VOTING WHITE
The black person's story in America includes kidnapping, forced labor, terrorism, murder, denial of rights and daily indignities from refusal of hand shakes, purses clutched as one walks past a white woman or the quick snap of a locked door as a street is crossed. This story of Afro-America also includes invention, perseverance, survival, the demanding and gaining of rights and a raise in stature from second class citzenship; at least on the surface of things. Fifty years ago the idea of a Barack Obama candidacy would have been impossible. Now turn on your television sets.
Senator Obama sprinting for the Presidency on the winds of governmental change has galvanized Democrats and independents alike. He is charismatic. He is an orator in the grand tradition of civil rights' greats. He is handsome and buttressed by a beautiful wife and children. And the man won the Iowa caucus. Iowa, a state that is whiter than a glass of skim milk. So what has me troubled?
Obama is a black man whose "black" credentials were initially questioned by writer types like Stanley Crouch and others. Black writers. Now, as Obama has appeared to capture a spirit in white voters, black voters threaten to topple the man by a refusal to vote for him. Why? Because there is a prevailing sentiment amongst black America, particularly older black Americans that white people will never vote for a black man in a general election and, therefore, a vote for Obama is a wasted vote that will lead to four more years of GOP leadership. White people in Iowa and by all appearances, New Hampshire, two states with overflowing white populations have been moved by Obama and have and will vote for him. Meanwhile black people are hesitant based on the past, sometimes the present and a mind state that still places way too much importance on the doings of the "white man."
If all of those African-Americans who see Obama as the right candidate actually put their vote where their good sense is Obama might be able to win a general election. But that won't happen without those votes. There are white Americans who will never vote for a black man or a Jewish person, a woman or other. That's the way it is. However, as Iowa proved there are white Americans who will vote for the best candidate even if he's a black man. Any general election will be close as the nation has bared witness too over the past two Presidential elections. Obama could get over the top, but not without a change in thinking; without an end to the fatalistic thinking that would take a vote from Obama and give it to Hillary. Vote for a white person because white people will never vote for a black person.
Of all the things Obama changes, policies, governmental operations, social conventions, hopefully the biggest change is giving a nation of people a new lease on what is possible in politics.
Senator Obama sprinting for the Presidency on the winds of governmental change has galvanized Democrats and independents alike. He is charismatic. He is an orator in the grand tradition of civil rights' greats. He is handsome and buttressed by a beautiful wife and children. And the man won the Iowa caucus. Iowa, a state that is whiter than a glass of skim milk. So what has me troubled?
Obama is a black man whose "black" credentials were initially questioned by writer types like Stanley Crouch and others. Black writers. Now, as Obama has appeared to capture a spirit in white voters, black voters threaten to topple the man by a refusal to vote for him. Why? Because there is a prevailing sentiment amongst black America, particularly older black Americans that white people will never vote for a black man in a general election and, therefore, a vote for Obama is a wasted vote that will lead to four more years of GOP leadership. White people in Iowa and by all appearances, New Hampshire, two states with overflowing white populations have been moved by Obama and have and will vote for him. Meanwhile black people are hesitant based on the past, sometimes the present and a mind state that still places way too much importance on the doings of the "white man."
If all of those African-Americans who see Obama as the right candidate actually put their vote where their good sense is Obama might be able to win a general election. But that won't happen without those votes. There are white Americans who will never vote for a black man or a Jewish person, a woman or other. That's the way it is. However, as Iowa proved there are white Americans who will vote for the best candidate even if he's a black man. Any general election will be close as the nation has bared witness too over the past two Presidential elections. Obama could get over the top, but not without a change in thinking; without an end to the fatalistic thinking that would take a vote from Obama and give it to Hillary. Vote for a white person because white people will never vote for a black person.
Of all the things Obama changes, policies, governmental operations, social conventions, hopefully the biggest change is giving a nation of people a new lease on what is possible in politics.
posted by KHARI WYATT @ 9:14 PM
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