Ransom Notes: Race a factor in election

News flash: Barack Obama is Black. It is a startling revelation because Obama, whose father was a native of Kenya and whose mother was a white woman from Kansas, doesn’t mention his race very often. He hasn’t had to announce it to the world or stress it in his campaign literature.

All of this is important because try as he might to emphasize his Harvard law degree, his tenure in the Illinois legislature and his two years as a U.S. senator, some voters, after nearly two years of campaigning coast to coast, still just see him as Black.

That is the gist of a new survey, which found that for a sizable percentage of white voters, Obama’s race would keep him from getting their vote.

The Associated Press-Yahoo News poll, conducted with Stanford University, found that one-third of white Democrats had negative views toward Blacks, ascribing terms such as “lazy,” “violent” or responsible for their own troubles. The poll found that 40 percent of all white Americans, including Democrats and independents, hold at least a partly negative view toward Blacks.

Certainly, race is going to be a factor in this election. Some Black voters see Obama as the fulfillment of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream. Obama is expected to get 95 percent of the Black vote on Nov. 4. But Bill Clinton got over 90 percent of the Black vote, as did John Kerry.

But some non-Black voters, and they are not all white, won't vote for Obama. Some say it is because he is male. Some say it is because his running mate is male. Some say it is because Obama is young and untested and has no executive experience. Some say it is because Obama’s opponent John McCain grabbed Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, to be his running mate. Some say it is because Obama is lousy at bowling. Some say Obama plays too much basketball. Some say it is because Obama’s wife Michelle, is too tall, too mean, and unpatriotic.

But the survey suggests that the real reason they won’t vote for him is because he is Black.

It’s too bad, too, because Obama’s race is probably the least important part of his resume. He is no affirmative action presidential candidate who got the nod because of his color. In fact, it is much more true that he got the nomination in spite of his race.

He is a Harvard grad, who spurned a lucrative career in corporate law to work in Chicago neighborhoods, helping residents get food stamps, housing and heat and whatever they needed to survive in this city of broad shoulders but bruised attitudes. He won a seat in the state Senate. He was tapped to address the 2004 Democratic Convention, in part because of his racial background, mainly to point out that his background was uniquely American, that melting pot that is always simmering. That tremendous spotlight was enough to catapult him to the front of the line when a U.S. Senate seat came open, and he won against token Republican opposition in the form of carpet bagging Alan Keyes.

Obama’s story is compelling, his achievements laudatory. McCain is old and untested and has no executive experience.

McCain is a man, while women are still miffed that Hillary Clinton didn’t break that highest of glass ceilings. Obama did not choose a female running mate, but mostly because the best female out there doesn’t want to be vice president. Hillary wants to be president. McCain is probably lousy at bowling also, and he can’t play basketball either. Cindy McCain is as tall as Michelle Obama, and she’s rich and those seven houses the McCains own are mostly hers. Palin’s husband Todd, the “First Dude” of Alaska, once belonged to an organization that vocally sought Alaska’s secession from the United States.

But, yes, Obama is Black.

Try as we might in this country to get to a place beyond race, it simply won't let go. Dr. King’s dream of a place where the content of a man (or woman’s) character was more important than the color of their skin (or the configuration of chromosomes) is still a bit beyond us.

Since Obama announced his candidacy February 2007, the question has been asked: “Is America ready for a Black president? The survey results give an answer in the negative.

Lou Ransom is executive editor of the Chicago Defender. He can be reached at lransom@chicagodefender.com.

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