Jackie Robinson became recognized as a great American not because of his ability to play baseball, but because of the way he handled himself as the first black player. Constantly harrassed by immature racist who were obsessed with their hatred and fear, he countered the outragious behavior with dignity and class. His unwavering determination to not lower himself to the level of his critics convinced the public that Robinson was the real man, and the taunters were cowards. This was made obvious when fans began to turn on the racist. The racism began to subside as fans challanged the cowards.
It's kind of entertaining to see todays cowards use the net to show their racism. Entertaining because they are not smart enough to understand that their racism is one of the things people will look back on and help establish the first black President as a great man for simply having to put up with the immature and hateful fools.
If President Obama were more like Jackie Robinson, both in behavior and performance, he would be appreciated and honored as Jackie Robinson.
I was going to give you a positive rep but reading your entire post I changed my mind.
My post was not an effort to compare Robinson to Obama. It was meant to be a comparison between the racist of yesteryear and the racist of today, and how racist in general influence the recording of history.