The New York Yankees recently honored their retired shortstop, the great Derek Jeter, who will doubtless enter the Baseball Hall of Fame at the first opportunity.
Jeter and President Obama share several similar traits, but have diverged sharply in their character and how they have used their fame. Both are the offspring of a black father and a white mother. Both are refined men who have reached the pinnacle of their respective careers. The similarities end there.
The baseball hero didn’t achieve his legendary status easily. Physically average for a major league player, he scaled the heights of the sport by being the hardest working member of his organization. Even after becoming Captain of history’s greatest team, he continued his diligent workouts.
For Obama, a sense of entitlement, perhaps as a recompense for historical injustice, seemed to permeate his thoughts.
The baseball hero certainly experienced racial tension in his youth. In an interview with Barbara Walters, he noted that he had occasionally had the N-word tossed at him, as well as sneers from ignoramuses who disapproved of his biracial DNA. He didn’t make a constant issue of that, however, choosing instead to silence his critics by being the best at his craft and the classiest guy in the business. A published transcript of the discussionnoted this exchange:
“You have an understanding and an education of two races,” Jeter said. “I wouldn’t change it for the world. Have there ever been days where I wished I was this or I wished I was that? . . . No, It’s always been a positive. You always hear stuff from stupid people. That’s never going to change. You chalk it up as ignorance; you know those people are just ignorant and they’re not familiar (with biracial people), sometimes I think they’re afraid of the unknown. That’s basically how I look at it.”
How different that is from Obama, who rode racial tensions the way a jockey rides a horse. It is supremely ironic that the end result of America’s first black presidency was a major setback of racial relations.
Jeter’s natural grace and style demonstrated the idiocy of racism. The most casual review of his extraordinary qualities would be sufficient to silence anyone foolish enough to succumb to the false narrative of hatred.
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As noted by the New York Post’s Gil Troy, “ [President] Bush integrated his administration naturally, appointing Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice because of their smarts, not their race. Obama’s election in 2008 was a natural progression of the Bush era’s racial progress.”
In 2015, Gallup reported that “Americans rate black-white relations much more negatively today than they have at any point in the past 15 years.” It doesn’t take much analysis to demonstrate that Obama’s constant emphasis of every racial incident was responsible.
John Gibbs, (who is black) writing in The Federalist, stated: “Under President Obama, many black folks think racial division has increased, not decreased…he thinks of a place where racist white Christian fundamentalists came here from Europe, committed genocide against Native Americans, enslaved and segregated black people, denied women, gays, and other minorities their rights, and used capitalism and a rigged legal system to oppress poor people for centuries. He also believes this is still continuing today… the president’s overarching goal has been to eliminate what he sees as the structural, institutionalized discrimination that [he believes] defines America. He has done this by taking every opportunity to see disparities between groups as evidence of discrimination, then using all available resources to fight this perceived discrimination by going to war against the Americans he believes are responsible for it, who are almost always whites, men, police, and Christians.”
Jeter played tough against his competitors. But he has become near-universally admired by those whom he played against because his dedication and respect for his craft and its traditions are undeniable. That, too contrasts, sharply with the former president, who generally seemed ashamed of the nation that chose him as its leader for eight years. One of Obama’s first acts in office was to embark on an “apology tour” of the Middle East. He clearly was uncomfortable with the concept of American exceptionalism.
Jeter made a point of learning from and working with respected professionals in his field. Obama’s influencers included deeply unsavory characters, such as the terrorist Bill Ayers and the antagonistic clergyman Jeremiah Wright Jr.
Jeter’s character fulfilled, and Obama’s character denied, the extraordinary words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who, in his March on Washington speech, said:
“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”.