Do you wonder what on earth makes paunchy old white guys like Glen Beck accuse our sharp, Harvard-educated consensus-building, moderate President of "reverse" racism against whites. There is NOTHING in his history or his policies that would give evidence for that. In psycho-jargon it's called “projection”. When you have feelings that you can't admit to, you project those feelings onto someone else – most often onto the very person who stirred the unacceptable feelings in you.
Projection is a common dysfunction, and can be observed often in family feuds, such as when an abusive husband accuses his wife of disrespect. What, after all, could be more disrespectful than his own abuse? Projection is not conscious, and so is not deliberate. The person who projects sincerely believes that what they say about the other person applies.
So these old white men have been unconsciously thinking, "Man, if my family and I had been treated the way we've treated Black folks for centuries, I sure would hate us. So here is this black guy with all this power, and well, of course he’s gonna use it for revenge. I would.” Hence the projection: Obama hates white people, because I would hate white people if I were Black.
But Obama is a better man than that, and, I might add, a truer Christian. He has more useful things to do than try to get revenge on anyone today for the injustices of the past. He would rather right past wrongs than continue them. If that sounds more like the Gospel message to you than anything Rush Limbaugh is promoting, take heed. Obama doesn’t hate any group. And neither does God.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
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