While the Obama presidency and the year itself both come to an end, the double standard extant between folks of color and others continues unchecked.

President-elect Donald Trump, who accused a sitting president of falsifying his birth certificate, has “reminded” Michelle Obama of her need to remain quietly within Teutonic shadows when it comes to what she says.

Mrs. Obama’s recent remark about the loss of “hope” apparently ticked off the president-elect, prompting him to once again take words out of context and make a fool of himself.

Mrs. Obama experienced this type of “muzzling” back in 2008 when she said, in part, “I … was not particularly proud to be an American.”

In Mr. Trump’s new America, voices not in tune with his own are seemingly considered antithetical to the American way!

In 2008, we witnessed American media deliberately obviate the unequivocal fact that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright had actually quoted Edward Peck, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan’s Terrorism Task Force, for which he was ostracized. The fact is, Rev. Wright prefaced his remarks by saying, “I heard Ambassador Peck … yesterday … on FOX News … this is a white man and he was upsetting the FOX News commentators …”

In this 21st century, when a white man in this country is frowned upon for “upsetting commentators” and a black president is deliberately disrespected during his eight years, the question has to be asked how much progress really has been made. And what does a Trump presidency portend?

Many people of color have generationally suppressed feelings that, constitutionally, we should be able to express without having the leader-to-be of this country arousing an American public against a right he himself abuses.

CHARLES RITZBERG

Richmond