To the Editor:
Re “The President of Black America?,” by Michael Eric Dyson (Sunday Review, June 26):
Surely the paramount challenge Barack Obama faced as the first black chief executive was establishing and defending his credentials as president of all the people. Nothing would have destroyed the hopes inspired by his election faster than a perceived racial tilt.
One can imagine the terrible anguish the president’s inner self must have suffered while he held to a restrained and steady course. All Americans, black and otherwise (I am white), are better for it.
WILLIAM C. SEXTON
Pittsfield, Mass.
Note from KBJ: Barack Obama is black first (even though he's only half black), a progressive ideologue second, and a cosmopolitan (i.e., a citizen of the world) third. Being an American is far down his list. He should be an American first and foremost. The people who voted for him are idiots.
