If we take ourselves back to November of this past year, we remember the excellent coverage in this paper of Barack Obama's election as our nation's 44th president. Most importantly, he also became our first African-American president. Our country had made a giant step in washing away the great stain of slavery, segregation, lynching and Jim Crow laws.
Another monumental election, which to my knowledge The Miami Student neglected to cover, was the election of Michael S. Steele as the new chairman of the Republican Party. Granted, GOP chairman ranks below the leader of the free world, but what makes Michael Steele's election special is the fact that he is the first African-American chairman in the Republican Party's history. I can't necessarily fault with The Miami Student for neglecting to mention this historical event because there are many out there who have ignored this election. In fact, President Obama has failed to make any sort of statement about Chairman Michael Steele and his new role in the GOP.
For those who don't know, Michael Steele is a hard-working man from a working class family whose life story rivals that of our beloved leader. Adopted at birth in 1958, Steele's father died in 1962. Refusing to go on welfare, Steele's mother worked as a laundress and eventually married a truck driver working with the Department of Defense. Steele received a scholarship to go to Johns Hopkins University, becoming one of the first individuals in his family to go to college. He was also elected class president his first year at Johns Hopkins. Steele would go on to graduate from Georgetown Law School in 1991 and work for a couple of prestigious international law firms in Washington, D.C.
After working in law, Michael Steele became increasingly involved with politics in Maryland. He became the first African-American chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, obtaining the honor in 2000. Three years later, he became lieutenant governor of the state of Maryland, the first African-American elected to statewide office in that state. And, of course, he's now the current GOP chairman, the first African-American to hold that position. Say anything you want about Steele, but he sure is one to blaze a lot of trails.
Unfortunately, the election of Michael Steele has been met with outrage from those on the left. For those who want to be extremely disheartened at the current state of our views on race in this country, type in "Uncle Tom" and "Michael Steele" into Google and read some of the garbage written by liberals who apparently think they have a monopoly on eloquent, intelligent, accomplished black politicians in this country. Look at the blog post on perception managers and see Michael Steele painted up to look like "Sambo" with the heading of "Simple Sambo is going to run the RNC." Look at the Youtube.com video titled "Is RNC chairman Michael Steele an 'UNCLE TOM'?" and see how it is assumed that Michael Steele allows Republicans to attack President Obama without being labeled as racists. Or, look at the Village Voice Blog online, containing a post that states "the (GOP's) ensuing blind faith that a moderately qualified former lieutenant governor and current Fox News talking head would, by virtue of being black, somehow turn back the tide." Of course, this isn't the first time Steele has had to fight against those who see Steele only as an African-American and not one who has worked hard his entire life. While running for lieutenant governor in 2002, a Baltimore newspaper stated that Steele would bring little to the team besides the color of his skin.
Shouldn't Michael Steele finally get the credit he finally deserves? Having faced incredible challenges his entire life, he now finds opposition in those who refuse to believe that a talented, articulate, experienced man can legitimately earn the title of Republican Party chairman while being African-American. For a long time, the left has screamed "racist" against the political right for their supposed lack of diversity. Now the left is launching accusations of political pandering, affirmative action and voting based solely on skin color and not experience or new ideas. And if they're not bashing the Republican Party for this pick, they're spewing hypocrisy with each word that comes out of their mouth. Just this month, I watched as President Obama's cheerleader, Keith Olbermann, blasted a New York Post cartoon for joking that a chimpanzee had written the stimulus bill. Instead of recognizing the fact the cartoonist was commenting on the horrendously constructed stimulus package (you know, so pathetic that a monkey could've written it) and using a current event (chimpanzee that was shot and killed) as the catalyst, Olbermann chalked up the intentions of the artist as ones of malice, an attempt to portray our commander-in-chief as a monkey. However, Olbermann remains hushed on the race-based attacks on Chairman Michael Steele. It is a sad day in this country when an accomplished man has his achievements tarnished based solely on the color of his skin. This columnist felt that we had made great strides with the election of our 44th president. Unfortunately, as the left shows, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
