"Can he get any white votes?" That's the usual question asked when a black American files for a major public office like governor, senator or president. In the case of Barack Obama, a Washington Post/ABC News poll has turned that question on its head. The poll shows Hillary Clinton beating Obama among African-American voters by an astonishing 60 percent to 20 percent. When Jesse Jackson ran in 1984 and '88, his proportion of the black vote in the primaries was 80 to 90 percent. So, why the difference with Obama? The dominant theory is that, as the son of a white Kansas mother and a black Kenyon father raised mostly in the white community, Obama is not sufficiently black. We're not talking about skin color here; we're talking about a black identity. Many black Americans, such as columnist Stanley Crouch, don't consider Obama as one of their own. Said Crouch, "When black Americans refer to Obama as 'one of us,' I don't know what they're talking about."
Who will get blacks' vote? | IndyStar.com
OK, this is political and not related to technology, yet I had to say something. I think the original premise is faulty, that there is no such thing as a "black" vote. The question of whether or not Barack Obama can get "white" votes is also faulty. Just as there is no real "white" voting block, there is no real "black" voting block. African-Americans are intellegent enough, integrated enough, and diverse enough to vote for a candidate along the issues that most pertain to them. Just like European-Americans are savvy enough to vote for whichever candidate they feel voices their concerns.
Race is important, but I don't think it plays as centrally as it used to. I am an African-American who has spent equal time living in the north, south, and western United States. I have seen all types of people, and most people don't vote as a block. Ask the Republicans, they have become experts at this. If you look at 2004 and 2000, it wasn't race at all that enabled the Republicans to take total control of the governement, it was religion.
I resent that fact that political analysts still believe that they can stereotype "blacks" or "whites," or "latinos." What it really boils down to is that this is still a melting pot. When people come here, after a couple of generations, they are American. Racism does exist, but so does every other -ism you can think of. Ignorant people are always going to behave ignorantly. Even if we all were blue, the ignoramuses among us would find differences in the "blueness" of each other.
Speaking to this whole idea that Obama isn't "black" enough. That is purely ridiculous, and Hillary Clinton leading among the African-American voting segment is no suprise to me. Obama is speaking to a different class than many minorities find themselves in. This has absolutely nothing to do with race in and of itself, it has to do with access to opportunity. Hillary Clinton frequently speaks about equalizing this access to opportunity, Obama does not.
Really, the idea that someone can be blacker than someone else is insane. No one in America, unless your family has come straight from Africa, can really say that they are African. Maybe deep in your genes are some material shared with a common African ancestor, but African no. Obama is just as "black" as I am, and my family has slaves on both sides. But culturally we both have grown up with the same disadvantages, being that ignorant people would want to stereotype us, he probably more so than me. Ultimately we are both American, culturally, and that is what is important. Everyone who is "black" in America right now, except Africans, who aren't really culturally "black," is American. "Black" culture is American mainstream culture now. As soon as we all realize that we can't separate and we are stuck with each other we will be better off. There won't be a "black" nation, there won't be a "white" nation, and there won't be a "latino" nation here in America. We are all too equally represented, and too equally culturally indoctrinated.
What the real gist of the issue here is, is that we have become a rigidly stratafied class-based society; an anathema to American values. Obama represents one class, Clinton represents another class. The Republican candidates will represent yet other classes. People shouldn't buy into the "race-is-everything" myth. Classism in the U.S. is a lot more prevalent than Racisim. I'd bet that if you observed an African-American woman from the "upper-class" as she walked past a thugged out European-American on the street. She'd clutch her purse just as we are taught to belive the converse. Don't believe the hype.
technorati tags:obama, black-is-black, classism
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