Book Review - Hail To The Chief "A Tribute to President Obama" by Robert A. Stovall, Ph.D

I received this book from the author about the same time I was given a book by Glenn Beck as a gift. Originally I was going to do a dual review.  A book that showed Obama in a good light and a book that showed him in a bad light. I quickly discovered, you really can't judge a book by it's cover unless you want to be mislead. Therefore I will be doing two seperate reviews.

After I sat down and read Hail To The Chief, I was disappointed to find that it really wasn't a tribute to Obama. Hail To The Chief is an imaginary interview between, "The Voice" and "Obama". That, actually could have been a novel concept so I opened the cover with an open mind. What I discovered was not a book that was focused on praising Obama or even focused on his idealogies. I discovered a book that was all about Racism. Oh, that's not what the book comes right out and says. It actually repeatedly focuses on imaginary questions that ask how does it feel to be the first black man in the Oval Office. How does it feel to be the face of all Blacks. It saddened me and at the time I was reading it angered me. Obama, as the President is a face for all Americans regardless of skin color. Here was a well-educated, affluent man, who did not even recognize that he had just published a racist book. Unfortunately, there will always be racism. Why? Because people waste too much time focusing on the color of their skin and the color of the skin of those around them, that they don't see the man or the woman. They are blinded by their own racist tendencies, yet are so focused on appearing non-racist that they don't see that very act is making them more racist. When will we stop focusing on white vs black, black vs white. What about all the other colors?  What really makes a person one race or another. Is a person with dark skin automatically an "African American", someone with very pale skin "White" or "Caucasian"? Sadly, that way of thinking is only a display of ignorance. People look at me and see a very pale blue eyed blonde. I must be "White" and yes, I mark caucasian when asked to check a certain box because that is predomently who I am. I am mainly Scotch-Irish. However if you look past my skin tone and take a deeper look at my hertitage, you will find I also have Native American, Cuban and African running through my veins. In all honesty, if you live in the United States and really researched your heritage you would find something very similar. So, again I have to ask, will we ever be able to look past these labels of ignorance?

Unfortunately this is not a book I enjoyed or would recommend. It is not what it was represented to be. I think it is great that Stovall has pride in his heritage, but he should portray this book as a focus on how blacks have risen out of oppression but should never stop focusing on the difference in ones skin color. Because that is what this book is really about. The only positive I can say about it, is that it made me feel the need to write this post and ask these questions. I give this one out of five flags.
*This book was provided by the author.