Obama and Democratic Racism

Last week, Joe Gandelman wrote an interesting piece regarding the AP – Yahoo News poll taken last week that addressed racial discrimination on the part of some Democrats in their decision whether to vote for Barack Obama. My question to the pundits is the following: did you really need a poll to tell you that some white Democrats are still racists?

Perhaps these politically-knowledgeable people did not take an American history course. For those historically-challenged people, here is the story of Democrats and race in an abbreviated version. It was the Democratic Party in the South that blocked voting rights for African-Americans for 80 years through Jim Crow laws. Most African-Americans were Republicans through the end of the 1950s, and the first post-reconstruction United States Senator was a Republican by the name of Ed Brooke from Massachusetts.

This excerpt is from Frances Rice: “During the civil rights era of the 1960’s, Dr. King was fighting the Democrats who stood in the school house doors, turned skin-burning fire hoses on blacks and let loose vicious dogs. It was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools. President Eisenhower also appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court which resulted in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision ending school segregation.”

In fact, the crown legislative jewel of suffrage for African-Americans, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, was a political ploy of Lyndon Johnson to make sure that black folks would vote for the Democratic Party for the next two hundred years. I will not repeat the infamous quote of President Johnson; however, I will simply note that the “N-word” was used.

It is not a surprise to me that there is still some anxiety by some white Democrats to vote for Barack Obama. My surprise is that this anxiety is a shock to people who should know better. We are only 40 years removed from the assassinations of Dr. King and Malcolm X. Only thirty years removed from George Jefferson, Benson, and Huggy Bear, the television caricatures of African-American males. We are a nation that has only elected three African-American United States Senators and three Governors since 1870.

This is not a question about Barack Obama, his candidacy and his potential for leadership. It is my belief that even Colin Powell would face similar questions about race and voting. However, at the end of the day, these voters will make a decision between comfort and ability. The comfort of a white John McCain in spite of his policy flaws vs. the ability of Barack Obama, even though he is an African-American.

Comfort vs. ability…a decision that may be decided in black or white.