To
the relief of most Americans, and especially to blacks, it is now
evident that race (skin color) was not a negative factor in the
November 4th presidential elections.
Whites in General: On
the role race may have played in the election of Barack Obama, a
writer named Peter Wallsten for the Los
Angeles Times, titles his article "White
Americans play major role in electing the first black president".
Mr. Wallsten declares, "Race proves to be no discernible
handicap, even among the small-town, working-class whites who were
considered most resistant to Obama."
Peter A. Brown, associate
director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said
concerns about the economy trumped race as the issue on which most
Americans voted. "The important question was not black or white
but green. That is, who was best to handle the economy."
White Men: How
about white men? Did they have problems voting for a black man for
president? No. Forty percent (four out of ten) white men voted for
Obama. That's higher than "the last five Democratic presidential
nominees, according to a National Journal study of exit polls".
Also, nearly 50% of white men, who described themselves as
independent, voted for Barack.
Obama had no problem
raking in votes from working class whites, small town whites, and
suburbian whites.
Jews: OK, if color
did not prevent whites from voting for Obama, how about other
ethnicities, like Jews, for example? Again, race was no major factor
among Jewish voters. Internet rumors intended to scar Jews away from
Obama by calling him a Muslim. But Jews in Ohio and Florida voted for
Obama in large numbers. Obama even did better among Jewish voters
than John Kerry did in 2004. Nationally, a whopping 78% of Jewish Americans voted Obama.
Hispanics: Common
myth has it that blacks and Hispanics cannot get along, and therefore
Latinos will not vote for blacks in any meaningful number. Well,
wrong! In huge numbers, Hispanics chose Obama over McCain. In 2004,
President Bush won 45% of the Hispanic vote; this year McCain only
managed to get 30% of the Latino vote, a 15% drop. Nationwide Obama won 2 in 3 or 66% of the Hispanic vote; that's a landslide.
Let me quote Peter
Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times again: "Gone from the
Bush win column of 2004 were two pivotal states -- Ohio and Florida
-- both of which boast growing ethnic diversity. In greater Miami, an
ethnic microcosm with large populations of blacks and Latinos, Obama
won by more than 140,000 votes -- more than tripling the Democrats'
edge there four years ago. In populous Pinellas County near Tampa,
Fla., where Bush and Kerry tied, Obama won by 40,000 votes."
Blacks: If there
were any illusions that "real blacks" would give Obama, a
biracial person, the cold shoulder, because "he's not black
enough", those ideas never saw the light on elections day.
Blacks voted for Obama in overwhelming numbers, as high as 90%. But
against the backdrop of black American history, it is not accurate to
label blacks' landslide vote for Obama as a racially motivated vote.
The history of blacks in America has paved the way for a
once-oppressed people to vouch for one of their own, if for nothing
else, to erase the myth that blacks are unqualified to hold the
highest office in the land. For 9 in 10 black voters, electing Obama
became a matter of pride, fulfilling their civil rights dream of
racial justice and equality, while making history in the process.
The tears seen on national
TV in the eyes of Rev. Jesse Jackson and Ms. Oprah Winfrey last night
at Grant Park in Chicago could be traced to the roots of the journey
that passed through the Civil Rights Movement and soon will lead to
that presidential mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC.
Barack Obama's victory
debunks the notion that race would be a significant factor in the
president election. The "Bradley Effect" that many of us
feared never registered on the radar on election day. Over all, the
polls were accurate. Americans were telling the truth when they told
pollsters how they were going to vote.
Perhaps the primary reason
why race never played a major role is that Candidate Obama resisted
running as a black candidate. This should become an enduring lesson
to all non-white candidates running for high office in the United
States. When it came to his blackness, Barack was smart to let his
skin do the talking.
Coming in the aftermath of
Jesse Jackson's failed run for the presidency in the 1980s, Obama
would have been a fool to repeat his predecessor's error of making
race an issue in American presidential politics.
White Americans already
know that by the acts of slavery and segregation, this nation
committed gross crimes against people of African descent. This has
become a painful memory, if not a moral embarrassment for millions of
white Americans. Black politicians risk a backlash when they seek to
remind America of its racial sins against blacks.
Rather, over the decades,
enlightened and fair-minded Americans have been seeking meaningful
ways to make it up to their fellow black citizens, even if it means
taking the risk of electing blacks to top public offices across
America. That's why when given the opportunity, and with the right
black candidate, Whites have used the occasion to elect black
legislators, mayors and governors.
Consequently, in 2008,
when these educated, penitent and equality-minded Americans saw and
heard Obama, a black candidate who bypassed race baiting and spoke of
hope and harmony, they jumped all over the bandwagon of change, as
one big step towards atoning their nation's past racial evils. By
voting for Obama, millions of White Americans have received the
catharsis that their consciences have yearned for over the years,
especially when they realize they have achieved this historic feat by
voting for one whom they believe will be not so much a 'black
president', but a 'president who happens to be black'.
These Americans voted for
Obama, not out of guilt and shame, but from a heart of goodwill and
reconciliation, in hopes of bringing healing and closure to this long
winded chapter of American history. It would be more than a kind
gesture if these white voters for Obama would hear blacks say, "We
can move on now to a new chapter of race relations in America."
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