Yesterday’s debate proved to me that President Obama or his staff are still under the impression that he can just stay cool and keep it classy, a la the 1950s black ideal: David Dinkins, Percy Sutton, Sidney Poitier.
I beg some ambitious White House staffer to screen Singin’ in the Rain for the president. Stat. Especially, the scene where movie star Don Lockwood utters the above lines.
I’ve had one motto I’ve always lived by. Dignity, Always Dignity
–Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) in Singin’ in the Rain
That scene is punctuated by flashbacks from his arduous, scrappy climb up the ladder. Dignity (read classy and presidential)? No. Brother Malcolm’s advice still holds: by any means necessary. Stay classy if you can. Witty if you’re able, but get it done. This dignity that President Obama seems enslaved to was only in play for a brief period by a small group. And what allowed that small group to indulge in it was, you guessed it, the scrappiness and decidedly undignified behavior of their forebears.
Free yourself from the dignity prison, President Obama. No matter what you do, you’re not going to convince those who still think you’re a Muslim foreigner. Do the right thing, your way, lower your blood pressure and keep it pushing.
