A Colorblind America

Townhall.com ^ | October 14, 2011 | Linda Chavez

[Kaslin]

Could anyone have imagined even a few years ago that the 2012 U.S. presidential race might end up as a contest between two black candidates? I certainly couldn't have. Yet, with Republican candidate Herman Cain's recent surge in popularity, the possibility is there. This says a great deal about race in America -- all of it good.

In many respects, Herman Cain's advance in the Republican primary contest is more striking than Barack Obama's rise in 2008. Unlike Obama, whose father was African and who was raised largely in Hawaii by his white grandparents, Cain is a product of the segregated South.

Obama benefitted from affirmative action, attended Ivy League schools and taught law at one of America's most prestigious institutions, the University of Chicago. He lived and worked in a rarified world where being black (or in his case, being of mixed race) was -- if a factor at all -- an advantage.

Cain, on the other hand, was raised in the South by a father who worked three jobs -- as a barber, a janitor and a chauffer -- and a mother who was a cleaning woman. Cain grew up at a time when schools were still mostly segregated and attended Morehouse, a historically black college in Atlanta, where he earned a degree in mathematics.

After Cain earned his master's degree in computer science, he went to work in business. He started at Coca-Cola in Atlanta and then worked his way through a series of corporate jobs until he became CEO of Godfather's Pizza -- a company which he took from the brink of bankruptcy to profitability in short order. His was a slow, steady climb up the economic ladder in an environment in which being black meant you had to prove yourself each and every day.

The differences in their personal stories partly reflect the changes that were taking place in the United States as these two men grew to maturity. Cain, who will be 66 in December, lived through the transformation in race relations that took place in the 1950s and '60s. Obama missed out on much of this transformation. By the time Obama reached adulthood, racial attitudes had already changed dramatically.

In 1983, when Obama was 22 years old, 81 percent of Americans said that they would be willing to vote for a black candidate for president, according to a Gallup poll administered that year. But only 52 percent of those polled by Gallup in 1967, when Cain was a 22-year-old, said they could envision voting for a qualified black nominee of their own party. And by 2008, the hypothetical became real when Americans elected Obama in a landslide.

Cain's sudden surge in popularity in the Republican field suggests that race simply doesn't factor into the equation for most Americans when it comes to picking candidates for the most important office in the land. Some conservatives who favor Cain may like the idea that they are bursting liberal stereotypes by supporting a black man -- but they wouldn't be supporting him if they didn't like what he had to say. They identify with him because of the up-by-the-bootstraps quality of his biography. They like him because he is plain-spoken and direct. His race is beside the point.

It's still a long shot that Herman Cain will be the Republican nominee in 2012. But if he isn't nominated, it won't be because he's black. He's still rough around the edges. He's made his share of gaffes, including a serious one in which he said he would not put a Muslim in his administration -- a statement he later retracted. And he has yet to raise the kind of money or put together the kind of organization necessary to win actual primaries.

Nonetheless, the mere possibility that two black candidates could face each other in the presidential election should make all Americans proud. It proves we are that much closer to the point where skin color simply doesn't matter anymore.

[Donnafrflorida]

I am voting for the content of his character not the color of his skin.
Donate to WWW.hermancain.com if you want to see him win.

[theBuckwheat]

Recalling the old saw that he who controls the meaning of words controls the outcome of a debate, according to the liberal Plastic Reality, only one of these candidates is “black”.

When Nobel Prize winning poet Tony Morrison, who is African-American, can write an October 1988 New Yorker article titled “Clinton as the first black president”, then what is “black”? When the NAACP calls the black conservative Kenneth Gladney, “not black enough”, and “not a brother” then what is “black”? When Time magazine’s Jack White calls Supreme Court Justice Thomas, “the scariest of all the hobgoblins”, saying “Washington seems to be filled with white men who make black people uneasy”, than what is “black”? And when Obama, a man whose mother is Caucasian, can tell us in a widely read autobiography that in his youth he struggled with his racial identity before *deciding* to be black, what is “black”?

When Bill Maher, during a panel discussion on HBO complains that Obama’s policies are “half-assed” “because he’s only half black.” and that “if he was fully black, I’m telling you, he would be a better president.”, and that “there’s a white man in him holding him back”, than what is “black”?

“Black” in all these contexts, as well as Juan Williams’s complaint on Fox News that the extraordinarily lopsided expression of Missouri voter sentiment in August of 2010 rejecting ObamaCare was really about race, is clearly not about “race”. It is about ideology, socialist ideology.

With respect to BHO being black: it is not about the racial characteristics he was born with, it is about the ideology he adopted. It is not what percent black he is, it is about how thoroughly red he is.

[SueRae]

The contrast between Cain and 0bama couldn’t be more stark.

I am growing weary of so many columns always adding some ‘longshot’ disclaimer with regards to Herman Cain.

I see more and more coverage, especially on TV, where you can see the positive impact he is having. Steve Hayes, Juan Williams, Bret Baier, of course, Neil Cavuto. Even Chris Wallace got out if his chair on his Sunday morning show to shake Mr.Cain’s hand. THey recognize the real deal when they see it. He is genuine. Now Art Laffer and Paul Ryan weighing in adding some gravitas to his ideas.

The man exudes positive attitude, something this country sorely needs.

