Friday, February 16, 2007

Obama and the race factor...again....

First we had the assumption bandied about that black voters would vote for Obama because it would make him the first black president as if that was some primary goal that would rise above all other reasons. I commented on the belief that this was bunk because if that was true than Hillary Clinton would have no problem being elected over Obama with that type of theory being bandied about since there were more women of all races and it doesn't seem that there is that same assumption being promoted as heavily by the media that all women will fall in line and vote for Hillary only because she is a woman.

Now we have the other side of the black issue, because of course the focus can't be on the individual strengths and weaknesses of these individual presidential candidates it has to focus on gender or race. "Is Obama Black Enough" is the topic of discussion in this Washington Post article. The author of the article appears to take issue with this being done to Obama but the reality is if you are going to promote one of the reasons for his electibility as being the fact that he is black and black voters are going to flock to him as a primary reason then you have to expect the "is he black enough" question to follow. If they don't want his race to be an issue, then don't make it an issue. Don't exhort blacks to support Obama because he's black then be surprised when some question his degree of "blackness" or his support for what are considered black issues.

2 comments:

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Excellent post Lisa, and spot on!

And here I was thinking that we should vote for the candidate that was best qualified, shares our collective views, and has demonstrated that she/he walks the walk, besides talking the talk.

What was I thinking...?

Aaron said...

I think there is a large constituent of blacks that will only trust and rally behind a "true" black man. The same argument can't (effectively) be used for women. Gender cannot be segregated to the extent race can be. Gender permeates every family no matter the race or religion.

That is why this is being raised, and will continue to be raised. Many would do the same to Powell or Rice. Many do the same based on religion. People look to racial / social / religious / political groups as a basis for their own percieved morality.