If there is no racial undertone to the way the terms “arrogant” and “uppity” are being slung around and flung onto Barack Obama, then I have a favor to ask. Would someone who describes Obama as arrogant, please explain to me how he is different from any other presidential candidate? I don’t know about you, but I have yet to encounter a President or presidential candidate who did not have a more than ample helping of confident drive wrapped in a very muscular ego.

Hello, people. If you believe you are qualified to lead the most powerful country in the free world (still) you had better believe that you know what is right, what is best and have the courage of your convictions. I believe it was arrogant of George W. Bush to distort the power of the White House into a weapon he used to execute countless end runs around the Constitutional checks and balances of our government; but I don’t hear Pat Buchanan complaining about that display of “entitlement.”

If you are wondering why people like me get so peeved at words like “arrogant” or “uppity,” it’s because some of us understand that there was a time in America that black men and women who were deemed “uppity” were tortured and lynched for being proud of who they were and successful. If you were called “uppity” it was a warning. Black people who “did not know their place” and who owned land and businesses and sought to exercise their American rights were slaughtered, entire communities burned to the ground.

And there’s the rub. Even today, for some people it’s just too much to see a relatively young, self-identified black man who displays such composure and fearlessness. It makes them feel, oh I don’t know, it makes them feel like “he just makes me nervous” or “I can’t put my finger on it, there’s just something about him” or “he and Michelle just seem to think they are entitled.”

Here’s the kicker. They ARE entitled. Barack and Michelle Obama are entitled to every opportunity and benefit this country has to offer every citizen. No more, no less. They get to claim it ALL just like the rest of us.

I have been called arrogant about a dozen times throughout my life. Each time it was by a white person and each time the judgment came as a stinging broadside. It’s different now. I am much stronger in keeping my own counsel and even more self assured. Call me what you will. But for a young black woman, working to excel in the corporate workplace, it was surely an unnecessary distraction. And silly identity adjectives are unnecessary distractions in the current political campaign, too. We don’t have a moment to let our focus drift away from the big issues our nation had better deal with.

We continue to engage this kind of asinine wordplay at our peril.