WaPo (black) columnist: Obama needs to act black

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by Courtland Milloy

By most accounts, Obama acts like a black man behind closed doors. He talks trash while shooting hoops, talks Chicago South Side tough with his aides and conveys a range of emotions, including anger.

Once in public, though, he demurs - as if upholding some unspoken bargain with white America to never look like an angry black man in exchange for continued off-the-charts "likability" ratings and a shot at reelection in 2012.

It's bad enough that there are so few black men in public life who can be thought of as feared and respected - except for athletes such as, say, LeBron James. No black "Hammer" in the House, as Tom DeLay was called. No black arm-twisting ####### Cheney or in-your-face Rahm Emanuel lurking in the West Wing. Not even a black James Carville just to show up and harass the opposition.

But for a black president to apparently choose to be the Great Placator is downright embarrassing. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times calls Obama "a 46-year-old virgin"; The Post's Kathleen Parker says he acts like the nation's "first female president."

You know it's bad when a white woman tag team can play the dozens with a black man and score unanswered points left and right.

On Monday, Obama's manhood took three more hits in the headlines: From The Post's E.J. Dionne, "Does Obama have it in him to respond to critics?" From The Post's Marc Thiessen, "Obama administration is weak in the face of WikiLeaks." And from Robert Kuttner in the Huffington Post, "Backbone, Please."

Much of this criticism against Obama has to do with his resolve, not his race. But I see the president as a black man first. It's a pride thing. Obama's victory wasn't just about his progressive platform. It was a historic, racial barrier-busting victory that was supposed to make it just a little easier for black boys to imagine being president.

But Obama is proving himself to be a most peculiar commander in chief. Maybe another black boy will someday grow up to become president, but if he turns out to be like Obama, it'll be hard to call him a black man.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/30/AR2010113006788.html