Posted on 07/11/2008 10:27:11 AM PDT by SmithL
By becoming the first African American set to win the nomination of a major political party, Barack Obama showed that we have come a long way in overcoming our long history of racism. But winning the presidency is a different matter.
The racial divide seen in the primaries has many Democrats (I include myself) worried that the issue of race will loom even larger in the general election. Too many people – how many is hard to estimate since some voters lie to pollsters – still harbor racial resentments against blacks. For them, Obama is first and foremost a black man who, for that reason alone, will never get their support.
Our knowledge of how race influences voting behavior is often more suggestive than definitive, and much of what we know is by now quite commonplace. For example, an American National Election Study conducted in l988, l992 and 2000 found that racial animosity was highest among males rather than females, those without a college degree, those who worked in blue-collar jobs or as laborers, and residents of small towns in the Midwest and the South.
These findings, as New Republic senior editor John B. Judis has noted, "more or less correspond with the profile of white voters who spurned Obama in the primaries."
A sobering reminder: The national electorate who will vote in November is whiter, more middle-class and more conservative than the liberal, high-income and college-educated Democrats who favored Obama over Hilary Clinton.
Furthermore, nearly half of all Americans say race relations in the country are in bad shape, and three in 10 acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll.
An additional concern: The data from the national election study showed that Latinos were nearly as prejudiced against blacks as whites,...
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
For me Obama is first and foremost a socialist who, for that reason alone, will never get my support.
And that secret is...that ten's of thousands of tank & file Democrats....are racist. And will not vote for a black person. Period.
tank = rank
Too many blacks still harbor racial resentments against everyone else. It is not hard to estimate how many.
To all blacks reading this post:
Vote for McCain or you are racist!
/s
I have a whole list of reasons not to vote for Obama, and race isn’t in the top 100.
Way back when, the O.J. verdict-almost all black jury-and more so, the REACTION to it, (I remember seeing black college LAW STUDENTS cheering, as well as watching blacks pounding on whitey-driven car hoods at intersections, etc. That pretty much decided present-day race relations for me.
If Michael Steele were running against any white liberal, I’d sure as heck vote for him.
Funny thing..was that's exactly what came to my mind...when I saw my typo. Ha!
Thanks for posting...
“For me Obama is first and foremost a socialist”....
Agreed! Skin color has nothing to do with a mans politics!
A lot of people will vote for Obama just because he’s black ignoring his hidden far left socialist agenda.
I would vote for someone like Thomas Sowell but black people wouldn’t for the most part.
Hubby was talking to a black guy yesterday that he works with and was very surprised to hear him not be very impressed with BO! I do think the shine is starting to wear off and since he has really no record there is nothing there except words. Wasn’t Hillary the one who said that both her and Senator McCain had a lifetime of service and BO had a speech he gave in 2002? I could see that being a very effect general election ad!
"Barack is viewed in part to be the white man in blackface in our community." - Donne Trotter Illinois State Senator.
There is only one reason for this type of article and you can expect to see them more frequently as we approach election day-to make white voters feel guilt so they will vote for Obama. If Obama was running as a black conservative Republican do you think there would be these kind of stories?
In summary:
If 90% or more of voters of one particular color choose a candidate for no other reason than he “looks like them” that’s OK.
But if folks of an alternate tint/hue even harbor similar thoughts, they are virulent racists.
Re the dirty little secret (not so little, really) about “race” in this election year —
My question is: Will many Democrats and others look past their racial biases and vote for Obama anyway simply because he is the Dem candidate? I wonder. I can see some women doing this but not so many men. We shall see.
I just have this feeling that when it comes time to vote in November, and if the choice is still between Obamessiah and McCain, McCain will be chosen.
Unless, of course, Hillary is on the ticket with the “magic” one — then who the h*ll knows what will happen? Her supporters would likely be happy, for the most part, but all those who detest Hillary, including male Dems, might vote McCain.
The only certainty is that this will be a very interesting election season.
“For them, Obama is first and foremost a black man who, for that reason alone, will never get their support. “
first and foremost Obama is the result of a biracial “marriage”, and that without his upbringing by his white mother and typical white grandparents and the support and encouragement they gave him, would not now be where he is, a black man? hardly.
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