn't authentic and that Obama was actually born in Kenya, his father's homeland.
A federal judge threw out a lawsuit questioning Obama's citizenship and said the case was a waste of the court's time. But that hasn't stopped such allegations.
In February, an Alabama newspaper reported that Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., was asked during a constituent meeting whether the Obama citizenship rumor was true. According to the account, he said, "Well, his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven't seen any birth certificate. ... You have to be born in America to be president." Shelby's aides later said the senator had also said he was confident Obama is a citizen.
Florida Rep. Bill Posey, a Republican, has drafted legislation that would require presidential candidates to submit their birth certificates, a move Democrats say is intended to question Obama's citizenship. Posey's measure led the Florida Democratic Party chairwoman, Karen Thurman, to send a fundraising e-mail accusing Republicans of "smearing" Obama.