Posted by
Lisa on Wednesday, August 01, 2007 1:04:03 AM
That’s the best answer I can give to Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson who wants to make Barack Obama’s standings in the polls about his race.
It’s not about that. He asks if “white America” is ready to elect an
African-American as our President, and cites our previous history with
segregation, slavery, and civil rights. There’s no question that we
have struggled as a nation with racism, and to some degree we still do.
But the only ones who seem to be obsessed with Obama’s race are the
media. They keep bringing it up as if we SHOULD care about it.
Most Americans will vote based on which candidate they feel is the
most capable of leading this country. Many of the South Carolina
Democrats in the poll he mentions are probably supporting Hillary over
Barack for this reason, not because of racism. It doesn’t look like a
coincidence that Mr. Robinson mentions South Carolina as part of the
“white America” that he claims could keep Obama from the nomination.
Even though I don’t generally give any Democrats the benefit of the
doubt, I think that Robinson is trying to make a connection that isn’t
there. There may be a few who will not vote for Hillary because she’s
a woman, or Barack because he’s African-American. That’s not
representative of the whole state of South Carolina, nor is it
representative of this country overall. I resent the implication that
the main reason Barack isn’t making up much ground on Hillary in the
polls in South Carolina and elsewhere is because of his race. There
are other reasons for that, but nothing that makes for an exciting
story on the frontpage of a website or newspaper.
Americans deserve more credit than they are being given here. We can
judge for ourselves whether a candidate has the right combination of
charisma, experience, and leadership to be our choice for President. We
can judge for ourselves what kind of President that candidate would be,
not based on race, gender or even religion - and we don’t need the
media’s approval for our choice. The candidates on both sides would be
wise to keep that in mind.
Tags: Barack Obama, ‘08 election