“Did I Mention He’s Black?”
Barack Obama started out running as a race-neutral candidate, but Jeremiah Wright and the “white working class demographic” made the issue inescapable, and the presidential campaign will benefit from having it out in the open.
At a fund-raiser this weekend, he previewed the underbelly of the Republican attacks to come:
“We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run,” Obama told supporters. “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?”
And to cap it all: “He’s got a feisty wife.”
It takes rare confidence and courage to anticipate and drag out into the light the kind of prejudice that thrives on darkness, to do what John Kerry, to his regret, failed to do in 2004–confront the 527 slime machine that John McCain deplored back then but has yet to disavow fully and forcefully now.
What Obama is doing is not only challenging the decency of fair-minded voters who might be influenced by such attacks veiled in darkness and silence but would be shamed to tolerate openly–but his opponent’s as well.
They, and John McCain, have a decision to make.
Cross-posted from my blog.
opinions powered by SendLove.to
12 Responses to ““Did I Mention He’s Black?””
It's one thing to defend yourself, like Kerry should have done but Obama just threw a preemptive race card that didn't need to be played. He basically just used fear to get people to vote for him, something I thought he was against. Can't wait for the people in November to tell others they are racist because they didn't vote for Obama.
Divide and conquer at it's finest.
I agree that it touk courage to bring racism into the open in the ocntext of the election. That it should require courage reflects how perverted discussing race has become.
Immediately, Obama was pounced on for 'playing the race card'. In other words, it's illegitimate to acknolwedge the reality of racism. That's truly perverted.
It started early in the primaries, when Bill Clinton was villified for stating the obvious, that racism would become part of the election process. Whether or not he had ulterior motives, is up to interpretation, and few are willing to rethink an earlier interpretation, but what he said is now shown to be absolutely true.
The conventional wisdom seems to be that if you don't talk about it, it'll go away, but talking about it creates it. That's beyoind illogical; it's crazy.
The silence of protests against this craziness is deafening.
In the meantime hate groups such as white supremacists and the KKK are reporting boom times in interest generated by Obama's candidacy.
The delicate part is linking racism to the GOP, as Obaama did. . They will, for the most part, be much too clever to use it directly, but I'm sure they won't be shy about benefitting from it. In local elections, it's already been overt as the Obama vs 'White' House buttons showed.
What I find equally disturbing is how reluctant bloggers have been to tackle the subject., other than to disparage it and spin it. Sexism (also very real) has received far more sympathetic coverage and attention. What are we to do make of that: that gender bias is more important than race bias, or that we are willing to sacrifice one problem entirely for the benefit of another? I find it hard to believe that we can't walk and chew gum at the same time. I've even wondered if some feminists aren't also racial bigots, and then I wondered if I'm becoming paranoid.
It's so strange to watch, I can't understand it.
Now that Obama brought it into the open, we should talk about it openly.
It's true that overstating the case is very counterproductive, but sweeping it under the rug of oblivion can be outright dangerous.
BBQ's false argument that…
“Obama just threw a preemptive race card that didn't need to be played.”
flies in the face of overt racism exhibited on the campaign trail and in local elections.
I wonder what needs to happen before it's permissible to state the obvious. a burning cross at polling booths?
So everytime some loon at a local liberal rally gives the anti-America speech, I should automatically assume that Obama and Dems think that way?
And yes I grew up in a liberal area (Madison) I have heard plenty of far left nuts in my time. But I would never think the whole party thinks that America is the devil and so is Israel.
I think you are right. The way the wingers like to use the dark fear to control people, and the way innuendo is so potent with people who ought to know better, obama is going after the smear machine head on.
Maybe if more democrats did this we would not have spent so many years in the wilderness.
It's good to have a brave, tough and compelling candidate for a change. And one who is going to shake things up. Actually, he already has.
The people that buy into the dark fear were never voting for Obama anyways. Instead he is just using fear to chide people into voting for him because they don't even want to look racist.
BBQ,
You are right, in that these accusations get painted with too broad a brush at times. You're jumping the gun about Obama, however. He didn't accuse all Rep.'s or all whites of racism or of using racism. He was simply acknowledging what already has been demonstrated, that racism is going to have a role in this election processs.
If there is any 'chiding' to vote for him, it didn't happen in his statement. He was addressing his own camp!
What , in your opinion, is the signal that it's appropriate to challenge racism.
Racist buttons (local GOP) and T-shirts (rural whites) have gone unchallenged.
A southern governor said his constituency wouldn't allow him to support Obama.
What is the signal that would make it okay with you?
The GOP already kicked out the person with the buttons and said it was wrong. You can't stop stupid people with T-shirts and blame all of the GOP for them.
I haven't heard the governor but if he is a GOP than he probably meant because Obama goes against his state's conservative values. If he is a Dem than I would think he would handle it in private first and if that didn't work than I would think it would be fair for Obama to criticism him.
Although I never heard him say much to Rendell when he said White Dems wouldn't vote for Obama. Seems he would rather disparage all Republicans than deal with his own parties racism.
“You can't stop stupid people with T-shirts and blame all of the GOP for them.”
You are absolutely right, BBQ.
Despite your repeat strawmen, no one is blaming all of GOP, all whites, all anything.
This is simply an acknowledgement that what has ben hapening here and there is likely to continue and that Obama will challenge those occurrences.
You have noticed how ugly things can get I presume. Remember the' terrorist fist jab' on a very partisan TV channel?
That's just the point. A lot of the worst is done by supporters, not the two parties directly. It's not a question of blaming the GOP for the worst cases, It's an acknowledgement that the worst is likely to come from sonwhere in that direction..
.
In a way, the GOP. the Left, the Right are vague terms used symbolically to indicate a direction, not as specific descriptives.
If you've been following the primary news, you know that Democrats, unlike the GOP, do challenge each other and criticize each other constantly. In fact, there was quite a flap about race in the primaries.
In the primaries, Dems were challenging other Dems. Now, in the generall election, it will be Dems against the GOP. In the primaries Hillary attacked Obama, now it will be the GOP attacking Obama was speaking to NOW , not THEN..
You are also quite right that there are racist Democrats, but they are not nearly as likely to use it in a gemeral election, because the cross fire will be between Dems and the GOP. If there is something strange about preparing for the fight to come, instead of the fight that's over, I wish you would explain to me what it is.
I would say you fight the fight when it starts. Also this is a fight that doesn't even exist and probably won't. The GOP doesn't have the 527s like they used to and unlike the Clinton's they can't use the race card without heavy backlash. Sure wingbats will but that isnt' what Obama is saying. We aren't going to see the overtly racist ads in the fashion we saw the swiftboat ads. Which truth be told was never why Kerry lost, it just plain wasn't a good candidate and didn't run a good campaign.
BBQ
I give up/
You are ending where you started, so obviously you can't incorporate anything new into your mindset.
Something that isn't there? You didn't hear the 'Osama, I mean Obama'' remarks by a prominent Republican? Contrary to your comment, the Clintons experienced heavy bakclash for referring to race.
You are writing your own, revised version of recent history, one where there is no meeting ground.
I really hoped that people with different politics could at least share the same facts – recent facts, at that..
Since that's not possible, there is nothing more to say.
I can't live in your revised world.
Bye.
Actually runism it's you who wheres the rose colored glasses. Also using Obama's talking points whenever you can doesn't help. You might want to actually try to think for yourself now and than instead of just repeating Obama's campaign. I can't live in a world where people don't actually look at the realities of the facts at hand instead look to some false future.
Goodbye