The
following was emailed to me by my former lay leader (Washington Heights
United Methodist Church, Chicago, now member of St Mark UMC and
resident of Belize (former British Honduras). 114 years ago, Frederick Douglass provided the explanation for why people are so hard on President Obama.
“Though the coloured man is no longer subject to barter and sale, he is
surrounded by an adverse settlement which fetters all his movements. In
his downward course he meets with no resistance, but his course upward
is resented and resisted at every step of his progress."
"If he
comes in ignorance, rags and wretchedness he conforms to the popular
belief of his character, and in that character he is welcome; but if he
shall come as a gentleman, a scholar and a statesman, he is hailed as a
contradiction to the national faith concerning his race, and his coming
is resented as impudence. In one case he may provoke contempt and
derision, but in the other he is an affront to pride and provokes
malice.”
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