Posts
"Like (Tavis) Smiley, I've been called a 'sellout' and an 'Uncle Tom.' One person who saw me on MSNBC wrote in an email, 'I think you and your colleagues, do the Black community a disservice, when you over look the positive aspects of what a Black president would mean for this country and the world, you also diminish the position that you hold as a Black journalist at a paper like the Washington Post. [sic]' Another wrote, 'You disappoint me young brother.'
"The vitriol hit its peak during the first blow-up over the sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright last year. One over-the-top emailer wrote, 'What kind of step-n-fetchit, house boy are you? You are DISGRACING Black people....God curse your house with tragedy, calamity, and poverty for the rest of your slimy, miserable days, you minstrel show clown.'
"I've been called a 'traitor' and 'self-hating.' One viewer wrote, 'To me, you appear to be a little self-hating, in that you are a black man, and the words that come out of your mouth are obviously not filtered through a genuinely felt lens.' Another said, 'Can you please do all of us a favor and bleach your skin white as white can get. [sic]'
"I've also been accused of forgetting where I come from. A cab driver who listened to an interview I'd just done with Andrea Mitchell yelled at me through the window, 'Mr. Capehart! Don't forget your history!' One gentleman wrote, 'Enlighten our black people when you are on cable news shows instead of bringing down Rev. Wright and Obama, let me remind you that you benefitted from the Civil Right's movement not just being a Capehart. [sic]'
"No reminding needed.
"The pride among African Americans in having one of our own as president is understandable. As Gene Robinson noted in his column last week, it just makes you feel good to see him not only represent you as a black American, but also represent the United States of America as he's done in Europe. But it does him no good and does the nation a disservice if he is not made to answer tough questions about his policies and decisions. Black reporters fought hard to get into positions from which they can hold the president to account. That cannot change now that the president himself is black."
