Just had to share, my dad said he might vote for Obama!

[moriah]

:)

Okay... have to put this up first. My dad is horribly racist. He has no problem interacting with individuals who "aren't like the rest of them" (and truth be known, he says most of the black people he's met are "not like the rest of them" -- as in, he hasn't met anyone personally who actually validates his stereotypes, but he still believes the stereotype). His absolute favorite employer was a black gentleman who he really admired and respected. But he has held on to his racist views for a long time. It really pisses me off, because it's so stupid. I've called him on it a lot.

There's hope his racist views might be changing. He has a black girlfriend right now. (He still gets irate at the idea that any of his female relatives could date a black man, and said he would stop pursuing trying to get back together with my mother when he found out she dated a black man, but ... oh well, I can't change him, I can just point it out when he is being a jackass and hope he will eventually learn.)

Anyway... he is a life-long Republican, even though it is so against his actual views of the way the world should be. Why? Because he was convinced by my grandfather to vote for Reagan the first time he ever voted, and he got a new good job shortly after when he'd been unemployed. So he decided the Republicans were who should be in charge, despite the fact that he was a drug user and an advocate for the legalization of marijuana, despite the fact he didn't think we should go to foreign wars unless we took care of the people at home, despite the fact he later became disabled and had to depend on the system that the Republicans destroyed to get his medical care.

This year we were talking about politics. I was really excited about Hillary's candidacy, and he said that he had listened to a few of her speeches and really liked her ideas. He re-registered as a Democrat and voted for Hillary in North Carolina's primary. That was the first time he'd ever cast a vote for a Democrat. But he said he didn't like Barack because "he's black and a Muslim". (Even though I was supporting Clinton I immediately called him out on that because his race shouldn't matter and even if he was a Muslim that shouldn't matter either.)

Tonight, I talked about watching the Convention. He called during Senator Kennedy's speech and I said I would have to call him back because I wanted to listen to the speech. When I called him back and told him how happy I was that Ted was able to get up and make a speech, he said he'd been paying attention to his condition and that he really admired Senator Kennedy. Then I said "While I wasn't all that thrilled with Obama at first I think he'll do a good job, and I think he chose a good VP." His response: "Well, I wish he'd chosen Hillary...." "But Dad, the VP doesn't have a lot of power. She can do more either in the Cabinet or in the Senate, and besides, she deserves to be the head of a ticket and not the second."

Then he said what shocked me. I was expecting another racist rant.

Instead, he said "You know, I might just vote for Obama after all, just to get a Democrat in and see if they can handle things better, the Republicans have fucked us over for too long."

YES!!!!!!

I'm going to keep trying to gently convince him, but I don't dare to be too aggressive about it. My rebelliousness is a familial trait.

[CitizenLeft]

1. good for your Dad!

Keep working on him, he'll come around!

[writes3000]

2. His vote will be good for us but it will be even better FOR HIM. Keep working on him.

Change, it's happening all over.

Thanks for the post.

[Egnever]

3. No offense

but your dad has some very odd issues.

Cool that he is voting Obama though.

[moriah]

4. Yes, he does.

I love my father but I am very well aware of his shortcomings.

It may not seem to be a lot of progress, but I highly doubt that 10 years ago he would have even considered voting for a black man.

Racism is an ugly thing. We're Southerners, and while I am very aware that even Northerners have racism issues, sometimes it feels like it's more deeply ingrained here. The majority of the people here who do not consider themselves "racist" still get the willies about interracial marriages. (When I was a teen my mother's thoughts were "I don't care who you date, but please be aware that mixed children are treated really horribly and it can be really hard on them to try to find a niche to belong to." She doesn't consider herself racist, but that's certainly a racist thought pattern right there.) It's not just cut and dried here, and old prejudices linger and die hard.

Even my grandfather, who I deeply admired and respected, and who ran a traveling mercantile company making quite a bit of his money by going into the "projects" and other predominately black areas in Little Rock selling to people on credit, still would have had a fit had his daughter dated a black guy. He was one of the few people that he knew who would issue credit to blacks. He was friendly to his customers, knew all of them very well, and each week when they got paid he was the first person at their door to collect his payment and ask how the family and the kids were doing. He said he thought integration of the schools was right because he had seen how bad the schools really were in those neighborhoods (a view that got him into quite a bit of trouble when it was discussed during his poker games at the firehouse and with his Freemasonry brothers.) But he still had his prejudices and they didn't change at all as far as I know, and he was one of the "white flighters".

It's a sad, sad state of affairs. But if someone as bigoted as my father will see beyond his bigotry enough to realize that Obama is the best hope we have for a freer country and a safer world, then that's a good sign.