Revelations of White Observers: It May be a Racial Primary

Reading Andrew Sullivan's Blog, one of his readers wrote a very insightful observation she had about why race IS a factor in this primary and presidential contest.

It's not surprising to me, per se' (well... I am somewhat surprised that the reader observed this behavior so astutely).

I think this is reinforced by many things that white Obama supporters (who are the majority of his support btw) are seeing up close and in person... i.e. the supporters who went to PA to campaign for him and were called "N-lovers", etc.

Andrew Sullivan's reader (who is white), made the case that many of us AA's have known for most of our lives.

The playing field is NOT level for AA's. It's just not. This has been beautifully illustrated by the constant changing of the goal posts of what Senator Obama can define as 'success'.

Once it was about the delegates.  No More.
Once it was about the states.  No More.
Once it was about fundraising ability.  No More.

It has catipulted into a perfect storm of basically stating "No matter what you do negro, it will never be good enough. NEVER."

Here's a snippet of the letter:

Two years ago, when my son was in the fourth grade, his team played a team from the west side of Ann Arbor, where "Impeach Bush" signs are found on every other lawn.  It was a blowout, and all those liberal parents were ready to throw my son's team out of the league, contending that all of these black kids were a group of ringers who played too rough.  This is not an exaggeration.  The rest of my son's team's schedule was canceled, and the rest of their games were only against teams that volunteered to play them.  My son's head coach, an African-American, was personally excoriated in an email campaign .  Shortly after this controversy, in the same league, I watched one all-white Ann Arbor team get blown out by another all-white team.  I think it was 20-0 at the end of the first quarter.  Nothing but laughs and smiles all around, and consolation ice-cream cones (or soy milk hot chocolates).  No-one's schedule was changed as a result. No-one was raising threats against any coaches.

This is just a microcosm, but there's a lot going on within it. Whites -- of all political persuasions -- don't like to feel inferior to blacks.  They don't like to compete on a level playing field with blacks, and, when they do compete and lose, they can't accept the loss.  They insist that there must be some explanation besides the fact that they just weren't as good.  None of the racial attitudes are overt.  But after seeing these attitudes repeated again and again and only when black kids are winning, it's impossible to conclude that they are anything but racial, even though they might be represented as something else.

I still have hope.  I still think change is possible.  I'm going to do everything I can to work for Obama's election in November.  But there's a lot of prejudice in every part of the polity that's gone unrecognized by those who hold it -- even if it has been recognized and exploited by a cynical few of both parties who know just how to bring it out without calling its name.  In the contest with the Clintons, the Rovistas and their ilk, we may not win this time, but we must fight nevertheless.  As Danton said, "il nous faut de l'audace, et encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace."

Now Kossacks... I'm not saying all is lost.  I'm not saying that all white people have this view.  I'm not saying that your view is not legitimate because you have some mixed kids/grandkids or your best friend is black.

What I'm saying is, this "racial component" is real, and it's high time that it is acknowledged as being an issue.  

Bigots and Racists are real..and guess what.. they vote too.

Let me make it clear that just because you may not support Barack Obama, that doesn't automatically make you a racist. But for some people, it IS the main reason why they don't support him, as illogical as that is.

If we keep running from it, it will stay the same and give credence to those who hold that world view... they know they will be ignored and excused and allowed to get a pass on their bigotry.

Let's not deny/excuse this anymore?