Filed under: Politics, President Obama
Abercrombie had to back off of his promise to reveal President Obama's birth certificate, primarily because Hawaii law doesn't allow officials to release personal birth records. The controversy began when Evans went on the radio claiming to have spoken with someone in Abercrombie's office and "that he's searched everywhere using his power as governor" at two separate hospitals, finding no record of Obama having been born at either one.
"There is no Barack Obama birth certificate in Hawaii. Absolutely no proof that he was born in Hawaii... now [Abercrombie] admits, publicly, that there is no birth certificate."
Interestingly enough, Evans has changed his story completely since the statement about the birth certificate made national news. He's backpedaled a bit, saying that he misspoke about the information.
"This I can you tell you is 100 percent fact," he said to Fox News. "Neil never told me there was no birth certificate. ... I never talked to him."
An article in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser also brings additional ammunition to the table of those who wish to see President Obama disqualified due to his place of birth. It says:
"Tim Adams, a former senior elections clerk for the city and county of Honolulu in 2008, has maintained that there is no long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate on file with the Hawaii Department of Health and that neither Honolulu hospital - Queens Medical Center or Kapiolani Medical Center - has any record that Obama was born there."
I don't like the Birther Movement. It's fueled by racism against America's first black president, with a concerted effort to find any infraction, loophole or legality that will get him removed from office. They are the political step-brother of the Tea Party movement, which relies on racially-inflammatory and ignorant rhetoric that uses the Constitution to somehow signify that African Americans are not "real" Americans, and therefore undeserving of the highest office in the land. These extremists are so entrenched in their racist ideology that their lynch mob behavior threatens to destroy the nation they love and to also disrespect the office of the presidency.
With that said, I can also honestly say that I have no idea where Barack Obama was born. I am not here to pretend that there is no validity to claims that he was born in Kenya because I have not seen his official birth certificate. I can also say that public officials only make themselves look that much more suspicious by marginalizing those with legitimate claims about Obama's birthplace and keeping them out of mainstream media. It appears that if it is the case that Obama was not born here in the United States, there are some who are simply hopeful that these facts won't be unearthed until 20 years after his presidency has come to an end. The marginalization of the Birthers might also be due to the "who cares?" complex that most Americans have when it comes to those looking for any reason they can find to invalidate him. President Obama is experiencing the same thing that happens to African Americans in power all across the country, and I hardly suspect that all of this would be happening if he were not black.
Regardless of where President Obama was born, we must have proper perspective on the selective outrage being shown by his political opponents. Their anger toward Obama about his birth certificate was not matched by equally zealous outrage toward former President George W. Bush for killing thousands with unjust wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The point here is that in the world of politics, there's no such thing as anyone who is squeaky clean or unconditionally dirty. The truth is that each side supports their own point of view by pointing out the political blemishes of the other team's players, while trying to convince the world that their side has a monopoly on ethical behavior. At the end of the day, the team you choose determines the angle of your ethics, and evil is in the eye of the beholder. That's why I don't expect to ever become a politician.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.