Implication Post

After finishing my blog, I have come to the conclusion that there is not a definition to racism but there is a mindset. So with learning this, there is no solution to racism. Thus, meaning no solution to racism in Obama’s health care reform plan. However, the good thing is that this is not a big issue in the United States anymore, and with President Obama elected as president, it shows that the United States is trying to grow past racism. But, even though the United States may have a black president, does not mean racism is gone. In an article posted last month, the author feels as if race will become a bigger deal in Obama’s re-election in 2012, than in his election in 2008, which maybe true. Others believe that the United States is coming to a “post-racial” era, where even white supremacist are seeing past race. But, there are still some Americans who feel otherwise.

All in all, there are no “side effects” or consequences if this problem is not solved, because I feel like the United States will eventually come to a point to where color is not seen but character is, which are the famous words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But no one knows when that day will come, even though we are getting closer and closer to it.

Annotated Links

The following are some interesting links to look at which concern Obama, race and his health care plan.

http://cqresearcherblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/overview-of-this-weeks-report-race-and.html

This link is a blog site on race and politics, and has helped me a great deal with my own blog. On this website, race is looked at through the many parts of the political process and brings up facts on black politicians like Obama and Martin Luther King Jr. Also, it gives a better understanding of race in Obama's overall campaigning process and current issues in Obama's presidential term.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/07/obama_on_health.html

This is another link from a blog that gave me more insight with Obama, health care and race. One of the post on the blog talks about Obama's speech on health care, and shows his entire speech on the blog. With this link, the blogger looks at Obama's health care plan through the political view, and the blog is quite unbias.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=106604&sectionid=3510203

This link talks about Obama's stuggles with race when Jimmy Carter's believes that there is racism towards the health care debate. Through the link, it shows that Obama is not trying to be caught up with race in his term, because he rejects Carter's charges.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1085572&lang=eng_news&cate_img=140.jpg&cate_rss=news_Opinion

This link is a professor's opinion on socialism and race and how that plays into President Obama's current term in office. In this link, the professor brings up the term of socialism and how it was used to describe black leaders in the 60's and 70's. Also in the article, the author brings up if people use the word socialist to cover up being racist.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/292792,obamas-historic-election-was-landmark-for-race-relations--feature.html

This link gives an African American viewpoint to President Obama and his health care plan. In the article, the author talks about how he feels that Obama's health care plan will help out African Americans more than any other race because most African Americans live without health insurance. Also, the author brings up the fact that President Obama's journey to the White House has changed race relations in the United States.

Self Analysis Post

Throughout my blogging experience, I learned tons of information about President Obama's journey to the White House and how race relations play into that.

With my first blog, I discussed President Obama's ups and downs on the campaigning trial, and how some blacks perceived him as not being black enough. With my first blog, I refreshed my memory on Obama's rough journey to becoming president and learned that some blacks (other than his ex pastor) did not believe in Obama until he was officially elected. Then my next post consist of the argument of how Jimmy Carter was suggesting that the negative comments towards Obama were indeed racist, and how Bill Clinton disagreed with that. During these few post, I was bias. But through the helpful comments from my classmates, I was able to sway from that. After my bias posts, I set the stage with what Obama's health care bill consisted of and how the bill was doing in the House and Senate. Through these background post, I gave myself and my readers a better understanding of the underline argument of the health care debate, which then paved the way for my bigger argument. In my next post, I discussed a racial comment towards Obama, which I feel was one of my better blog post. Then in my following post, I learned that many Republicans felt as if Obama was a socialist, since he wants to "spread the wealth" in a sense. After this post, I then decided to write about how African Americans viewed President Obama and his health care plan. Through this I learned that some African Americans feel as if race relations has gotten better in the US, but a great majority of African Americans still feel racism is quite rampant.

With all this new information, my viewpoint to my argument changed from agreeing to Jimmy Carter wholeheartedly to then not knowing what to believe anymore. This began to happen when I started looking at both sides of the argument. Once I started looking at both sides, I then found myself learning so much more than before. I guessed I learned more, because I finally grew into a mindset where I was not as narrow minded, since I finally looked at both sides of the argument instead of the side I favored. When I was able to do that, I found myself writing better post, which showed through the feedback from my classmates.

All in all, I can truly say that my blog has bettered my writing and research style, and this is quite evident from my first blog post to my last blog post. I am now able to write about both sides of an argument and stay somewhat neutral in my writing. With my researching, I have learned a great deal about President Obama, race and his health care plan, and was able to get involved with my topic in a deep intellectual level. Lastly, I am glad that I had the opportunity to keep a blog on this topic because it has helped me change my mindset and made me optimistic towards the future.

Last Weekly Post

In an article that was published last month, the author looked at the issues of President Obama's current term and predicted that race maybe the playing factor of Obama's re-election in 2012.

At first, the author points out that through all the effort President Obama put towards "de-racializing" his campaign, the topic always came up again in his 2008 election. Examples of this are Jeremiah Wright, who was President Obama's pastor. Even though President Obama wanted to keep his race out of the election, which he did for the most part, he has not been able to do that during his current term. Examples of this are Jimmy Carter's comments about the negative comments to Obama, Cornell West's arrested and signs stating that Obama is a socialist. That maybe the reason why this author feels like race real will be a bigger issue in 2012 than it was in 2008.

