When Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama won the South Carolina primary, former President Bill Clinton said it was because he was black.

When Hillary Clinton was asked if she was going to give up her campaign for the presidency, she mentioned Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination from 1968 as an example of why she shouldn’t act so hastily in giving up delegates.

Have these people no shame?

My father once told me that people may not always say what they mean, but they always mean what they say. Robert Johnson, the black billionaire from BET and a Hillary Clinton supporter, intimated that Obama had sold crack-cocaine in the black community. Just recently, Jesse Jackson accused Obama of talking down to black people. In addition, he said what he really wanted to do was perform a medical procedure on his genitals, if you get my drift.

I wonder why these famous and rich liberals are busy playing the race card. I was always under the impression that only white mean-spirited Republicans did that. Well wonders never cease.

It has finally become apparent that the reason Jesse Jackson, who also referred to New York as “Hymietown,” is critical of Obama is because he is jealous — as is the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has also made disparaging comments.

Most of the time when there is a race problem, conservatives call for Superman, while liberals call for Al or Jesse. The gravy train has ended.

The latest figures say 98 percent of blacks will vote for Obama. But why have the civil rights organizations been strangely quiet? Why such a disconnect or difference in support? If Barack Obama becomes president, what will the NAACP or the Urban League do? They can’t blame Republicans, white people or even George Bush.

They will have to shift gears and talk about personal responsibility, condemn gangster rap, or even demand that black kids take education seriously.

They will even have to focus on the fact that black fathers need to stick around, and maybe start talking about the successes in the black community instead of always focusing on the failures in the black community.

What will the liberals do, or the “blame America first” crowd? What we need in the black community, dare I say it, are groups that sound conservative. Personal responsibility, taking education seriously, strengthening the family — those all sound strangely conservative, and something liberals would rarely mention, except to their own children.

Ultimately, it will matter little what happens in the White House. But it will matter a great deal what happens in your house.

No excuses.

Walter Backstrom is a Federal Way resident. Contact: wbackstrom@aol.com.