Rep Clyburn of South Carolina reports  that the Hillary Clinton campaign has a problem with Black voters. The perception is that Clinton is race-baiting. Many Blacks feel that since Clinton can't win, she is trying to damage Obama so much that the Superdelegates will give their support to Clinton. The other effect of the Clinton strategy is to make Obama so damaged that he will not be able to beat McCain if he survives to  the General Election.  Clinton will then be the frontrunner for 2012 after a one-term McCain Presidency.

Many African-Americans are dismayed. Blacks supported Bill Clinton during the Monica scandal. We were his firewall. The behavior of the Clinton campaign is felt to be the ultimate insult. Following Clinton, we were strong supporters of Al Gore and John Kerry. The support was so strong that about 90% of the African-American vote went to the Democratic Presidential candidate.

The only voices raised in objection to the size of the African-American vote going to the Democratic Party came from Conservatives in the GOP. Repeated arguments were made that African-Americans were being taken for granted by Democrats. All Democrats loved the high percentage of Black support, until  the support  went to Barack Obama.  Now African-Americans are voting only based on race. The Conservative warning seems to have a kernel of truth.

The  Conservative voices were muted by the fact  that the GOP had become the home of the Dixiecrats, Barry Goldwater's States Rights and the Southern Strategy.  Blacks, who had been strong members of the Party of Lincoln prior to the arrival of the Dixiecrats, were ushered out of the GOP so that Republicans could gain favor in the South.

Parts of the Democratic Party did not welcome Blacks with open arms. LBJ relied on Northern Democrats and the GOP which was mainly Northern and Eastern to pass the Civil Rights Bill. Southern Democrats were resistant.

Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Party are names well known to Black voters. The group was formed in opposition to a racist Mississippi Democratic Party. We had to fight our way into the blocked doors of the Southern part of the Democratic Party.

Simultaneously, as Blacks moved from the Democratic South to the North, they found easier entry into the Northern Democratic Party. We represented votes.

It is important to note that Affirmative Action was ushered in by Richard Nixon and African-American Conservative Arthur Fletcher. As the Republicans sought to gain Southern votes, Blacks became a lower priority. Eventually, the GOP became more hostile. The new GOP destroyed Nixon's Affirmative Action.

Blacks became expendable to the GOP. Black Americans were depicted as an American threat. The Willie Horton ad appeared in limited release, but it's effect was powerful. MSM helped spread the message. We had achieved the attention of the GOP. The message, get out.

The Democratic Party is now at a crossroads. There appear to be some pockets of voters who will not vote for an African-American candidate. There are pockets who will not vote for a female candidate. Blacks represent 10-12% of the country. White women represent 51% of the population. Calculations are being made. Obama  did not win in Ohio or Pennsylvania.  There is concern that Obama can't close the deal in large states. Do Primary loses mean General Election loses?  Will the Primary rules set down by the Democratic Party be changed to give Hillary a victory?

African-Americans sense some race-baiting behavior coming from the Clinton campaign. Clinton is running a Karl Rove campaign. Clyburn's observations will most likely be dismissed by a large segment of White Democrats.
 
There is a concern among African-Americans that once again a political party will find us expendable. The party hierarchy may decide to throw us under the bus in an appeal to Independents and "Reagan Democrats". This is a scenario that we know all too well. Been there done that.

The final question is do Democrats want African-Americans?

Is it imperative that the Clinton campaign forcefully address concerns of African-American Democrats? Will we only hear dismissive comments from Clinton and her surrogates. Is it time for Senator Clinton to give her own speech on race?

Are African-American concerns going to be taken seriously?
Is the party going to work to keep our votes?

The hypocrites who hold the words of Jeremiah Wright must immediately remove Martin Luther King Jr from their list of heroes. Here are the cuddly words of MLK

Letter From A Birmingham Jail (snippets) 04/16/1963

Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action.

In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.

Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?

