Eugene Robinson isn’t pulling any punches with his new column: Obama needs to stand up to ‘reverse racism’ ploy.

After the Shirley Sherrod episode, there’s no longer any need to mince words: A cynical right-wing propaganda machine is peddling the poisonous fiction that when African Americans or other minorities reach positions of power, they seek some kind of revenge against whites.

A few of the purveyors of this bigoted nonsense might actually believe it. Most of them, however, are merely seeking political gain by inviting white voters to question the motives and good faith of the nation’s first African American president. This is really about tearing Barack Obama down.

The Sherrod incident really has exposed the nasty underbelly of the right wing; an innocent woman was subjected to an Internet and media lynching, driven by the most base and racist elements of a movement that has been driven insane by the election of an African American president.