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March 21st, 2008
The last week has been a tough one in the Obama campaign. A campaign that fought to focus the debate on anything but the racial aspect is now being called on the carpet specifically for that. But this is indicative of a larger issue.
In the interests of full disclosure, I did vote for Barack Obama in the Texas primary; I supported his candidacy for president and believed that he could deliver change to this country in a time when it desperately needs it.
Also, in the interests of disclosure, for those of you who don’t know, I am a black man. While I would like to believe race did not play a factor in my voting for Obama, in the sense of voting for him specifically because he was black, can I be certain?
What I do know, however, is that the past few months have been very interesting, and very trying for the traditional black establishment. So-called black leaders make their bread and butter by portraying the black man as a victim, by saying how we can never get ahead, and how we are being held down. Yet look at the states Obama has carried through the primaries: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Virginia… all states with rich histories of hatred towards blacks, all states which are fodder for the so-called leaders to rile up the black community.
Jerimiah Wright is not an exception to the sort of victim-driven, blame-America politics that goes on internally in the black community. Black people have enjoyed a political shell of protection due to the stained history of our past, and churches have been the common locus where animosity can be brewed against the white establishment. Sermons read more like a grievance list, a catalog of sins that America, and by implication or by direct statement, white America has brought against itself, and deserved to suffer.
It is this mentality that breeds the strange tension that many blacks feel towards their country. To many in the black community, “American” is an exclusive term that only applies to them when it is time to pay taxes or go to war. Many blacks feel as though they can not achieve the American dream. Michelle Obama’s statements about feeling pride in her country for the first time crystallize that thought. For people like her, they do not feel “American” unless they are actively able to be involved in the determination of its course.
But ironically, it is this sort of pessimism that may end up sinking the candidacy of the first real shot at a black president. Michelle Obama’s statements were the tip of the iceberg of resentment that blacks feel towards the country - Wright’s statements were the underbelly.
Let me be clear here -I am not immune to this pessimism. I did not really believe Obama had a chance to win the nomination initially. I thought surely that while white Americans would say they would vote for a black man, when the time came, they would shrink from the reality of it. When he won Iowa, I still had doubts. When he began to win states after New Hampshire, I was really forced to deal with a significant amount of cognitive dissonance - my world view was clearly wrong. White Americans were voting for Obama - and what’s more, Southern white Americans were voting for Obama.
There is no other explanation for this phenomenon other than that those who were pessimistic in the black community were simply 100% wrong. Keep in mind, the support that Obama received came far before they were essentially challenged by Wright to put their votes were their mouths were. That the injection of race into this campaign came after those votes were cast is far more difficult to deal with than if it happened at the outset. Now the comments are exposed to the light of reality and are left sorely wanting. The Reverend and his supporters have nowhere to hide behind, no way to take the traditional route and claim that whites would talk a good game but never deliver in the polling booths.
It’s also now very clear that this conversation should have happened at the outset of the campaign. The last 2 weeks of events (arguably kicked off by the March 7th statements by Geraldine Ferraro) are the inevitable consequence of at least 20 years of abject denial by the black community that the world is a better place for us, that many of the problems we face are problems of our own genesis, and that white Americans deserve credit for their involvement in the betterment of our community. It is also indicative of the spirit of a generation which has grown up in the soil tilled by those who came before us, and dreamed of a world where race would not be a decisive issue.
For a time, that was the case. Obama succeeded in many ways both because of and in spite of his race, but his list of positives and negatives weren’t any longer than any other viable candidate’s. His supporters formed a broad coalition of people from all races, but people who were interested in him not necessarily because they wanted a black candidate or a white candidate, but because they wanted a candidate they could believe in.
The questions lobbed against Obama this past week are both troubling and pointed. Why did he continue to stay at a church whose beliefs ran so strongly against his own? Even if we accept that he did not necessarily hold those views himself, why was this man made his spiritual advisor? Why would a man whose story runs in such stark opposition to the picture painted by Wright of our country continue to sit there and not speak out against it?
Ultimately, the prime emotion here is disappointment. It’s not the shock of finding out a candidate who you thought was a paragon of virtue was a liar. It’s not the annoyance of being sold a bill of political goods that a politician had no intention to make good on. It’s the feeling of betrayal for those who had the audacity to hope, and believe that a man who said he was a leader would be a leader when the cameras were off of him as well, that he could make good on his promises when no one was watching.
Now this is Politico!…. there will be another scandal by next week that we’ll all be talking about, something to feign more outrage about. I suppose. But this week, I think I’ll be a little outraged about this.