Riverside Church (snippets) 04/04/1967

Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken -- the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

Riverside speech Opening (Poetic License Replacing Vietnam With Iraq)

Now, let me make it clear in the beginning, that I see this war as an unjust, evil, and futile war. I preach to you today on the war in Iraq because my conscience leaves me with no other choice. The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. Freedom is still the bonus we receive for knowing the truth. "Ye shall know the truth," says Jesus, "and the truth shall set you free." Now, I've chosen to preach about the war in Iraq because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.

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Rest assured that there would have been numerous voices telling Obama to reject Rev Martin Luther King Jr if he had been his pastor.

For those who don't know the letter from the Birmingham jail was written to fellow clergy who felt that MLK was too radical in his activism. He was considered unpatriotic by a large number of Americans. MLK was a firebrand who the MSM of today who would be demonized by today's MSM.
Hillary and McCain would join in.

Politico's Roger Simon reports that a "prominent" GOP strategist told him that McCain will have a 15% advantage against Obama in November because of racism.

The strategist says that a significant number of Whites will not vote for a Black man. The GOP feels that race is a more important factor than taxes, the economy, and the War.

Pennsylvania Gov Ed Rendell admitted that some Whites would not vote for Obama because of race. Reading Pa mayor Tom McMahon tells of getting angry calls after he announced his support for Obama. McMahon says that there is a bit of racism below the surface in Pennsylvania.

About 10-15% of Pennsylvania voters are "undecided" in most polls. Are the undecideds Clinton or Obama voters? Are the undecideds too ashamed to admit that racial bias is playing a role in their vote? Or, is the "prominent" GOP strategist just blowing smoke. See my post November analysis for the answer.

Earlier in the day, I challenged those who felt that Obama's 90% support from the African-American community was due to some form of group hypnosis, rather than a rejection of the individual candidate, Hillary Clinton. I feel Sen Clinton and her campaign are the sole reason that Obama gained Black support. The post was entitled "Those Racist African-American Voters Who Support Obama." Most of posters who self identified as African-Americans agreed with my position.

One post in opposition went as follows:

"I'm tired, I'm tired..." Come to me, little children, lay down your heavy burdens, find solace in me, for I am the light and the life.... There are more here, you know.... Sleep, sleep, little ones.

I am asking for help in interpreting what message the above post is attempting  to  express.  Thanks in advance for any help. I'm really looking for opinions on the meaning, not attempting to drive traffic to the post. I just found it strange,.

No response came from the person who made the post when queried.

Some Hillary Clinton supporters point to the 90% vote that Obama gets among African-American Democratics as a sign of "race-based" voting. They imply that the "block voting" may be racist in origin. Blacks are merely voting for the Black guy. Blacks feel that it is their turn.

Of course, Obama was not Black enough to run against the wife of the first Black President when the Presidential campaign began.

If one goes back to the start of the campaign season, we find that Senator Clinton had a 2:1 to 3:1 advantage over Senator Obama among African-American Democrats. Her position was similar to that of Al Gore in his Presidential campaign. Gore had 66% of the African-American vote at the start of his campaign. Gore's main opponent, Bill Bradley, had the bulk of the rest. The message to both Sen Clinton and VP Gore was "We like Bill , but who are you?" both Clinton and Gore had to work for African-American support.

Were African-Americans racist by giving 66% of their support  at the beginning of the campaign season to Clinton and Gore? Were African-Americans racist when they gave more support to Gore than Bradley during the Primaries, giving Gore the victory?

Senator Clinton, meet Bill Bradley. Gore won the African-American vote, Obama is winning the Black vote. African-Americans looked at Gore and Bradley and choose Gore. They looked at Clinton and Obama, and are choosing Obama. Bradley, has recovered from his defeat and now supports Obama.

Were African-Americans racist when they failed to rally around Al Sharpton in his Presidential bid? Sharpton lost the African-American vote in his native New York City.

Blacks have voted for Caucasian candidates in overwhelming numbers. Majority Black Baltimore, Maryland elected a White mayor. The mayor later became Governor. The MD Governor got the overwheming support of the African -American community even though he ran against a moderate African-American GOP candidate.

To suggest that African-Americans selecting Obama over Clinton is race-based and not a phenomenon that is best called the "Clinton Condescension Effect" represents a truly racist point of view along with a large degree of cerebral ossification.