9-Year-Old Asks Obama: "Why Do People Hate You?"

Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville at 2:30 PM on October 16, 2009.

I love this little guy:

When Obama called on [9-year-old fourth-grader Tyren Scott of Paulina, La., whose mother had gotten tickets to the town hall meeting for them] to ask the last question of the day, the boy's question temporarily silenced the crowd:

"Why do people hate you and they're supposed to love you and God is love?"

Obama handled the question deftly. "Well, first of all, I did get elected President, and not everybody hates me," he told Tyren. "If you're watching TV lately, everyone seems mad all the time. Some of it's just what's called politics. One party wins, the other party feels it needs to poke you to keep you on your toes. You shouldn't take it too seriously. People are worried about their own lives, losing jobs, health care, homes, and feeling frustrated. When you're President of the United States you've got to deal with all of that."

Gambit asked Tyren what he thought of Obama's answer. "It made me feel good about what he said," Tyren told us. "And he gave me the right answer."

Given that he was talking to a 9-year-old kid who feels upset by seeing his president hated, I think Obama gave him pretty much the right answer, too.

The people who need to understand the effect that their very public vitriol, dripping in racism and thinly veiled threats of violence, is having on children, especially children of color, will not heed the inherent message in a child nervously asking why the president is hated. They will, instead, almost certainly endeavor to demonize the child as a plant and a tool of the hated president, because they are shameless cretins.

[H/T to Shaker Anitanola.]

Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.