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Conservative Black Teen Goes Viral Criticizing Obama for Ahmed Invitation
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Sarah Begley
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Sep 18, 2015 1:20 PM CUT
U.S. President Barack Obama looks on during a meeting with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, not pictured, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Sept. 4, 2015.
U.S. President Barack Obama looks on during a meeting with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, not pictured, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Sept. 4, 2015.Olivier Douliery—Bloomberg/Getty Images
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Sep 18, 2015 1:20 PM CUT
A young African American conservative with a big Internet following has posted a video vigorously criticizing President Obama’s decision to invite 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed to the White House.
CJ Pearson, 13, questioned the president’s priorities in extending the invitation, noting that he had not invited the families of slain police officers to the White House. “But when a Muslim kid builds a clock? Come on by,” he says in the video posted to YouTube:
Mohamed brought a home-made clock to school to show his teacher; it was mistaken for a bomb and he was arrested. Obama responded to the news by tweeting a message of encouragement to the student:
Pearson, whose YouTube channel has some 11,800 subscribers, tells the Washington Post that he strongly believes “that Senator Cruz is truly what America needs to make America the shining city on a hill it once was.”
The young man called Mohamed a “political prop” for the Democratic party, but asked if he sees himself as a prop for Republicans, he said, “Not at all. At the end of the day, I’m not beholden to the Republican Party. They don’t own me and they never will. My political involvement is based on fighting for the conservative principles I believe in and fighting for the future of my generation.”
See Photos of Barack Obama in College
Chance Encounter In 1980, when Obama was a freshman at Occidental College in Los Angeles, he was approached by an aspiring photographer named Lisa Jack, who asked him if he would be willing to pose for some black and white photographs that she could use in her portfolio. Lisa Jack
Handsome Of her first meeting (in a campus eatery) with Obama, Jack remembers only that "He was really cute. But what else does a 20-year-old girl remember?" Lisa Jack
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Styled In the photos, Jack says, "You can see he is just posing, initially, but as the shoot goes on, he starts to come out. He was very charismatic even then." Lisa Jack
Prop Jack never realized her dream of becoming a photographer and is now a psychologist. Lisa Jack
Pose Jack and Obama would see each other only a few more times while students. But in 2005, while on a tour, she spotted Obama on Capitol Hill and yelled hello. "He knew exactly who I was after all this time," Jack says. "I was amazed." Lisa Jack
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Doubt On a dare from a skeptical friend, Jack decided to track down her negatives from the shoot. Lisa Jack
Searcher Initially, before she dug the film out from her basement, Jack never thought her pictures would have much life beyond her own darkroom. Lisa Jack
Smile When she found them, the images of Obama "blew me away," she says. "I had no idea I'd taken a whole roll of film." Lisa Jack
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Charm For a while, Jack put the negatives in a safety-deposit box, so that they could not be used until after the election, when there would be no chance they could be used for a political purpose.
Thoughtful Today, Jack says, she hopes the photos reveal a "spirit of fun and thoughtfulness." Lisa Jack
The Man Who Would Be President "I'm not political," Jack says, "(But) these are historic photos and they should be shared." Lisa Jack