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Lewis Hamilton likes to talk about how he was too poor, too black, or too unknown to succeed.
One of our former U.S. Presidents liked to say that he doesn't look like the other Presidents on U.S. currency, or that he was discriminated against and held back by his race or religion. He suggested, perhaps by now it's out of habit, that the rest of the country has to change, but he's doing just fine.
In Lewis Hamilton, I find it to be odd that the most wealthy athlete in the world, with a global audience, can find the opportunity to scold the same sport that has given him his lucky break, then his fortune, and his fame.
In the case of our country's President, his poor upbringing, his education, political career, and eventual two-term presidency all serve to undermine his complaint that a poor black child born in this country is not allowed to succeed.
In both cases I see a hypocrite who is trying to use divisive language in order to give himself praise at the same time as criticizing the very system that created him.
Both men like to yammer on about the old saw of inequality in America. Never mind the fact that one of them is not American. There'll never be total equality. But there is still opportunity, and that is what counts. History will not be kind to these sorts of figures who are petty race-peddling shamans. History has called their bluff already. That is an empirical fact.
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