Obama vs I Spy

I have read Obama’s book Dreams of My Father and had I read it before the election I would have worked even harder to have keep him from becoming president. Reading the book made me glad I was not a relative or friend of his, because he slammed everyone of them! They, not he, were racists! His white family, who raised him, loved him, clothed him, fed and nurtured him, educated him, and gave him the courage to run for president were slammed worst of all. His white grandfather is a racist because OMG! He plays poker with black men! How dare he be so racist! And his white grandmother is a racist because one day at her bus stop a black man acting suspicious made her nervous. Well, dang! I guess if it had been a white man acting suspicious who made her nervous that would have been okay. As long as you don’t get nervous when someone of a different race is acting strangely.

Whoever wrote this book for him really needs to learn to write dialog! The dialog was stilted and sounded so phony at times you knew it didn’t actually take place. It was supposed to have been conversations between Obama and his friends, family, etc., where he set them straight on racism. But it was terrible! The conversations were either embellished or just made up, but either way the dialog was very badly written.

But the part that cracked me up the most was where the writer started slamming I Spy! Yep, Obama is supposed to have said it was a racist show because the white guy always got the girl. OMG! That is so stupid! He obviously never watched the show, and I think I will remind him that black people didn’t like Bill Cosby (Scotty in I Spy) because he acted too white! Oh, and BTW, Scotty got the girl in many episodes.

So here’s the thing…Sheldon Leonard broke the color barrier in television when he cast a black actor and white actor in equal parts in a TV drama. In many of the episodes the cast was over 50% black and all were serious dramatic roles. Alexander Scott, (Bill Cosby) was a Rhodes Scholar and the brains of the operation. When he had a relationship with a woman it was serious. Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp aka the white guy to Obama) was a tennis bum who had many frivolous affairs and a couple serious ones. They were cast as good friends and if the color barrier was mentioned it was in joking between them as friends will do. It was equality for both actors and just for future reference in 1967 Bill Cosby won the Emmy for best actor in a dramatic series.

So Mr. Obama and whoever ghost wrote your book for you. Before you start making empty statements about racism, get your facts straight. This show broke the racism barriers in television dramas! It did not set them!