This is About a Lot More Than Just a Birth Certificate

As I am sure most of you have heard, President Obama today held a press conference to show to the world his long-form birth certificate, which many conspiracy theorists and outright racists have been clamoring for for what seems now like an eternity. Most recently, Donald Trump, possible Republican Presidential candidate and shameless self-promoter, has been constantly talking throughout the media about his doubts with regard to the President’s native birth.

When I first heard of the President’s announcement, my first thought was actually of relief. I thought the President was doing this for political reasons in light of his recently launched reelection campaign. I thought that he was doing this to show to the rest of the electorate how “crazy” the right-wing of this country has become, and might cast doubt in their eyes of electing one of them as President. It surely must not be to convince Republicans and conservatives who originally called into question his birthplace origin, because from my perspective, those people were never going to support him anyway. The birth certificate controversy is just a sign of a much deeper rooted problem, which I’ll get to in a second. In any event, this was my initial reaction to this news, and who knows, I may be right or wrong on the President’s calculus for doing what he did.

However, I just watched a video blog post from Baratunde Thurston, Director of Digital at The Onion and founder of Jack & Jill Politics, that made me think twice about today’s announcement from the President. The crux of Baratunde’s argument is this: Barack Obama, the President of the United States, had to appease extremists and racists because he’s black, because he represents something that is not the status quo. After Baratunde’s use of the example of when blacks had to take voting tests to make sure they qualified as “smart enough” to vote in the South after the 13th Amendment was ratified, I was convinced that this is exactly what happened today.

If you’re still not convinced after this example, answer this hypothetical question then, and do so honestly: would a white man, say someone like Donald Trump, born in Hawaii and elected President of the United States, be harrassed by calls to provide his long-form birth certificate after providing a Certificate of Live Birth? If you answered no, then you have reached the reason why this birth certificate ordeal is not just about a birth certificate. It’s about the state of racism in America, and the state of privilege in the capitalist system we live under.

It is without doubt that white men still have the greatest opportunities and greatest advantages afforded to them, as compared to all other demographics in this country. And this is by no accident. White men (with all of their superiority complexes and egos and prejudices) have concocted a system (I’m including the media and public perception in here too) that perpetuates this status quo. And when someone, such as Barack Obama, so much as tinkers slightly with that established order, they and their ignorant faithful launch on the offensive and call into question his legitimacy and credibility.
However, this kind of action is not unexpected. It follows a pattern of behavior when the power of those who have it, is challenged. And for President Obama to give in to their demands (even if it is for political reasons) is a debasing of not only him, but, as Baratunde says, of all of us. Ceding to extremism lends credibility to their claims, and incentivizes them to make more claims that deserve no credence.

To put it more simply, the President must be a natural-born citizen of the United States. President Obama met this criteria. To call into question time and again his integrity should be something he is against on principle.

However, principles only mean something when you stick by them when they are inconvenient. And as infuriated as I am at the people who pushed this controversy, I am more upset at the President because today, he did not live up to this axiom.