Making Sense of Obama's School Message and the Critics

Briefly: President Obama has been attacked by the right wing extremists because he is planning a TV speech to kids in school. The objection is that he is trying to indoctrinate kids into being liberals and democrats. Obama insists it is only to tell kids to stay in school and work hard.

The liberals don't understand the objection, but then they also didn't understand the objection to Obama ordering Dijon mustard on his hamburger (and many other similar controversies). Apparently many right wing conservative parents are threatening to keep their kids home from school as a political protest of the TV presentation.

I think some light can be shed from a historical perspective. There was a civil rights movement back in the sixties, that allowed black kids go to school, while conservative whites threatened violence and even killed some people to stop the black people from going to schools where the whites were. Now 40 years later, we have a black president who wants to make a speech telling kids to stay in school and work hard. Some of those kids will obviously be black, and to many conservatives this is like rubbing salt in a wound. Even today conservatives are willing to sacrifice the entire public school system that they are still convinced has been 'tainted' by the black kids attending.

I think that looking at the criticism of Obama in the perspective of the Civil Rights movement helps in understanding why there is hysteria surrounding the current presidency. For another example, the civil rights movement also allowed blacks to order hamburgers in white restaurants, with any kind of condiments they wanted.