Race and Politics in 2008
Would Obama be a less appealing candidate if he looked like 50 Cent
and talked (style not substance) like Al Sharpton?
Would Obama, saying and doing exactly the same things, be more acceptable if he was a white male?
I think the answer to these questions, put to “White America,” is yes. Therein lies what will be a major and mostly unspoken challenge to Obama’s general election campaign. He’s black, and that still matters to a lot of people. Those people "see" and "hear" 50 Cent and Al Sharpton when they think about black people.
Obama has to overcome White America’s aversion to people like Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, Louis Farrahkan and the multitudes of rap and hip hop artists. (This is a generational issue for the most part. Under thirty White America isn’t really White America anymore.)
Young voters aside, race will matter to more people than will admit to its importance to them. An April AP/Yahoo poll found 8% of white voters uncomfortable voting for a black person.
And the campaigns know it. Hence, Bill Clinton’s comparison of Obama to Jackson. Descriptions of Obama as “articulate” (as opposed to?). North Carolina Republicans' Obama/Wright attack ad and McCain’s tepid request that they not run it.
Would Obama, saying and doing exactly the same things, be more acceptable if he was a white male?
I think the answer to these questions, put to “White America,” is yes. Therein lies what will be a major and mostly unspoken challenge to Obama’s general election campaign. He’s black, and that still matters to a lot of people. Those people "see" and "hear" 50 Cent and Al Sharpton when they think about black people.
Obama has to overcome White America’s aversion to people like Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, Louis Farrahkan and the multitudes of rap and hip hop artists. (This is a generational issue for the most part. Under thirty White America isn’t really White America anymore.)
Young voters aside, race will matter to more people than will admit to its importance to them. An April AP/Yahoo poll found 8% of white voters uncomfortable voting for a black person.
And the campaigns know it. Hence, Bill Clinton’s comparison of Obama to Jackson. Descriptions of Obama as “articulate” (as opposed to?). North Carolina Republicans' Obama/Wright attack ad and McCain’s tepid request that they not run it.
“'Americans want a respectful campaign. Do we have to go to the lowest common denominator? I don’t think so.’ But McCain told reporters [in North Carolina] that he may not be able to micromanage the situation here. ‘I cannot in my role dictate to the North Carolina Republican Party what their message is but I can condemn it.’” The Candidate takes the “high road” and the operatives sling mud. We won’t see any prominent Republicans engaging in racial politics; but, we will see mailings, state and regional advertising, soft money spending, all toying with race, all quickly, and not so quickly, “condemned” by John McCain.
I wonder if it will work?
4 comments:
This is terribly off-topic, but:
I wish Obama did look like Fifty-Cent, and that John McCain looked like Ozzy Osbourne, and that Hillary Clinton looked like Farrah Fawcett in 1977. Maybe then I wouldn't be so bored with this campaign!
Amen, thomaslb. Amen.
We discussed "tolerance" at a church-related small group last night. I mentioned that in my lifetime amazing progress has been made in Americans tolerating religious, racial, and sexual orientation differences. Someone else mentioned that "handicapped" people are now generally accepted in the mainstream population. And, the status of women is far different than it was in 1950.
Discrimination is "learned" behavior. Certain children are taught to fear some others, to see some others as less human, to see some others as potential competitors who must be suppressed. Only personal experience to the contrary can reverse that learning, but discriminators try to avoid contact with those they dislike.
Obama has quite a selling job ahead of him, but he is an excellent communicator. If he succeeds in convincing the white lower class and elderly Americans that he is really their best champion, he will have done much more than simply win the presidency.
Of course it will. The real question is how much? If Obama doesn't win against McCain, I for one will believe that this in-the-closet racism will have had a partial hand in that loss. Don't we know already that it doesn't take much of a "boo" to scare many in this country? It's unfortunate but true. Just watch it unfold.
Post a Comment