The Politics of Race in America

I received an anti-Obama e-mail the other day. It raised the usual "questions" -- you know, about his Muslim background and his ties to a "racist" church. It also raised the question -- which is unfounded -- that he makes more of his African roots than his white ones. Where are the pictures of his mother and his grandparent's the email asked. Of course there are plenty of both.
At the same time that this e-mail scurrilously makes its way through cyberspace, we hear plenty of whispers. Blue collar whites in Pennsylvania won't vote for an African American. When asked if America is ready for a Black president we hear a resounding NO. And this "no" is being used by the Clinton campaign to woo uncommitted super delegates. Obama, they say, is a weakened candidate because of the race issue. See he only wins affluent whites (who for some reason are portrayed as less racist) and Blacks. Of course there are plenty of people who say they're not ready for a woman president either.
But all of this neither here nor there. The deeper question is why race is an issue at this point in history. I do understand why the Black community has gotten behind Obama, in the same way that many women have backed Clinton. It is a historic moment for both Blacks and Women. I'm neither, of course, instead I'm a well educated white guy (no wonder you might say that I'm an Obama backer). But why are we as a nation uncomfortable with a non-white President? What is it about white males that make them better presidential material? It's not as if white males have a stellar history of presidential leadership in America.
If Jeremiah Wright has been pilloried for portraying White America as intractably racist -- and thus making him anti-White -- why are we allowing White America to demean Barack Obama because he's Black. Is this not racist? I mean the statements in this email that came to me were racist and demeaning, and they suggested that being white was somehow superior to being black. Obama said in his speech that Wright was wrong in portraying America as unchanging in its attitudes and actions. Maybe, just maybe, he was being just a bit too kind -- that is, if America is not "ready" to elect a person of color as President!

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