Flap over Obama's birth is rooted in racism

President Barack Hussein Obama, our all-American president

In case you have been asleep for the last couple of years, a whole bunch of right wing wing-nuts keep working hard to spread a lie: That our president, Barack Hussein Obama, was not born here and is Muslim*. Conspiracy theories about the alleged cover-up of this so called "truth" abound. Just do a little Google search and see for yourself. There is even a name for them: "birthers."


It's nothing but a bunch of racist crap.


It's because he's African American, his father is Kenyan, and his name is not Tom, Dick, or even Hillary. Right wing conservatives and racist people of every stripe are terrified of a Black man in power, a Black man as President of the United States. 


Today the White House released President Obama's official birth certificate to try to put an end to this nonsense. It's the "long form" that is not released when anyone in Hawaii asks for an official copy. It's the sealed one, kept in a vault. The official copy Obama already released, the kind that all Hawaiians get was apparently not enough to stop the "birthers" and their lunatic idiocy. 

The "long form" birth certificate, just released

The normal official birth certificate that all Hawaiians get.

My guess is that even releasing the sealed birth certificate and the briefing Obama plans to hold on the topic today won't stop the conspiracy theories, the fear, the paranoia, anti-Muslim hatred, the racism. 


And that makes me sick.

*And what if he was Muslim? There are no restrictions on religion and eligibility to be president.


The amazing Baratunde Thurston speaks with rage and sadness about this issue:


Goldie Taylor, in a guest op-ed on Rachel Maddow breaks it down in a big way. "...This was constructed to de-legitimize the presidency of a black man..."



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Update: President Obama speaks to this issue with class and grace in his briefing on this matter. I love my president. I wonder what he does with his rage...



March 30: President Obama skews Trump, releases birth video and more at White House Correspondence Dinner. Take that, crazies. Bam! I love my President.