Sasha Obama Respects the Power of Diversity More Than Ohio Gov. John Kasich

It's good to be the king ... and it ain't bad being the First Daughter either! I see that 9-year old Sasha Obama was able to practice her fledgling Chinese with China president Hu Jintao during his visit to the White House earlier this week.

Chinese isn't a language that we had available on the school menu back in the day when I was in school ... and I don't think that my young 'uns here in the Ohio public school system have that as an option either...

...of course, our highest elected officer in Ohio doesn't go in much for diversity when it comes to languages or the people he works with. Newly-elected Governor John Kasich has managed to pick almost two-dozen people to his cabinet ... and he only wanted to work with other white folks. He hasn't selected any people of color to serve in his cabinet. You have to go back to the pre-Civil Rights days of the 1950s to find an Ohio governor who was that afraid of Black or Brown people.

Elections have consequences ... and Black people are about to learn what it means when people like Kasich and Speaker John Boehner get into office. These are folks who don't seem to want to be associated with African Americans in their workplace.

We need to keep a close eye on these folks over the next couple of years ... and I need to learn a few words of Chinese in case I ever run into young Sasha!

John Boehner Doesn't Like People of Color

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us to judge a man by his actions ("content of his character"). I'm applying that logic to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and the judgment is a simple one -- Boehner doesn't like people of color. He appears to go out of his way to avoid any prolonged interaction with anyone that isn't Caucasian.

I began to notice the lack of racial comfort in Boehner last week when he turned down the offer to ride in Air Force One with the President, First Lady and others to the memorial being held to honor the fallen from the tragedy in Tucson. It didn't make sense to me that Boehner wouldn't go with President Obama to represent the nation at this seminal event of the new year.

In Tucson we witnessed a remarkable event:

A Republican, Catholic judge was killed going to the meeting of a Democratic Jewish Congresswoman who was saved by a Mexican-American intern and successfully operated on by a Korean-American surgeon. The dead were later eulogized by an African American President.

Where was Boehner at the time? He was hobnobbing with some white Republican leaders at some cocktail party. Boehner doesn't have a problem spending quality time with white folks ... especially if there is a cocktail included!

It is worth noting that the cocktail party was being held as part of an effort to unseat GOP chairman Michael Steele ... a Black man ... from the office he held over the past two years.

Boehner turned down an invitation to a state dinner being hosted in honor of Chinese president Hu Jintao and his wife. Boehner is second-in-succession for the presidency ... and he doesn't think it important to participate in this private dinner with the leader of the largest nation on the planet?

I thought perhaps Boehner just doesn't like to wear a tuxedo ... but, then I see that he didn't have any problem going to black-tie state dinner hosted by former president George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush a few years ago in honor of Queen Elizabeth II.

Boehner may joke about 'Being Black' ... but, the reality is that Boehner's rebuke of the African American family in the White House and our nation's guests from China shows a disturbing trend.

I think it is fair to say that Speaker John Boehner doesn't like people of color.   What say u?