I voted for the black dude

Initially, I liked social critic Michael Moore. His 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine is nothing short of brilliant. I presumed he was "made of sterner stuff" intellectually. But the deeper I examined his political views, the deeper my suspicions grew. By the time Fahrenheit 9/11 made its 2004 debut (it would become the highest-grossing documentary of all time), I was in full skeptic mode. For me at least, Moore's working-class hero shtick had worn thin. Subsequently, he has repeatedly validated my doubts about his intellectual honesty and depth. Moore is well-intentioned. But I take him with a large dose of salt. I attribute his recent cheat shots at Obama to misdirected liberal angst. Moore clearly gulped down the "Messiah" Kool-Aid in 2008. Upon awakening from his fever dream, Moore, like his compadres on the left, was shocked to find that the candidate he hoisted on the cross wasn't Obama. Still, I never imagined Moore would stoop to playing the race card. Except he just did, sort of.

"I voted for the black guy and what we got was the white guy," Moore recently said on The View. He was quoting funnyman Bill Maher, of course. To be fair, Moore cited Maher and said it was a joke. But it's not funny. In fact, it borders on the offensive. And that was the case even when Maher's first uttered it. The subliminal suggestion is Obama would be more effective if he were more "ghetto" and less, well, "white." You know: Gangsta. Sassy. Angry. Hip. Think Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Think Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop. Is that what "real" African Americans are, Messrs Moore and Maher? Oh please.

There are many ways to fairly criticize Mr. Obama. Moore himself said he simply meant that Obama should be more like FDR (whatever that means). Fine. Why didn't he just say that and leave well enough alone? Why bring skin color into it, a historically pregnant issue guaranteed to feed stereotyping? Answer: Too many folks of a certain age (Moore is 57) simply can't help themselves. During the '08 campaign, the late Geraldine Ferraro (born 1935), a staunch Democrat and Hillary supporter, said, "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position." Last year, Maher (born 1956) joked that "Obama has been now finally getting on the campaign trail trying to help [Democrats]. ... Because nothing calms the fears of Middle Americans like having a black man suddenly appear in your backyard." See the pattern? Too many white Americans (even those who are well-intentioned), look at Obama and reflexively see Black Man first, human being second. This, alas, is also true in day to day life. Just ask any African American male. That is how deep a scar the legacy of racism has left on our societal psyche. Most young people seem to get it even if their elders do not (or perhaps never can). Miles to go before we sleep ...