I hate to break it to Kanye West, and to you if you subscribe to that firebrand's most famous piece of rhetoric, but George Bush cares about black people.

You wouldn't know it from his demeanor, his famous Yalie smirk and country swagger forever leading you to believe he's about two beers away from calling Colin Powell "boy." Certainly his lax, almost uninterested response to Hurricane Katrina did nothing for his pro-black image ("Brownie, you're doing a helluva job"). And, indeed, some of the man's stances on policy – like his stern opposition to the hate crimes bill – at best reek of ignorance, and at worst of bigotry. Yet despite all that, I can't, in good faith, condemn Dubya as a person who cares not for black people.

Bad President? Definitely. Oblivious? Absolutely. Unfeeling racist out to rid the world of blacks? No way. And the reason I'm certain of this begins and ends with Africa.

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