Leadership as Performance. He has done little for non-whites, but that appears to be the point. Lip service about the war on drugs, rabid levels of incarceration, non-white joblessness, sorry public education, prosecutorial discretion (as opposed to permanent policy or new law) for the removal of non-white immigrants and sprinkling in anecdotal crap like this.
President Obama fits Norman Kelley's definition of an HNIC: charismatic but politically unaccountable and delivering little of tangible value to the people he claims to represent, namely Blacks & Latinos. It is much easier to discuss mascots or Trayvon Martin than to confront & solve the problems posed by white supremacy. For the HNIC, there is usually no political price for not delivering the goods. He also is a symbol.
From [HERE] President Obama is wading into issues of culture and professional football, saying the Washington Redskins football team should consider a new name.
"If I were the owner of the team and I knew that the name of my team - even if they've had a storied history - was offending a sizable group of people, I'd think about changing it," Obama told the Associated Press during an interview. [that "sizable group" is not all non-white people to Obama. Race was created for only one purpose: to practice racism. To practice racism whites had to separate themselves from other groups of people by artificial creating different races" - such as "Indians" or Redskins MORE]
Redskins owner Dan Snyder has refused requests from Native Americans and others to change the name, which originated during the 1930s when the franchise was located in Boston. The team moved to Washington for the 1937 season. The Redskins were the last NFL team to integrate. [more]. In the present, the local white media and fans seem to be been very uneasy with having a black quarterback - as they were with Doug Williams, even after he won a Super Bowl.
"All these mascots and team names related to Native Americans, Native Americans feel pretty strongly about it," Obama told the Associated Press. "And I don't know whether our attachment to a particular name should override the real, legitimate concerns that people have about these things."
