WP, E.J. Dionne: The Unavoidable Issue; "Like it or not, Obama's race is an issue."

[DeepModem Mom]

The Unavoidable Issue
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008; Page A19

.... Like it or not, Obama's race is an issue, just as John F. Kennedy's religion was an issue in 1960 -- and racism runs deeper in our history than anti-Catholicism. There is no doubt that two keys to this election are: How many white and Latino votes will Obama lose because of his race that a white Democrat would have won? And how much will African American turnout grow, given the opportunity to elect our nation's first black president?...

***

...(T)he race issue is used less overtly now than it used to be. When Democrats were the party of Jim Crow in the post-Civil War period, many in their ranks ran ugly, blatantly racist campaigns. Beginning in 1968 with Richard Nixon's Southern strategy, Republicans have been far more subtle in playing to white reaction on race. Often, the appeal to white unease over race is overlaid with a populist rhetoric against "liberal elitists" who side with blacks while not understanding the struggles of the white working class.

William Connolly, a left-of-center political theorist, wrote an essay in 1981 that brilliantly captured why so many white working-class voters came to reject liberal programs. Connolly argued that such voters saw the welfare state as turning on them, undermining the values they espoused and denigrating their efforts at self-reliance. They saw mandatory school busing as robbing them of their chance to secure a better education for their children by moving into better school districts. Especially among working-class white men, affirmative action seemed to treat "everyone else . . . either as meritorious or as unjustly closed out from the ranks of the meritorious." When liberals dismissed such concerns as purely racist, Connolly noted, "These vulnerable constituencies did not need too much political coaxing to bite the hand that had slapped them in the face."

The great opportunity this year for less scrupulous Republican strategists is that Obama is both black and a Columbia-and-Harvard-educated former professor who lived in the intellectually rarified precincts of Hyde Park in Chicago, Manhattan's Upper West Side and Cambridge, Mass. They can go after him subtly on race and overtly on elitism. They can turn the facts of Obama's life into mutually reinforcing liabilities.

Is this unfair? Yes, it is. But if our nation is to cast off the shackles of race this year, Obama will have to grapple more than he'd like with the burdens that our history and the past travails of liberalism have forced him to bear.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080401826.html?hpid%3Dopinionsbox1

[Vinca]

1. It's only an issue if the media makes it an issue and that's what they're doing.

It should be an issue that McCain is acting like he's got early stage Alzheimer's, but the media is choosing to ignore that. Obama flip flops, McCain changes his position. Even the dumbest of things - the tire pressure remark - is being turned on Obama by the MSM, even though all the facts support it.

[KittyWampus]

9. Look, Obama's team isn't making McCain's senility an issue. They need to find a way to do it

and not get blowback.

That's what a PROFESSIONAL public relations/media manager does.

[Thrill]

2. I really feel sorry for how black americans are treated

Why can't the man be judged by his policies and character? If he is treated like this, how do you think just regular people are treated??

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

5. I can tell you that most of us are damned if we do and damned if we don't.

This man did everything right. The conservatives tell us to lift ourselves up by our bootstraps, don't ask for hand-outs, get an education, be successful, pay our debts, acquire wealth and stature. When we do that, we are accused of "acting white" or forgetting our place...or, being "arrogant" or "cocky." Here it is the Obamas achieved great things and the American Dream. They come from modest beginnings, not like Dumbya or McSame. We want Obama to be judged by his policies and by his intellect. But we judge him as 'being out of touch' when he does. We elect a blabbering idiot who cannot string together a coherent sentence. And yet, Obama 'acts and talks white' simply because he is successful, just really depresses me. I'm sorry but we heard this talk during the primaries and we're hearing it again. I'm very saddened by this. As many black and minority brothers and sisters have experienced, we all experience this kind of thinking (even from our own), and it is quite damaging to self-esteem if you allow it to get to you. Obama has tried to run a post-racial campaign but he was naive if he thought that this country would ever get over its obsession of race. It will never happen.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Thanks so much for your post. I don't feel really qualified...

to give you a proper response to it. I can't imagine enduring the frustration you describe.

I do know that my feelings for both Barack and Michelle Obama are deepest and most supportive when I see them being treated as you describe. As you say, they have done everything right that a person can do, white or black. They have gotten themselves educated, achieved professionally, formed a strong marriage, are wonderful parents, and maintain high moral standards. What more can be asked???

And yet they are criticized and mocked. It makes me angry for them, and very sad.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

11. Thanks very much for your kind sentiments. One issue about the Obamas that I think

often makes the larger society uncomfortable is that they are truly in love with one another and respect each other. Their union represents a rejection of the common, often unflattering depictions of black Americans on television or in pop culture in general. That they worked hard, overcame obstacles, recently paid off their student loans and mortgages, should prove that they are just like the average American family. But it doesn't. We have a philandering idiot running on the Repuke ticket that constantly degrades and demeans women and cheated on his first wife, leaving her for a beautiful blond who inherited a fortune from her father's business. Who's out of touch?

The Obama's love story gives me hope as a black woman that there is love out there for me, despite all the statistics, irregardless of all the obstacles. It should give us all pause to reflect on how great this country can be if we can just get past our obsession with race, gender, sexual orientation, class and other despicable "isms" that exist.

[TwilightGardener]

3. He's the Jackie Robinson of politics. Just has to keep his head down and his

nose to the grindstone, prove he's better, and ignore the racial taunts and insinuations.

[ellacott]

7. Yes, that's how it's being described

I was listening to a radio program that was discussing Jackie Robinson/Barack Obama.

Robinson wasn't the only option but he mental makeup to endure the struggles that he endured. Unfortunately it took a toll on him physically and led to his death.

[elocs]

4. For many Americans, Obama's race is an issue that need not even be spoken.

They will not vote for Obama because he is black. I am sure that some will be fringe Democrats, but intuitively these type of people are far more likely to be Republicans or to usually support and vote for Republicans. If Hillary had been the nominee, then gender would be an issue that would not even have to be raised.

[CitizenPatriot]

6. it's an issue

but it's not insurmountable. the majority of americans do not support racial inequities and if things are presented in that way, they are not going to buy into it. There is that element of people who are very prejudiced -- who have not been exposed to people who are different from themselves in ANY way except as those people serve them in a working capacity. This makes it difficult for them to see the humanity, the sameness on the issues. It is to this "base" that McCain's racist ads are playing.

True, they would also not be voting for Hillary. We need to be aware of these folks and be careful about what the right is spreading to them, but they can and will be overcome. Kennedy did it. I am sure if we had the internet back then, you'd have heard tons of horrible things about him and his religion. The good news is Americans are a melting pot and the majority relate on some level to not being the Beer rich guy with 7 houses.

There are all kinds of differences. Let's make this about class, since that is what is really going on here with our economy.

[FrenchieCat]

10. Thank the media.......

What would we do without them......forget that Obama is of a certain hue? Heaven forbid it. We must be reminded at everyturn, just in case we forget. Wouldn't want that. :crazy: