Call me a cynic. Call me a worry-troll. Call me Chicken Little.
Or call me the average black American citizen, as I certainly feel my opinions reflect- but without Hilary's gracious concession and with a whole lot of racial disquiet swept like dust under our national carpet, I can't feel as much elation as I'd like, now that Obama has hit the magic number.
The video's a bit old. As is the sentiment.
But just because someone might be a little bigoted, doesn't mean we can't get them to vote for a black man....
I listen to a lot of Air America. It's a refuge from the kind of talk radio I'm used to, replete with barely contained disgust, hostility and misunderstanding between races, religions and nationalities-- places where, if it's not the Muslims, it's the Mexicans and if its not them, its the blacks. Every so often, it's the Jews too-- I live in the midwest, after all.
I go there to try and think better of my country and my neighbors but these days-- there's very little to feel good about, even there.
I hear Hillary supporters calling angrily, talking about how Obama "guilted" them for not voting for the black man (in this case, because Chris Matthews and various media outlets, not the Obama campaign-- but to many, the campaign itself means less than what the media says about it). I heard casual reference to "primary affirmative action."
I know that we like to think Democrats are different, but let us, as a party, face facts: there are only two major parties in this country and both have very large tents. And in our tent, there are racists. Dixiecrats without borders, as it were.
Not all racists are overt, after all. Most are perfectly decent people who don't even know that they are racists.
Most are like the woman in the above video.
Our bright smiling, fresh-face nominee himself has said we've got a long road to healing divisions between us-- and here's how it works.
First, face reality. A lot of people are not going to vote for the black guy. Those people may even say they will, may poll that they will, but a single bad brush with a black teenager on the bus will make them look at Obama as if he is a threat.
That is reality.
Here is another reality: that doesn't mean Obama can't get those people's votes.
I live here in Wisconsin and we had, four years ago, a very silly (in my opinion) campaign called Fair Wisconsin which sought to guilt a largely socially conservative voting populace into not passing an amendment to define marriage into the "traditional" male and female duality. Their message was admirable but their method, their rationale, was flawed: you can't tell people who think homosexuality is immoral that allowing them to marry is "fair." That doesn't speak to them, their needs, their beliefs.
Turn, now, to Arizona, a state I wouldn't think so different from my own, except, that very same year, when a marriage referendum was put before people with similar values, the voters made the right choice: Marriage will NOT be defined... not by the government, at least.
In one state, they asked people to be fair. In the latter, they asked them to examine their own self-interest. Arizona farmers were asked, "do you want the government stepping in and telling someone what they can and can not do AGAIN?"
And those farmers said, well... I'm not comfortable with these homosexuals but I damn well HATE the government.
What's the lesson we can learn, here? Sometimes, appealing to one's better nature is just berating someone for their deeply held beliefs.
Believe. Fight for ideals. Hold on to that audacious hope.
But don't be deluded. Face reality. And keep your cool.
When talking to someone with racial hang-ups-- and that can be as little as someone believing that, for instance, "people help their own"-- don't brow beat and don't guilt. Just ask, "yeah, but do you want to keep losing our boys, good American boys, over there?"
When someone says, "I don't know that I feel comfortable, I don't think we're ready...."
Say, "maybe not, but he won't be alone up there, will he?" (you know, just like Republicans used to tell each other about Bush as people started to question the man's intelligence in 2000)
When someone overtly says they don't like black people, don't be afraid to say his mom's white.
This is a big fight we're talking about here-- a 152 day nasty, dirt-level street fight. And in a street-fight, it's the pragmatist that wins.
We're fighting for our country, here.
So I'm asking you, the readers, to not be afraid of doing what needs to be done, to get our man in office. Not just reaching across aisles but reaching across ideologies, across distastes, across beliefs, across hatred itself.
Because to him, this isn't about race. It might be to media, it might be to the voters, it might very well be to me... but to Barack Obama, this is about saving our country, reclaiming our soul and rebuilding our pride.
Whatever it takes, Kossacks. Come November, a Democrat will sit in the White House.