Mitt Romney, Birtherism, the President and Jokes

Yesterday Mitt Romney told a birther joke. Romney said “I love being home, in this place where Ann and I were raised. Where both of us were born…No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.” He claims it was just a joke, but in this climate it was not funny. Romney brags about the fact that his citizenship has never been challenged or questioned. He has never felt like anything but a citizen, but sadly that is not the life story of everyone born in this country. How many people have been pulled over simply for being black? Recently former CNN anchor TJ Holmes was pulled over and when the police approached the car they said they simply wanted to know if he had car insurance. Really? This is a reason to be pulled over? No, this is a reason to be pulled over if you are black driving a nice car, and in a nice neighborhood. This is a black person being viewed as other. It’s a sense of not belonging. It gives the majority the authority to not only question your existence, but to also question why are you here? The president has acquiesced on the birth certificate issue and showed his long form birth certificate, but many in the birther movement claimed it was a fake. So how do you satisfy a group that refuses to affirm your authenticity? You simply can’t. The president sits in the White House, but that figurative police cruiser is still circling and profiling him and wondering how did this “other” get in that house. Maybe he broke in. Oh, I’m just joking. That’s almost as funny as Romney’s birther joke.

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