Ever since the name Rev. Wright was first mentioned the media has been trying to draw some parallel between his forceful statements and Barack Obama. Nevermind the fact that Barack Obama's very being seems to be contrary to divisive politics. Nevermind the fact that in the beginning of this election, Hillary Clinton seemed to have a lock on the African-American vote. Nevermind the fact that Barack Obama is half white, what the media is really trying to say is that White Americans should be wary that if elected President, Mr. Obama is going to be the posterchild for the new Civil Rights movement.
This fear plays into the minds of many White Americans who don't want to care about the plight of Black people in this country. It is what Hillary and Bill Clinton seemingly tried to do by injecting race into this election in the first place. Barack Obama's success is primarily due to the fact that he isn't intimidating as a Black man to White people. He isn't what the country is used to seeing in a Black politician. He seems to be definitely aware of the African-American experience and all of the issues that go along with belonging to this historically disenfranchised group but he doesn't have the typical "chip on his shoulder" attitude of many Black political figures. Barack Obama seems to have the ability to bring both sides of the racial divide together which might give this country it's first real chance to heal one of the most if not the most negative connotation in United States history.
By playing this game, the media and the Clintons are making the debate on race in this country a negative story. It seems to be an attempt at trying to "blacken" Barack Obama in the eyes of the country. Logic would lend to the belief that if he has been effectively "blackened", many White Americans will see him only as a Civil Rights type of political figure and not feel comfortable with him being the President of the United States. Barack Obama has never said anything that would give credence to this line of thinking and his true and legitimate political ties don't suggest that this would be the case. The media seems to be banking on the American people reacting the way they always have when confronted with the subject of racism, and that is to look the other way and not embrace anyone that reminds them of their duty to rectify the racial divide in this country. Hopefully the American people will not be fooled by this and will recognize that Barack Obama is the right person to lead this country not only because of the advances his Presidency will make for social unrest but because his intelligence, confidence and problem solving abilities will make the United States a jewel on the world stage again.
It is important to state that this is not a convoluded conspiracy theory detailing the media's efforts at derailing someone who could potentiallybe the first Black President of the United States. The media has interests in keeping the Democratic Presidential race going because it equals ratings and opportunities for making money. Plain and simple. There does seem to be some allegiance to Bill Clinton by many members of the mainstream media and that should not be ignored but the overlying reason for the biased coverage of late against Barack Obama seems to be a blatant attempt at milking this race as much as possible for ratings. The media wants the Presidetial race to go on as long as possible because it benefits them no matter how harmful it is to the election of a Democrat to the White House. The good thing is that in this day and age, there are many African-American journalists and academics who can effectively voice the opinions of Black America and that is something new in this society. We have always had African-American academics speaking out about racism and politics but now we have the numbers to effectively make the political and media structure play more fairly by holding their feet to the fire. Hopefully the whole of the American population will refuse to play old political games and do the same.
