“It is going to be very difficult for Republicans to run on their stewardship of the economy or their outstanding foreign policy,” Obama told a fundraiser in Jacksonville, Florida. “We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?”
Barrack Obama warned his followers that his race would be a factor in the upcoming Presidential election.
He was right … more right than he realizes.
Race will be a factor for many voters as they go to the polls to elect the next POTUS; how many, there is no way to know. But race will play a role for three groups of voters.
One group will be the whites (and possibly other races) that vote against him because he is black. Yes Virginia, there are still bigots out there. Granted that number declines every day but they definitely still exist. Although, I would wager the number of voters that vote against him because he is a Democrat far outnumber the bigots.
Another group will be whites that vote for him because he is black due to what has become to be known as ‘White Guilt’.
Shelby Steele, an American author, columnist, documentary film maker, and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, specializing in the study of race relations, multiculturalism and affirmative action, has written extensively about this trend in many papers and books for some time. According to Mr. Steele,
What is white guilt? It is not a personal sense of remorse over past wrongs. White guilt is literally a vacuum of moral authority in matters of race, equality, and opportunity that comes from the association of mere white skin with America's historical racism. It is the stigmatization of whites and, more importantly, American institutions with the sin of racism. Under this stigma white individuals and American institutions must perpetually prove a negative--that they are not racist--to gain enough authority to function in matters of race, equality, and opportunity. If they fail to prove the negative, they will be seen as racists. Political correctness, diversity policies, and multiculturalism are forms of deference that give whites and institutions a way to prove the negative and win reprieve from the racist stigma.
Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of Slate Group, wrote in this article http://www.slate.com/id/2198397/
” Many have discoursed on what an Obama victory could mean for America. We would finally be able to see our legacy of slavery, segregation, and racism in the rearview mirror.”
There is no doubt that many whites on the left, consciously or not, see a vote for Obama as an absolution for white racial sins; a way to finally cleanse the stigma Shelby Steele writes about.
Unfortunately, a vacuum cannot be cleansed; it must be filled. A vote for Obama will not instill that moral authority needed to function in matters of race, equality, and opportunity.
Then there are the blacks that will vote for him because he is black. This is due to the strong sense of racial identity that exists in black people today.
In this article, http://townhall.com/Columnists/ThomasSowell/2008/09/17/the_high_cost_of_racial_hype
Thomas Sowell, an American economist, social commentator, and senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, writes this about the high cost of preserving racial identity among the black community.
“In a world where an absolute majority of black children are born and raised in fatherless homes, where most black kids never finish high school and where the murder rate among blacks is several times the national average, surely there must be more urgent priorities than preserving a lifestyle and an identity. During decades of researching racial and ethnic groups in countries around the world-- with special attention to those who began in poverty and then rose to prosperity-- I have yet to find one so preoccupied with tribalistic identity as to want to maintain solidarity with all members of their group, regardless of what they do or how they do it.”
According to a recent New York Times Poll, Obama leads among blacks, 89 percent to 2 percent for McCain. These numbers are far above the normal split among blacks for Democrat vs. Republican.
Yes, Race is a factor in the upcoming election. How much of a factor, how large these groups actually are, and how well they turn out at the polls is anyone’s guess.
