I’m not going to criticize Obama for working with racists to get elected. Every time I get hired, I do the same.

But “voted for Obama” is not a good “racism isn’t a problem” claim because Obama was actively “I’m not going to challenge you on racism” while running.

1/

And he operated as president similarly.
I think it was a (very familiar to me) matter of understanding the compromise he had to make to be in a position to make differences where possible. 2/

It’s also possible that he, due to his position in life (son of African, raised by white people) under- or wrongly-estimated the degree of the problem, but he’s married to Michelle so hard to know. 3/

But the little tiny ways that he *did* address racism caused a huge uproar and empowered the GOP in their talking points. It’s a trap for Black people.
In order to succeed you have to stifle real talk about race. But if you succeed and stifle real talk, you’re a traitor. 4/

Le Bron is so damned good at his game and his game is not as reliant on being hired by people who get scared of Black people talking about racism (but hello football so...) and I stan for what he does and says. 5/

Anyway - I went way off track.

Point being, a lot of white people *love* a Black person who does not challenge racism. So yeah, he got votes from them. Does not make them not racist.

6/

And it doesn’t serve as evidence that sexism or racism did not impact the campaigns of Clinton, Harris, Warren, Booker, Castro, or even a white man, Beto, who all made that challenge more plain.