Barack Obama and His Race Card

About Connor, Obama said, “Bull Connor may be gone, but today we witness, with our own eyes, police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans.” The longtime former Bronx Rep. Charles Rangel, whose district included Harlem, also employed the Republicans-are-like-Bull Connor meme. Rangel, though, used it on then-President George W. Bush, who also spoke at Lewis’ funeral. In 2005, Rangel criticized Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina by saying, “George Bush is our Bull Connor.”

For those who have forgotten or never knew, Connor is the segregationist Alabama lawman who, in the ’60s, turned water hoses and sicced dogs on civil rights protesters. “You can never whip these birds if you don’t keep you and them separate,” Connor said in 1963. “I found that out in Birmingham. You’ve got to keep your white and the Black separate.”

Yes, Obama just compared Trump to that man. Never mind that Trump signed the First Step Act that, so far, has allowed more than 3,000 inmates convicted for crack cocaine — mostly Black men — to have their sentences reconsidered and over 2,000 released. Never mind that Trump posthumously pardoned Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight champion, who was the victim of a racially motivated prosecution.