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Obama and Race

Posted by PATRICK EDABURN in At TMV, Politics, Society.
Oct 9th, 2008 | Comments

Those who read my posts know that, although I am a nominal Republican, I remain somewhat uncommitted in this campaign. I have issues with both McCain and Obama and with each those issues include both ideological disagreements as well as more personal items. I am concerned about McCain with regard to his temperament and with Obama in regard to experience.

However one issue I do not have with regard to either candidate is race. I don’t care about the race, gender or orientation of a candidate. I care about character and ideology and ability and little more. If a half-black, half-Asian lesbian is running against a white man and I agree with her, then I vote for her.

I would like to think most Americans agree with me on this subject but I do recognize that there is a small group of voters out there who do retain the prejudices of a hopefully soon-to-be-forgotten era and use them against Obama. I will never understand nor approve of such viewpoints.

However I am equally perplexed by the reverse, those who are voting for Obama solely because of his race. If this were the 1950s or 1960s, I might understand the position. At that time, the idea of a minority candidate running for any office was fairly unique outside of minority communities. In addition, many minority voters were deprived of the right to vote, so I could see taking a symbolic stand.

But today it is hardly unique to see such a candidacy. Blacks, Hispanics or Asians running for public office is almost to the point of being commonplace. They serve in state legislatures, the halls of Congress and in City Hall. They are Senators and Governors, Cabinet members and business leaders. Certainly there are still areas where progress is needed but it is far from unique or unusual.

Even running for President is not entirely new. Colin Powell could have run in any of the last 3 elections and won with ease. In this campaign, a number of Hispanic and Asian Americans were mentioned as possible running mates for both tickets.

With this in mind, I find it just as confusing for people to support Obama based on race as I do for those opposing him because of race. It would seem to me that in a color-blind society you should rate a candidate based on the issues, not on skin pigment.

Indeed, if you look at groups like NAACP or SLC, they already routinely oppose minority candidates if they do not agree with the group on the issues. While I might disagree with the ideology, I certainly understand the position.

And yet that right does not seem to extend to conservatives who oppose minority candidates on the same grounds. If you are black and oppose Obama you are somehow a traitor to the cause. I do not understand this and find the vitriol attached to some to be amazing.

Perhaps we have not progressed that far yet.

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roro80

"It would seem to me that in a color blind society you should rate a candidate based on the issues, not on skin pigment."

This is the big problem with the argument. We are NOT in a color blind society. There is still very great mistrust of white people by the black community, and vice versa.

"Even running for President is not entirely new. Colin Powell could have run in any of the last 3 elections and won with ease."

I don't think he could have, but regardless of whether he could have won, he didn't run. This is entirely new.

I think that race is important in this case not just because Obama is black, but his policies would actually benefit black people. So would the policies of any progressive, but I think it would be different if his politics went against what his skin color might indicate. For example, women are shunning Sarah Palin, for the most part at least, because her policies are decidedly anti-woman.

It's important not to underestimate the importance of having a role model that believes what you believe and that you can relate to on a personal level. With any other issue besides race, I think this would be obvious.

onleyone

roro80 said it better than i could.

it's also interesting to note, i think, that obama is polling better than 90% of the black vote, last time i checked.

it makes me wonder, how many of those folks actually know anything about his policy proposals, and how many are voting for him simply because of the color of his skin?

we still have a long way to go, both white and black.

Ricorun

I suppose there may be some individuals out there who are voting for Obama because he's black, but I wonder how many such single issue voters there are out there. After all, Kerry managed to capture 88% of the black vote in 2004 and Gore captured 92% in 2000. Given that blacks constitute something like 12% of the electorate, and given that an average of 90% vote Democratic anyway, even if Obama manages to capture 100% of the black vote that would only be a 1.2% advantage overall. And it's exceedingly unlikely Obama will capture 100% of the black vote. My guess is he won't do that much better than Gore or Kerry.

Moreover, I'm guessing the number of folks who will override all their other concerns and vote for McCain/Palin simply because Palin is a woman is likely to be quite a bit larger than those who will override all their other concerns and vote for Obama/Biden simply because they're both men.

All in all, I think it's fairly obvious that the fact Obama is black is a net negative. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. Nonetheless, so far all indicators suggest it is small enough to be overcomeable. That alone is remarkable. Even if you're not an Obama supporter, you can't help but rejoice at the fact that the playing field has leveled so much in the last couple of generations that someone like Barack Obama actually has a realistic chance at the White House.

I do have one small bone to pick with Patrick though. He says, "Blacks, Hispanics or Asians running for public office is almost to the point of being commonplace." How commonplace are they really? Let's look at state-wide, top tier elected offices (Senators and governors). There is only one black Senator currently serving... Barack Obama. And I believe he's only the third since reconstruction. Only two blacks have ever been elected governor of a state -- ever; LD Wilder of VA and Deval Patrick of MA. Hispanics have fared somewhat better, but not that much better. There are currently three Hispanic Senators: Ken Salazar (CO), Mel Martinez (FL), and Bob Menendez (NJ). There is one Hispanic governor: Bill Richardson. And as far as Asians go, Bobby Jindahl is the only governor of Asian descent, and the only current Senators are both from Hawaii: Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka. And by the way, all but Jindahl and Martinez are Democrats.

The bottom line is no, I wouldn't say minorities are commonplace, at least in top-tier state-wide offices. Not yet. We have a ways to go.

JSpencer

My own reaction would be similar to Rico's. Minorities are still disproportionately under represented in US government, so even though it isn't the 50s or 60s, there is still much that hasn't changed. I'm not in the least surprised to see Obama receiving such great support from the black community, and I don't view this as any sort of reverse rascism by any stretch of the definition. Obama is (and has been) doing more to advocate for the middle class, is a born leader, is a democrat, and hey! The man is black! It maybe easy for many white folks to underestimate the symbolic power of this candidate, but given the history of race relations in this country, this is a transcendent moment. Besides, considering the black vote has been heavily democrat for a long time now anyway, this event isn't really bumping it up any more than I think should be expected.

garden

Interesting article, however, I just read another one that refers to unconscious or "aversive racism" that uses code words such as Obama's "lack of experience" because it sounds more pc but actually is a foil. Black people in this country, have voted in overwhelming numbers for democrats for decades, are you suggesting that they should stop now?

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