Despite “Dr.” Jill Biden recently butchering it in a speech, “Si se puede” – or “Yes we can” – was Democrat Barack Obama’s attempt to be hip and uplifting in his 2008 campaign, as well as an effort to build a bridge to Hispanic voters.
But in one Illinois town, they saying, “No, no podemos” – “No we can’t.”
As in, “No, we can’t honor Obama.”
Last summer, in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, radical protesters went on a wild canceling binge. In public parks, buildings, streets, and other areas, they ripped down, vandalized, or destroyed monuments dedicated to, among others, Confederate generals, the Founding Fathers, Columbus, Abraham Lincoln. Almost no U.S. historic figure was safe.
In this horribly ahistorical, anti-intellectual mindset, Thomas Jefferson – founder, president, drafter of the Declaration of Independence – made a ripe target, as a Southerner and slaveholder.
This was the thinking in Waukegan, Illinois, whose school board recently removed Jefferson’s name from a middle school.
Check out the ‘Cancel Corner‘, a new section launched where we report on the latest Cancel Cases and stories from around the globe.
One idea was to rename it after Barack and Michelle Obama, who were America’s first black president and first lady, and from nearby Chicago.
That didn’t go so well, however.
Waukegan is more than 50 percent Hispanic, and as The Guardian reported, “Opposition to naming this school after Obama stems from the deportation of 5 million people during his presidency, most of whom were Latino.”
In other words Obama wasn’t just not woke enough for Waukegan – to many residents, he was downright Trumpian.
One Waukegan school board member, Edgar Castellanos, who came to America as an illegal immigrant when he was a child, said he would “not be part of renaming a school after someone who did not and does not represent the undocumented community,” according to news reports.
Julie Contreras, an activist affiliated with a group that operates shelters for illegal immigrant children at the southern border, noted, “From the time Barack Obama became president until 2017 when he left, he today is still the highest-ranking president with deportations in our nation. We feel that Barack Obama did a disservice to us. He denied us, and he didn’t stop the deportations, the way he promised.”
She added, “If you’re removing the name of Thomas Jefferson — one oppressor — the name of Obama is another oppressor and our families do not want to see that name.”
In Obama’s defense, he claimed nearly two dozen times that he lacked authority to not deport some illegal immigrants, and then reversed course later in his term and refused to deport illegals.
But that was not enough for Waukegan.
“Today, I want to urge the board to drop the names of Barack and Michelle Obama from consideration,” one city resident, Oscar Arias, told the school board. “Barack Obama’s presidency is filled with hostility against the immigrant community.”
A press release distributed before board meeting resurrected Obama’s old nickname: “Deporter in Chief.”
You know the wokeness is out of control when Obama gets canceled.
Check out the ‘Cancel Corner‘, a new section launched where we report on the latest Cancel Cases and stories from around the globe.
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