By Pastor Joe Flores
The following communication is an exchange between a Face Book post respondent and myself. Although you may not have the advantage of the entire exchange, my response articulates enough of the conversational context for you to get the gist of the issue. The bottom line is, I’m throwing down the gauntlet regarding racism and ignorance.
Ladies and gentlemen, people have the right to disagree with the President, however, they do not have the right to hurl random insults at his personage and character, at least NOT on my page. So, I am sharing a response I gave to a post respondent who refused to acknowledge that President Obama is even a leader.
Please read it and STOP letting people get away with this. It is NOT OK.
“I honestly started to not address your post because I am exhausted by the ignorance and uncouthness of people concerning our President, the President of the United States of America, President Barrack Obama. I actually removed your post and then upon reflection I decided to “undo” the remove and address your comment on my page. I decided to address your comment because people need to see how nonchalantly many Republicans, millions of white Americans and some deeply deluded and disturbed Africans-Americans insult President Obama.
By the way, I know you, Ed and you know me, so please understand that I respond with full knowledge of what I am saying and to whom I am addressing. You disrespect and insult every African-American in America and every person of color in the world by your blatant disrespect for President Obama. Whether you voted for him or not, whether you agree with him or his polices or not, you do NOT have the right, without consequence, to hurl random insults at his personage and character.
The way you manage to muster the gall to demean him as a leader when he is the duly ELECTED president of the world’s most powerful nation, is beyond me and also beyond the bounds of common sense. You make yourself sound either racist or stupid saying that he is not a leader. Quite frankly, although I am familiar with you, I don’t know you well enough to know which of these categories of naiveté you fall into or if you are both.
What I do know is that by virtue of his Presidency alone, he is a leader. What I do know is that you owe President Obama an apology for this insult. You owe me an apology for putting this insulting non-sense on my page. You owe the 97% of all black people in America who voted for President Obama an apology for discounting their identification of President Obama as a leader. You owe, the more than 51% of white, black, Hispanic, Asian and other Americans of all colors, creeds and religions an apology for insulting their intelligence and demeaning their selection of President Obama, as our leader. You owe Time Magazine, Ebony Magazine, the Noble Peace Prize Committee, the United Nations and millions of people on every continent who choose to give President Obama the proper respect he has earned, through his ability to galvanize an entire world’s population, to recognize him as a leader.
Finally, if I wanted to be even borderline insulting I would say, you owe yourself an apology for being either stupid or racist. Now, if this seems a little over the top, it is because, I for one, am fed up with giving you and others like you a pass on basic civility and common courtesy. I, for one, will no longer allow you and others like you to get away with this blatant disrespect of our President, without paying the price of exposure of your folly. I, for one, will no longer wink stupidly at racism coming from anyone as if it is an acceptable,”OOPS.” Man to man, I am holding you accountable for your disparaging comments on the President’s character and personage. Please know that I am not suggesting that you are not allowed to disagree with either the President or myself. I am saying as plainly as I know how, you are not allowed to publish your personal insults of the President on my page forum.
There is a difference between public policy disagreement and personal insult. This is a difference that you may or may not recognize, which is why without malice I bring it to your attention. You have insulted me as an African-American-Hispanic–Philippine-Indian mixed person. I hope you have the integrity of self to apologize, otherwise you will be deleted as a friend. Again, you are more than entitled to have a differing political, social or even electoral opinion. You may even say that he is no Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but I will not facilitate disrespect of me, my people, our President of these United States of America, President Barrack H. Obama.”
Pastor Joe Flores was raised in Orlando Fla. For many years he was a household name as one of the pioneering gospel radio broadcasters of Central Florida. Pastor Flores served our community as an effective social and political activist on many critical issues. He is now the Founding and Senior Pastor of the Perfecting Saints Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia and continues to fight for justice for under represented, discriminated against and disenfranchised people both in Virginia and wherever duty calls.
The only thing I will say is that were you this passionate about Bush. When people insulted him. If not, then that makes you as large a racist as whoever it is you are talking to. Obama is half white. In essence he is more white than black because that is how he was raised. Or did you calculate leaving out his white side for sake of argument. In addition anything said about Obama is about OBAMA and not all of “black america”. Did you ever take time to think that an apology to TIME magazine, which once named HITLER it’s Man of the Year is not necessary. Lots of big words and no love of Christ being shown in this display, ESPECIALLY, since you did not show the words of the one you accuse.