[hecticskeptic]

Obama is black? The analysis of his genealogical chart shows that he is 50% Caucasian, 43.75% Arabic and 6.25% African Negro..... Tell me again how that makes him ‘black’? The only way this can be the case is for him to be a ‘calculated black’.

[Tigerized]

As long as there’s huge money to be made in the grievance industry, with the likes of Sharpton and Jackson, there never will be true equality.

Organizations like the NAACP, that once had a real purpose, have evolved into entities that now work to keep “their people” oppressed, dependent, and on the Democrat welfare plantation. And the more, the merrier.

It’s so sad to see black conservatives voted off the island when they should be held up as positive role models and examples of how far we’ve come as a nation.

But that messsge doesn’t fit the socialist agenda, so we’ll continue to see the non-stop attacks and smears from those who should be celebrating our progress in race relations.

So tell me. Exactly WHO has provided the “hope and change” we can believe in?

[Kaslin]

These are landslides

This is not

[beef]

Wow. That says it all. Black is not race or skin color. Black is a political ideology.

[Kaslin]

So am I

[sickoflibs]

RE :”Could anyone have imagined even a few years ago that the 2012 U.S. presidential race might end up as a contest between two black candidates? I certainly couldn't have. Yet, with Republican candidate Herman Cain's recent surge in popularity, the possibility is there. This says a great deal about race in America — all of it good.
In many respects, Herman Cain's advance in the Republican primary contest is more striking than Barack Obama’s rise in 2008. Unlike Obama, whose father was African and who was raised largely in Hawaii by his white grandparents, Cain is a product of the segregated South.
Obama benefitted from affirmative action, attended Ivy League schools and taught law at one of America's most prestigious institutions, the University of Chicago. He lived and worked in a rarified world where being black (or in his case, being of mixed race) was — if a factor at all — an advantage.
Cain, on the other hand, was raised in the South by a father who worked three jobs — as a barber, a janitor and a chauffer — and a mother who was a cleaning woman. Cain grew up at a time when schools were still mostly segregated and attended Morehouse, a historically black college in Atlanta, where he earned a degree in mathematics.
After Cain earned his master's degree in computer science, he went to work in business. He started at Coca-Cola in Atlanta and then worked his way through a series of corporate jobs until he became CEO of Godfather's Pizza — a company which he took from the brink of bankruptcy to profitability in short order. His was a slow, steady climb up the economic ladder in an environment in which being black meant you had to prove yourself each and every day”.

The above is the part of the article I like (author Linda Chavez is a RINO) . Seeing these two completely opposite black men (liberal and conservative, privileged and self-made, government and private sector, grew up in the affirmative action North vs segregated South) compete for the WH is the only really interesting and exciting possible scenario that I can see now.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” In many respects, Herman Cain’s advance in the Republican primary contest is more striking than Barack Obama’s rise in 2008. Unlike Obama, whose father was African and who was raised largely in Hawaii by his white grandparents, Cain is a product of the segregated South.
Obama benefitted from affirmative action, attended Ivy League schools and taught law at one of America’s most prestigious institutions, the University of Chicago “

Cain busted his hump for many years to rise to the top. Obama is a well known sloth to his peers at the University of Chicago Law School. Take your choice, America!

[Pollster1]

This says a great deal about race in America -- all of it good.

Half of it good. Obama supporters only tolerate that druggie because he claims to be black (with only slightly more truth than his claim to be Christian or American). Cain supporters are indifferent to his skin color and have moved beyond caring about race.

[SMARTY]

“O” is a deformed, Anti-American miscreant who slithered out from under a rock somewhere....and who, given all this and with his ‘baggage’, WOULD NOT have been considered if he was a WHITE candidate.

Cain is the McCoy!!

[mkjessup]

Comrade 0bama has stated that when he was working in that Honolulu Baskin Robbins (under a Connecticut-issued Social Security Number I might add), that he used to give away ice cream to his friends.

If Herman Cain had been the owner/operator of that Baskin Robbins, I’m willing to bet he would have fired 0bama’s lazy ass, but I predict Cain will get that chance in a little more than a year from now.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Wow. That says it all. Black is not race or skin color. Black is a political ideology.

In order to make their "point," libs have to redefine racism. Otherwise, they are left trying to explain the following syllogism:

The Tea Party is racist.
Herman Cain is Black.
The Tea Party supports Herman Cain.
Therefore, the Tea Party is racist.

[ctdonath2]

In short: it’s a culture, not a color.

[Sherman Logan]

The analysis of his genealogical chart shows that he is 50% Caucasian, 43.75% Arabic and 6.25% African Negro

If you are going to post this nonsense again, at least have the decency to also post something resembling evidence to support it.

Obama's African side of the family are of the Luo tribe of Kenya. The Luo are not Arabs, neither ethnically nor linguistically.

[broken_arrow1]

Could anyone have imagined even a few years ago that the 2012 U.S. presidential race might end up as a contest between two black candidates?

Maybe it still won't happen if Zero drops out and Hillary is the 2012 Democrat-Socialist candidate, or the would-be dictator cancels elections and puts Republicans in jail.

[New Jersey Realist]

Everyone should check out Cain’s church affiliations and compare it to Obummer’s church of hate.

[Kaslin]

(author Linda Chavez is a RINO)

Because you disagree with Linda Chavez on certain positions; remember she is not a politician, she is not a RINO.

RINOs are those politicians who vote mostly with the rats