"Open up your hearts and minds to the words of Professor Derrick Bell." Those were the words spoken by Obama in regards to his racialist professor Derrick Bell in a video released by Breitbart's team that launched a media war of right versus left. Or more accurately, right vesus the liberal media.
Some people believe the story is insignificant and people shouldn't waste time on it, while others believe it's something worth looking into. I personally believe it's worth looking into. A friend of mine argued if Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers didn't change anyone's mind, Professor Bell and his ties to Obama won't either.
I disagree.
For one, people don't necessarily remember 'talk' of Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright, and Obama's ties. The media did nothing to vet him. The only people who spoke of his ties were by conservative bloggers and Fox News. Not everyone reads blogs or watches Fox News, and if any of the other liberal media outlets picked up the story, it was to mock those talking about it. The average person who doesn't follow politics closely probably has no idea who either of those people are, and if they do remember talk, probably forgot about it by now. It never hurts to remind people.
Secondly, when the ties were first brought to light, Obama was held in such high regard and painted as a savior by the media. Not many people knew what a President Obama would look like and took him at his word. Now, 4 years later, people see something completely different and the media is on defense.
That same person who told me it's not a big deal and doesn't matter argued that Bell isn't going to convince anyone of anything. It's not about convincing, it's about putting things into perspective and giving people a better idea of why President Obama makes the decisions that he does. All of this wasn't possible in 2008 as Obama's past was relatively unknown to a lot of people.
One of those people digging is Justen Charters who made this well-researched video that's definitely worth a look. Be sure to pass this video on to all of your friends. If you wanted to look into the matter yourself, Justen provides links back to all his sources in his YouTube page description.
Here is just a snippet of Bell's thinking.
In 2002 while on a panel at the Harlem Book Fair, Bell wonders whether society could exist without racism, refers to white people as "having a sense of entitlement based on being white", says "racism is permanent", and believes white people should do what alcoholics do to survive- admit they're racist, will always be racist and say, "today I'm going to try to get through it."