Obama Refers to Black Americans as "a Mongrel People" on The View

Oh, great...

From The Hill article by Sam Youngman:

"President Obama waded into the national race debate in an unlikely setting and with an unusual choice of words: telling daytime talk show hosts that African-Americans are 'sort of a mongrel people.'

"The president appeared on ABC’s morning talk show “The View” Thursday, where he talked about the forced resignation of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod, his experience with race and his roots.

"When asked about his background, which includes a black father and white mother, Obama said of African-Americans: 'We are sort of a mongrel people.'

"'I mean we're all kinds of mixed up,' Obama said. 'That's actually true of white people as well, but we just know more about it.'

"The president's remarks were directed at the roots of all Americans. The definition of mongrel as an adjective is defined as 'of mixed breed, nature, or origin,' according to dictionary.com.

"Obama did not appear to be making an inflammatory remark with his statement and the audience appeared to receive it in the light-hearted manner that often accompanies interviews on morning talk shows."

Well, I'm glad Youngman gave us the dictionary.com definition of mongrel-- because I was confused. Of course dictionary.com wouldn't mention that white supremacists have been using the term "mongrel race" to refer (disparagingly) to Black Americans and other ethnic minorities for a hundred years or more. UPDATE: Donald Douglas noted that Wikipedia does mention this however-- "Among humans, mongrel and mongrelize are derogatory terms for the mixing of 'races', known as miscegenation." I think that Obama probably shouldn't use that phrase too much in the future. Just sayin'...

Also amusing was this line (probably the prize winner for most snort-worthy) from Obama's stint on daytime talk shows: "My hope is that I've tried to set a tone in the debate that says, 'Look, we can disagree without being disagreeable.'"

Obama said that and expected us to believe that he's sincere? Are you kidding me? I know he thinks we're all stupid children but...

So, let me compile a partial list, off the top of my head, as to exactly how Obama's attempted to set that non-disagreeable tone. Well, he arrogantly insulted the former president during his own inaugural address (an inauguration which included a benediction that referred to Asians as "yellow"). Obama has steadfastly refused to consider any other viewpoint except his own on the stimulus, economy in general, health care, unemployment, financial reform, the mislabeled Honduran "coup," etc. The White House asked citizens to flag "fishy" comments found on the internet and in blogs. Obama attempted to shut out Fox News from White House access, and accused them of not being a real news organization-- all the while giving preferential treatment to Huff Po. He called out Sarah Palin in all but name in a major speech before Congress, and he chastised the Supreme Court during a State of the Union address. He initially refused to meet Israel's Prime Minister. Obama's used children as shills in town halls while promoting his agendas (nothing like avoiding disagreeableness by stacking the deck with children of your campaign workers, I suppose). The OFA (Obama for America) promised to deliver "super-hero karate chops" to opponents of the Obama's health care "reforms."

As I said, that's just from off the top of my head. Just think what political debate would be like if Obama was adopting a more confrontational attitude toward his opponents...