Then in the article, the author then goes onto explain how Obama was elected. In 2008, there were many first time voters, which were many African Americans, who voted for Obama because he were black. Others voted for Obama not because of his race but for his issues, and others opposed him because his race or his issues. The author then points out that no one wanted to bring up the race issue, so everyone hid behind the delusion that race does not matter. In a poll in the general election, 90 percent of Americans said that race was not an important factor in their vote, which I agree with the author, race matter to more Americans than that was portrayed. But no one wants to bring up the race issue.

Race I feel can be a determining issue in some things, and one of those things is politics. Hopefully, the United States will eventually come to a point that they can vote for someone with the better issues, rather than by someone's color. But we will see how that works out.

Medicare is now apart of Socialism?

Currently in the news, President Obama is trying to get his health care reform bill passed and is having some trouble with that. Under this bill, 36 million uninsured Americans will have extended health coverage by expanding Medicaid, anyone without coverage will have the opportunity to purchase through a federally run program.

With the current health situation, many need any improvement to the United States' health care system, because health care is expensive. For African Americans, improving the health care system is a life-and-death situation since so many African Americans can not afford insurance right now. Currently, the NAACP is supporting the health care bill and has launched the 880 Campaign (that ensures every American has access to quality, affordable health care) that also supports the cause.

Other supporters of President Obama's health care bill are AARP and the American Medical Association, which both agree that the United States needs the passing of this bill. But, even though Obama was announcing his new support from AARP and AMA, there were still plenty of Republicans to put down his new found support. In the crowd there are signs of "No Socialistic Health Care," and "Sweeping Away Socialism One Democrat at a Time." In addition, the same people who had the signs were complaining that "Medicare does not provide sufficient coverage." With that statement, a blogger comments with "I've got news for those protesters: Once we hit 65, we all jump on the "socialized medicine" of Medicare. Without it, our senior citizens would be sick and impoverished.

With all this, I just feel like many Republicans are making a big deal about nothing, and that basically they are saying that they do not want Medicare when they get older. But why wouldn't someone want Medicare?

Race Relations and the African American Standpoint of the Situation

Ever since President Obama made history with becoming the first African American president, much of the African American community feels as if the United States has come a long way in race relations.

In a recent article, it states that Obama's journey to the White House has "changed the underlying dynamics between white and black Americans." In a USA Today survey that was taken earlier this month, 41 percent of Americans believed that race relations have improved since the election, while 22 percent feel like it has worsened. Also, a survey was done asking African Americans, and 53 percent said that race relations has improved since November. But, 72 percent have found racism is still rampant in the United States.

The author also goes into more depth to say that African Americans are trying to find a president that meets their needs and their policies and Obama represents that. Sam Fulwood thinks otherwise; he feels as if Obama is not going to do anything special for African Americans and that it would be "unfair and unreasonable to think otherwise." But the author feels like President Obama is helping to "close the gap" between races. Like for example, with Obama's health care plan, black are most likely to lack health insurance than whites. So in a sense, Obama's health care plan is helping out African Americans little bit more than the white race in the United States.

Another opinion of Fulwood that the author brings up is with there being a African-American in office, a kind of "pride" as been instilled into the black race, which gives African Americans a stronger belief in their own potential.

By having President Obama elected as president, the United States can truly say anyone can become president, but with this article it just shows how the United States has gone a long way with race, but still has a long way to go with the issue. Hopefully there will come a time when people in general will stop thinking about race altogether, but the United States has not reach that point yet. But, it is getting there.

Obama's Respond to being called Socialist

Back in October of last year, President Obama meets with a crowd of Republicans, who feel like he is promoting socialism and tells them that his plan is to spread and promote opportunity for most Americans and he is not spreading socialism.

With this article, Obama puts down his attacks from John McCain as being called a socialist and says that McCain is desperate to win the election that is why McCain feels he has to say such things. Obama even says "By the end of the week, he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten," which in turn made the entire crowd laugh. This just shows that Obama is laughing at the issue of being called a socialist, and is not making a big deal about it. Also in the article, it talks about how McCain is making "Joe the plumber" as a backer to his attack of Obama "spreading the wealth." McCain further goes on to say that Obama is "punishing success" and believes that his own tax policies will create wealth instead of spread the wealth around. To this Obama says that America "needs a president who stands up for hard-working Americans on Main Street, John McCain calls this socialism, apparently. I call it opportunity, and there's nothing more American than that."

With that article, it just shows to me how bad McCain wanted to be president that he would do and say anything for it. But also with this, it shows that Obama's policies are in question with America's public, especially with him saying that he wants to "raise taxes on the wealthy so there is tax relief on the middle class." Indeed this is great for the middle class, but bad for the wealthy, and those promote some socialist views.

All in all, why would Obama try to bring socialist views to a democratic society anyway? Does this socialist idea go back to my previous post about how black politicians were seen as "communist and socialist" because of their race or is it just solely about Obama's views?