The "We Don't Know Obama" Meme

Update: Exceptionally Articulate - Obama's eloquence fails to quiet charges that he does not believe in God or America. Dickerson. Slate.
 
This "we don't know who Obama is" meme is just stupid. What exactly do you think you know about any other president that you don't know about Obama? He's kinda nerdy, grew up in Hawaii, he's pretty even-keeled; he's written a couple of books; he's given a speech pretty much every week for the last three or four years; his life is pretty well-documented. So what is it that you "don't know?" The strangest thing about this meme is that it's coming from the non-birther, non-crackpot, "real journalists" out there; mainstream people talking about how they "don't know Obama."

What is it that you think you know about Clinton or Bush or whomever that you don't know about Obama?

Part of me thinks there's a racial aspect to this meme (yeah, I know, I know it's all about race with "you people"; whatever). Like, it's just unbelievable to white people that a black man could be nerdy, intelligent, family-oriented, or not angry. Since he doesn't really fit into the stereotypes white people have about blacks, then he's a "mystery." He's not a mystery at all to people who know Black people from different socio-economic classes and regions. He seems very much to me like a lot of upper-middle class black people I grew up with in D.C.

What would make Obama less of a mystery to people? Should he grow out an Angela Davis afro, pound his fist on the podium and call for Black power? Should he abandon his family? Should he rob a liquor store? Would that make Obama less of a mystery? Would that make him more "familiar"? Sphere: Related Content