The Ones That Got Away: The Color Line
We have seen a presidential candidate called a terrorist, a traitor, "that one", and derided as an "Arab". We may have witnessed a call for his murder in public. Media sources continue to report on new incidents like these, and our readers continue to discuss them here at TPM. Maybe the election is no place for a "race card", but we need to closely examine what's happening with race right now. I want to highlight a few posts where readers pinpoint the questions and sentiments running through our collective thoughts:
-See here as Deanie Mills outlines the currents of racism that plague this election.
-See here as Howard1 highlights the accusation that supporting Obama conceals a hidden racism.
-Reader Admiralmpj expresses a fear that may be running through the minds of many.
-And finally, reader Pfl, registers one of the most shocking moments in a presidential campaign.
We see searing racism, bigotry, ignorance clearly illuminated but there are also other murkier, less answerable questions. Will an Obama presidency make inroads with regards to this kind of racism because Obama is black--do his policies address these issues? What does it mean to have a black president--and is this even the most relevant question? Will the reality of "first black president" carry the same weight as the words do?
-Here is a bloggingheads TV vid with Glenn Loury and John McWhorter that addresses some of these questions.
I find it hard to believe that anyone in his/her right mind would vote for McCain just because he's white and Obama's black.
October 13, 2008 7:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Claire,
Fret not this ugly racism -Obama is going to win big . Texas even is in play
October 13, 2008 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have a feeling the Bradley affect will not affect Obama. He comes across like "teflon Don." Nothing sticks.
October 13, 2008 9:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
You may have the right state, but the wrong candidate. If anyone comes out of Florida it will be Jeb.
October 15, 2008 7:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are plenty of Blue Dog democrats left in the south and they still look down on and don't trust anyone of any other color.
That's why Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi will vote for McCain.
I have encountered plenty of the "good old boys" whose rhetoric included that killing Obama would be saving the country. The bar room braggards won't do it; they're just drunk and with their biggoted friends.
The problem will be the "one" that takes it seriously.
The undercurrent at the recent Palin rally in Jacksonville was definitely sinister. It was ALL white. The microphones didn't pick up the comments muttered about Obama/Malcolm X or the serious comments about terrorist. The media focused on the phrases yelled out and not the whispers in the crowd.
It was like watching a lynch mob form. I believe that if Obama had walked in there he would have been in danger.
I don't think a successful Obama administration is going to change the minds of very many in those mobs.
I think 2012 we will see a nice white moderate named Charlie Crist running against Obama and he will truly pose a threat for a two term Obama presidency.
//Crist is current Florida Governor.
October 13, 2008 10:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm looking forward to the election results. There is no question that there remains a good deal of racism -- conscious and unconscious, individual and institutional -- in our country. But the choice for many white working class people between their interests and ideals and the interests of an oligarchy hasn't been clearer since the waning of Reconstruction.
Certainly the process of defeating racism will be arduous and ongoing and the 'dialog' on race will not always be pretty. Sometimes you need to lance the boil before you can cure an infection.
But I am encouraged.
Compare the comments of Ed Rendell in the run up to the Pennsylvania primary who doubted that Pennsylvanians would vote for a black man to the polls currently coming from that state.
October 14, 2008 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for highlighting this. I have been working on a news aggregator website for the past few months, and that has limited my posting at the cafe kind of seriously - in fact, most of my posting here has been related to that project. It's relevant here, so I'll go ahead and plug myself.
StopDogWhistleRacism.com was set up to monitor the ways in which race and racism figure into campaigning and policy debates in this election cycle and beyond. We are not permitted to inject commentary into the site (but we'll publish a report after the election), so it's in kind of raw form - the obvious to the tendentious, from the right and the left. Our particular interest is what political scientists call "symbolic racism" - efforts to use subliminal techniques to prime racial anxiety without appearing overtly racist (it's effective if its implicit, and very ineffective if it's obvious on the surface).
Hope you'll check us out.
Devon
October 14, 2008 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Something that should be pointed out whenever the McCain troop mentions Ayers is that by their reasoning Mayor Daley and the whole Chicago Board of Education must be terrorists. All of these people have worked as closely or more closely with Ayers than Obama did. Someone needs to challenge McCain and his flunky on this.
October 14, 2008 8:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
i've just seen that video footage of Palin's rally where someone yells, "terrorist!" and I gotta say, it comes directly after Palin says Ayers name. Obama's name is mentioned by Palin previous to Ayers.
i wouldn't know, but to me, in that particular video, it appears that the terrorist tag is for Ayers, NOT Obama.
October 15, 2008 9:20 AM | Reply | Permalink