One of my major points of contention with President Obama has been how divisive he has been, starting on the campaign trail in 2008 and only gaining momentum every year. Republicans surely share some of the blame for the political climate of the last eight years, but President Obama is hardly blameless. Quite to the contrary, in fact, so much so that I don't remember who shot first anymore. I don't see it as a name-brand problem in the GOP only, not when the holder of the highest office engages in the worst sort of divisive rhetoric at seemingly every chance he has. In fact, it seems that all of the power players in the Democratic Party have been on a brutal political offensive since around 2006. And I'm not excusing the Republicans by any stretch with that observation, but I'm not going to say they're worse at it when the Democrats are swinging just as hard, just as often, and just as far below the belt.
It's kind of like observing bias in the media and claiming "yeah, they're all bad, but [x] is worse," when they are all pretty terrible on the same level.
What you might find interesting is many leaders in the African American community think the exact opposite. Louis Farrakhan has been one of his harshest critics accusing the President of failing the black community by refusing to speak up for them. I personally can count on one hand the number of times the President has weighed in on any issue in support of African Americans and except one, not until his second term. The thinking was he intentionally avoided speaking out on sensitive race-relation matters because he didn't want to be accused of not being the President of All Americans, something even former white Presidents didn't have to consider.
I think what happens is many if not most people revert to tribal alliances is assessing right and wrong in political matters. I have a friend...somebody I know... who gave me heck because I posted a story on my Facebook page about a young doctor who was doing research that could lead to an amazing breakthrough in the fight against cancer. The problem in his view: It was a video clip from a news program that was broadcast on a cable channel dedicated to African American interests and reported by a black reporter. I promise you can't make this stuff up. His assertion was the cable channel and especially the reporter himself were hate-filled racists. He completely missed the fact that we could be on the verge on a cure for cancer! Anyway, in my committed to the truth, I decided to google the name of the reporter in quotations followed by the word racist. Guess what? Yep, not a single racist thing has the man ever uttered. In fact, it was the exact opposite; pages of results of him fighting racism, both white racism and criticizing the black lives matter movement. My friend's definition of racist seems to be any black person who works for BET or TV-One. Unbelievable!
I challenge anyone who thinks Obama has been racially divisive to look up specific instances. Here's what I've found:
1. Encouraging inner-city parents to turn off the TV and game consoles and make their kids read and do homework...all without mentioning race.
2. At a time when it seemed an underage kid was shot dead for being black in a neighborhood where being black automatically made one suspect, he called for all Americans to try to sympathize with black youths who routinely are subjected to stop and frisk and driving while black investigations that no other race (except maybe Hispanics in Arizona lately) have to endure.
3. Encouraging Americans exercising free-speech in support of blacks who had been killed by police, many under what seem to be unjust circumstances, to renounce violence and do so peacefully.
4. In a town-hall discussion on race relations, he shared a story from his youth when he was 11 a white neighbor avoided getting on an elevator with him in explaining to the American people how blacks are often feared, in an effort to foster greater understanding among the races.
5. A Harvard professor was thought to be breaking into his own home presumably because he was black in a neighborhood where blacks are few in number. A law enforcement officer entered the professor's property, a which time the professor became irate and stated he planned to file a formal complaint that his 4th amendment rights were violated. The officer then cleverly lured the professor out of his home while the professor was irate in order to have justification to arrest him for disturbing the peace. The President, spoke out in support of the professor.
Can't think of anything else and I personally don't think any of these should be thought of as divisive and think our only hope as a nation to resolve our differences is to try to understand each other.