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Will racial tensions tarnish Obama's legacy?

By Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on

It's been a long time since we've seen Republican lawmakers as concerned about bad race relations as they have been in recent days, especially when they can blame the whole mess on the nation's first black president.

After all, "Blame Obama First" has been the unofficial motto of Capitol Hill Republicans since President Barack Obama's first election.

So, after the killing of five white Dallas police officers by an apparently deranged black gunman who, according to police, wanted to kill white cops, some of those Grand Old Party pols didn't have to look far for someone to pin it on.

"(T)he constant instigation by prominent leaders, including our president," said Rep. Roger Williams of Texas in a statement, "have contributed to the modern day hostility we are witnessing between the police and those they serve."

"Instigation?" Is he talking about the president's promises to make sure the rights of victims in controversial police killings are protected? What a scandal.

In a tweet, Iowa Rep. Steve King's quest for proof of Obama's alleged anti-cop attitude landed on Obama's reaction to the arrest in 2009 by Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was trying to break into his home.

 

Obama said at the time that Crowley acted "stupidly." King tweeted, "#DallasPoliceShooting has roots in first of anti-white/cop events illuminated by Obama ... Officer Crowley. There were others."

Hey, I, too, find it illuminating to learn that criticizing an unnecessary arrest automatically makes you "anti-white/cop." But even when this president shows no actual intention of doing what his detractors say he does, they'll claim that he's done it anyway.

Of course, no dust-up about race and Obama would be complete these days without presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stepping into it.

After an uncharacteristic day of Twitter silence, along with the former secretary of State Clinton, Trump was back in the Twitter-verse with shots at -- guess who.

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(c) 2016 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

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