Although many of us may now feel relieved that President Obama has finally put the Birth Certificate Question to rest, and others argue that even posting his long form Certificate will never stop the questioning of him with false rumors and lies.
We've seen this before when John Kerry was strategically Swiftboated with lies about his Miliary Service and an attack on his patriotism for standing up and reporting the Truth to the U.S. Congress about the Winter Soldiers.
We've seen it before when Bill Clinton was accused of being "A Really Good Rapist", some type of Grifter with Whitewater and even a Murderer when his aid Vince Foster died.
A lot of people think this is about Race, but I think recent partisan history shows that this Xenophobia is first and foremost a tactic to manipulate people.
But we should also realize that this isn't new, and that it is especially onerous when used against our First African American President, because it's been done to them - for centuries as TheGrio.com's Goldie Taylor
"Show me your papers!"
Major Blackard, then just 19 years old, dug into his trousers in search of his wallet. He padded his jacket, but could not find his billfold.
"Sir, I done left my wallet..." Blackard said. Before he could finish his sentence, the young man was posted against the brick wall, cuffed and taken to the St. Louis city jail. Unable to prove his identity, he would spend the next 21 days in a cramped, musty cell. That's where his older brother Matt found him, beaten and bloodied. Matt returned with Major's employer later that day, wallet and identification card in hand, to post bond.
The year was 1899. Major Blackard was my great, great grandfather.
The real crime, as Pulitzer Prize winning author Doug Blackmon points on in his seminal work Slavery by Any Other Name, was that my grandfather was a colored man in America
112 years later, and Black men - even the President - still have to show their papers.
That confrontation took place decades after the passage of the 14th Amendment which stated that all persons within - not citizens, persons - within the jurisidiction of the state were Guaranteed the Equal Protection of the Laws.
Yet equal protection is not what they received and we all know it - for nearly a Century after the End of the Civil War.
The Constitution already promised Fairness and Equal Treatment - yet that promise was denied.
Make no mistake, if Obama were a White man - they wouldn't be asking for his "Long Form Birth Certificate" they'd be asking for something else ridiculous and divisive to undermine his legitimacy, his character and his manhood.
The Right uses this as a Dog-Whistle to those who "Want Their America Back (From all the Minorities, Gays, Non-Americans, and American Hating Libruls who've "ruined" it by daring to challange and supplant their cultural/social supremacy).
But when all the politicking is over - Democrats really didn't have to worry about being harassed for being a womanizer as Clinton was, or being a false soldier as Kerry was - however Black Men and Women will continue to have their legitimacy and their qualifications questioned, and then questioned again.
Muslims will be asked to prove they aren't with Al Qeada, and that they don't endorse Sharia Law.
America kids who don't look like Donald Trump, who may look a bit Latino or Arab, will have to show Their Papers to prove they aren't in the nation illegally.
And the clock continues to click as the decades pass by since America made a promise to it's people and citizens - a promise that remains broken, a promise of an Ideal of Justice and Fairness that remains little more a Lie.
First we had the Birthers, then the Deathers, now come the Schoolers?
Enough!
Some old friends of mine who happen to be members of the Band Living Colour put it this way... "Which Way to America?"
(V. Reid)
I look at the TV.
You're Americas doing Well.
I look out the window.
My Americas Catching Hell.
I want to know - which way do I go to get to your America?
After Colombia, Harvard Law, becoming the Editor of Law Review, graduating Magna Cum Laude, years in the Illinois State Senate, U.S. Senate and now Presidency Obama still has to freeze and assume the position while Donald Trump checks his papers?
If that's the Best Treatment a Black Man can expect in America, it might be understandable why some of us aren't all that thrilled or are even enraged by this entire debacle.
We deserve better America, we all deserve a Better America - this one is still broken.
Vyan