Birthers To Obama: Show Us Your Papers

This has been bothering me since President Barack Obama released his long-form birth certificate. Depending on who you talk to the release was either a brilliant political move or a raw capitulation.

Trump and the birthers.

The truth seems to be that he did so at the pressure and insistence from Donald Trump, of all people. Trump has been on a show-us-your-birth-certificate rant for weeks, at the same time toying with the media about his possible run for the presidency. And the media, being as obsessive as it is, only dropped its coverage of Trumps every move and blather for another obsession: the British Royals. By then, though, Trump’s work had been done.

An end to silliness?

The president said he released his long-form birth certificate to put an end to the silliness of the birther claims. And he did so. The question why did it take him three years? Why now?

I’ll leave that speculation for others. I’m interested in the image. I’m interested in how that one act, that putting an end to the birther silliness, may have added fuel to another extreme-right silliness. The birthers, led in this instance by Donald Trump, forced the President of the United States, the first non-white president of the United States, to prove his citizenship. He capitulated in the sense that he showed them his papers because they ranted and wouldn’t shut up.

If the president is forced to show his papers, what about the rest of us?

I think many Latinos believe that this was not the best of possible political moves. What are we to expect for our own civil rights when the President has to show his papers? You see, the only thing that our current predsident has that’s different from all past presidents is that he doesn’t look like them. He spent part of his childhood in Africa and Indonesia,  his name has more vowels than most Americans are used to, his skin is darker. He couldn’t possibly be a real American, so show us you papers. And he did.

So I think the question is valid. Did the president’s releasing his birth certificate set Latino politics and civil rights back? If the President is forced by extreme conservatives to prove his citizenship by showing his papers, what can the rest of us expect?

I’d love to know your thoughts.

Follow Victor Landa on Twitter: @vlanda