A national debate on race that Barack Obama had hoped to avoid was ignited today when Jimmy Carter claimed that much of the opposition to the president has arisen because he is black.
The former president said racism had come to the surface across the country because of a belief held by many whites that an African American is not qualified to be in the White House.
"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African American," Carter said. The Republican party today issued a denial, saying Carter was "flat-out wrong" and that opposition was not because of Obama's skin colour but his policies.
Carter, who aired his views in a television interview and at a public meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday, is the most senior Democrat yet to voice what many in the party have been saying both in public and private after the Republican Congressman Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" during Obama's key speech on healthcare reform in Congress, after anti-government demonstrations over health that have been almost exclusively white, and after the increasingly aggressive tone on rightwing talk shows.
Blog sites in the US attracted an unusually high volume of traffic today in the aftermath of Carter's claims and highlighted the rawness of the divide.
Carter, interviewed by NBC to mark his 85th birthday, said: "I live in the south, and I've seen the south come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shared the south's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African Americans.
"And that racism inclination still exists. And I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the south but around the country, that African Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply."
The Associated Press reported that Carter, when asked at a public meeting about Wilson's jibe, said: "I think it's based on racism."
The White House, fighting to put out one political fire after another raised by Republicans and rightwing commentators, is hunting for a strategy to counter what it regards as bogus claims about health and other issues. It has strenuously avoided making race an issue and will not regard Carter's intervention as helpful.
Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, at the weekend played down suggestions that healthcare opponents were racially motivated. When, in July, Obama described as "stupid" a police arrest of a black Harvard professor, the White House saw it as an unfortunate diversion from its push on healthcare reform.
Michael Steele, the African-American chairman of the Republican national committee, said that playing the race card was a pathetic distraction by the Democrats to shift attention away from his healthcare plan. Injecting race into the debate divides rather than unites Americans, he said.
"Characterising Americans' disapproval of president Obama's policies as being based on race is an outrage and a troubling sign about the lengths Democrats will go to disparage all who disagree with them," Steele said. "Playing the race card shows that Democrats are willing to deal from the bottom of the deck."
Wilson's son, Alan, an Iraq veteran running for office in South Carolina, denied his father's shout of "You lie" was racially motivated. "There is not a racist bone in my dad's body," Wilson said. "He doesn't even laugh at distasteful jokes. I won't comment on former President Carter, because I don't know President Carter. But I know my dad, and it's just not in him.
"People can disagree - and appropriately disagree - on issues of substance, but when they make the jump to race it's absolutely ludicrous. My brothers and I were raised by our parents to respect everyone regardless of background or race."
The House on Tuesday voted to rebuke Wilson for his outburst in Congress.
The Southern Poverty Law Centre, one of the main groups in the US tracking hate groups, expressed support for Carter. Mark Potok, the director of the team investigating hate groups, said: "I think what President Carter said is precisely what is going on. I am not saying that everyone involved in opposing healthcare reform is a Klansman in disguise, but it is the elephant in the room."
His group has noted an increase in the number of hate groups, plots and racist incidents linked to Obama since he accepted the Democratic nomination to run for president last year.
Carter's remarks came after concerns expressed by other Democrats. The Congressman Henry Johnson said in a television interview on Tuesday: "I guess we'll probably have folks putting on white hoods and white uniforms again and riding through the countryside."
A potentially incendiary element was introduced when a video was displayed on many websites showing a 17-year-old white boy being beaten up by black teenagers on a bus in Belleville, Illinois. The video was displayed today even though the police said they did not believe the attack was racially motivated.
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