Filed under: News, Politics, President Obama, Race and Civil Rights
Our most dapper President, Barack Obama, sat in the "hot" seat on ABC-TV's "The View" earlier today. As always, our prez was calm, cool and oh-so-collected and ready to face the firing squad of five women, Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd, Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
When Barbara Walters hit Obama with a question as to why he does not consider himself to be multiracial, he didn't seem taken aback. Instead, Obama said that he was less interested in whether people perceived him as black or multiracial and more interested in seeing people treat each other with respect.
The President went on to state that after going through an "identity crisis" as a teenager, he realized:
"If the world saw me as African American, then that was something I needn't run away from, that's something that I could go ahead and embrace. I'm less interested in how we label ourselves, I'm more interested in how we treat each other. And if we're treating each other right, then I can be African American, I can be multiracial, I can be, you name it. What matters is, am I showing people respect, am I caring for other people."
Obama also went on to say how Blacks as a race are "mixed up":
"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 subject of race was again broached when our beloved president was asked about the controversy surrounding the ousting of USDA employee Shirley Sherrod.
His response to the Sherrod brouhaha was that the media "generated a phony controversy." "A lot of people overreacted, including people in my administration," he stated.
"The View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the show's token right-winger, asked Obama:
"We are in a state of chronic joblessness, yet you claim there are saved jobs, a standard not used before by any administration," said Hasselbeck. "It's frustrating to hear that 'saved-jobs' boasting .... How can you continue to say you've saved jobs when, in reality, people are losing jobs?"
The president responded by explaining how the stimulus money given to states kept public employees jobs - who would otherwise have been fired:
"It makes a difference if your job was one of the ones saved. States got hammered as a result of the financial crisis. If we had not provided immediate assistance to the states, they would have had to fire teachers, police, firefighters," he said.
"This was not just a matter of jobs for those people but the services lost. "
And while the president said that "we are not bouncing back as quick as we need to," he does think the American economy will get its "mojo back over the next several months."
On a lighter note, here are some highlights from the interview:
- Obama let us in on the fact that his pop culture knowledge is significant, but not without holes: "I've got to admit I don't know who Snooki is," he said.
- He knew that Lindsay Lohan went to jail.
- When asked about the Mel Gibson scandal, he admitted that he has not seen one of his movies in quite a while.
- Twitter is not something he uses personally; "some 20-year-old" runs his account.
- He does love his iPod. The music on his iPod ranges from Maria Callas to Jay-Z to Frank Sinatra but no Justin Beiber!
- There are no boys yet in the Obama girls' lives.
AND, FINALLY, HE ANSWERED WHAT ALL INQUIRING MINDS ARE DYING TO KNOW:
Was Obama invited to Chelsea Clinton's wedding? ...
A BIG FAT "NO!"