Race and the Presidential Election
Did you know that Barack Obama is Black? I don't expect there are many who would answer no to that question. A further question though is: Does it matter to you that he's Black? And the answer to that question is that a goodly number of Americans are either unsure about what to make of this or are outright hostile to the idea of a Black (or any minority) serving as President. And so it doesn't take much to exploit that "concern." Witness the efforts to make Jeremiah Wright an issue during the primaries. Much of the effort is subtle, of course. It would be unseemly to directly attack Obama's race, but you can raise "concerns" by suggesting he might be "Muslim" or "mix up" his name with a famous terrorist with a similar sounding name.
But there are other ways of doing that -- one of which is accusing Obama of using the "race card." Obama is accused of using the "race card" because opponents have warned about his funny sounding name or that maybe he doesn't look like other presidents that have graced our money. It's the latter that caused John McCain to get into such snit, but note that in a McCain attack ad, Obama's visage was placed on a dollar bill (along with Mt. Rushmore) in a way that raises questions about whether he should be there (is it race?).
Bob Herbert has raised this issue in a recent column, noting the ad juxtapositioning Obama with 2 celebrities, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Now is it a coincidence that the ad uses two young, blond, sexually provocative white women -- raising the fears of black men and white women (something that was used effectively against Harold Ford of Tennessee). So, the question, who is exploiting race? As Herbert notes, as long as the focus is on race, it's too McCain's advantage.
Racism isn't dead in America, it's just taken on new forms. If you talk to any African American person they'll recount plenty of experiences with racism. My hope is that if Obama wins, that we as a nation can take a step forward, but as we've seen so far, America still has a long way to go.
But there are other ways of doing that -- one of which is accusing Obama of using the "race card." Obama is accused of using the "race card" because opponents have warned about his funny sounding name or that maybe he doesn't look like other presidents that have graced our money. It's the latter that caused John McCain to get into such snit, but note that in a McCain attack ad, Obama's visage was placed on a dollar bill (along with Mt. Rushmore) in a way that raises questions about whether he should be there (is it race?).
Bob Herbert has raised this issue in a recent column, noting the ad juxtapositioning Obama with 2 celebrities, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Now is it a coincidence that the ad uses two young, blond, sexually provocative white women -- raising the fears of black men and white women (something that was used effectively against Harold Ford of Tennessee). So, the question, who is exploiting race? As Herbert notes, as long as the focus is on race, it's too McCain's advantage.
Racism isn't dead in America, it's just taken on new forms. If you talk to any African American person they'll recount plenty of experiences with racism. My hope is that if Obama wins, that we as a nation can take a step forward, but as we've seen so far, America still has a long way to go.
Comments
Now, he apparently has no qualms about doing this kind of number on Obama. The quest for power has corrupted him completely.
Obama has alerted people to the narrative frame of the McCain campaign: fear of the other. We need to help Obama regain momentum by pushing his narrative frame: Hunger for "Change We Can Believe In." We need to deny at every opportunity that we believe Obama to be a messiah or rock star, etc. and affirm, instead, his message that "WE" the people will bring change to Washington, not just our candidate.
Obama is not a messiah (thank God),but is more than an ordinary candidate--he is the visible symbol of a movement that David Shapiro calls a populist uprising for economic justice, social equality (including justice and healing among races, genders, sexual orientation, religions, etc.), and ecological responsibility by individuals, governments, and corporations. It is also a populist uprising for a more just and reasonable foreign policy.
It is not something Obama can do on his own. It is an uprising that will continue with or without him as president--but which will be much easier with him as president than with John McCain! Obama is leading us, but we are also pushing him--and that's as it should be.
But the GOP is clever. They will pull subtle racial attacks and then accuse Obama of "playing the race card" when he calls them on it. We cannot let this fear tactic win as it did in '04.
So far, Obama is still on track both in the popular vote and the electoral college (looks like a minimum of 303 and a max of 313 ECV at this point--more than the 270 needed to win and not overly dependent on any one state), but there is no doubt that McCain has ganed ground since switching campaign managers 2 weeks ago. If this continues, he could pull out a narrow victory. We'll know more after the Democratic and GOP conventions.
I say that Joe Biden would be the best VP out of the remaining Veepstakes. He is Catholic, from the working class, and brings huge foreign policy cred to the campaign--and will go after McCain like an attack dog so that Obama can take the high ground. Biden was unfairly shut out of the primary debates but still managed to DEMOLISH Rudy Giuliani's entire campaign.
You are a pastor, husband, father, church historian, etc.--not necessarily in that order. It would be good to hear more from those other aspects of your life. I say this in love--and as one who watched myself become so consumed with electoral politics that I was in danger of forgetting to be a whole person of Christian faith. I don't want to see this happen to others.
In reclaiming Jesus from the theo-political Right, we Christians of the center and left are in danger of producing a mirror image (although, as yet, a numerically smaller one) of the Religious Right. Neither the Kingdom of God, nor the Body of Christ in the U.S., nor the body politic of these United States will be well served by such a phenomenon.
Thanks for the comments on the upcoming presidential race. As to the focus on Obama, I suppose that may have more to do with not having much time to think about anything besides my new church. Writing about the campaign is a way of shifting gears -- don't worry, I'll soon get things back on a more balanced focus!