There’s new controversy today over the photograph that captured a tense moment between Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) and President Obama on an airport tarmac during Obama’s visit to Arizona last week.

The two reportedly disagreed over how Brewer described a meeting with the president in her book, “Scorpions for Breakfast.” Now, some members of the African American community are calling Brewer’s finger-wagging gesture and her description of the encounter as “racist.”

Last week, radio show host Joe Madison said, “There’s some people, not all, in this country who cannot stand the fact that this is an African American, who is now one of the most powerful individuals on the planet.”

Jehmu Greene and David Webb joined America Live to debate the issue.

Greene said that “at the end of the day, Governor Jan Brewer is not a racist. I think that she, as well as the overwhelming majority of Americans, has egalitarian beliefs. She wants and believes that everyone in this country is equal, but the reality is we live in a country, we live in a world, where there is bias that we have that is subconscious.”
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She went on to say that sometimes our behaviors, including how we smile at someone or the distance at which we stand from others, don’t match up with our egalitarian beliefs.

Greene conceded that some are leaping too far by calling this racist, but still countered that people are missing the bigger issue — Brewer was disrespectful to the president. “Would she or any governor approach a president in that manner if he was a white man?” Greene asked.

David Webb acknowledged that it’s impolite to point but said, “Is this a case where the president and his acolytes need to call out the ‘black mafia,’ which is what they are, to turn it into racism?”

Watch the entire debate below: