J. Pharoah Doss: When the Black left treats you like an n-word in the street

STEPHEN A. SMITH In 2002, the Arkansas Hall of Fame inducted former Democratic President Bill Clinton as an honorary member. The hall acknowledged Clinton as the first non-Black individual. Toni Morrison, a famous novelist, may have given Clinton an extra stamp of approval with a prior honorary title. Morrison referred to Clinton as the country’s “first Black president” in The New Yorker in 1998. Morrison claimed that she first heard the idea in chats among Black men during the Clinton Whitewater probe. Morrison claimed Clinton was “Blacker than any actual Black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, Clinton displayed almost every trope of Blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class.” Regarding the Republican attempt to destroy Clinton over sexual misconduct, Morrison stated that for these Black men, “The message was clear: no matter how smart you are, how hard you work, or how much coin you earn for us, we will put you in your place.” At the time, no one disputed the idea, which was jokingly repeated. A decade later, when Barack Obama challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination and it was clear that Obama had a good chance of becoming the...