AUDITING RACISM

Notes of Concern….

Jack Blair

AUDITING RACISM

Barack Obama is a black man. We have never had a serious candidate for the presidency who was black. This is new ground for America. Among the many reasons this presidential election might be interesting, this is a major one.

This election provides America with a chance to get a read on just how racist the people in America might still be. After years of progress in seeking the equality of the races in our country, countless bills guaranteeing equal treatment and opportunity, numerous trials in local and federal courts, a number of Supreme Court rulings, there will be a clue about our real progress when we go to the election booth next November.

There will be people who will vote for Barack Obama because he seems to them to be the best equipped to handle the presidency. They will have no concern about his race.

There will be people who will vote for Barack Obama because he is the Democrat candidate and they like the Democrat platform.

There will be people who will vote for Barack Obama because they do not have confidence in John McCain.

There will be people who will vote for Barack Obama because he is black.

Then there is the other side of the coin.

There will be people who will vote against Barack Obama because they do not believe him qualified to be the next president.

There will be people who will vote against Barack Obama because he is a Democrat and they don’t like what Democrats favor.

There will be people who will vote against Barack Obama because they have more confidence in John McCain.

There will be people who will vote against Barack Obama because he is black.

It is not acceptable that a man should be judged on the color of his skin. That said, there are people in America who will cast their votes precisely because of the color of Senator Obama’s skin. I expect the pollsters and the analysis experts will find some way to quantify this phenomenon. At some point, someone will tell us how many among us are playing a race card, either for or against a candidate. Whatever that number, it will be larger than most of us can bear.

Bob Herbet (a fine columnist who is African American) writing in The New York Times on August 26, 2008, said he had a rule of thumb for looking at the pre-election polls. He needed the rule because he believed many people would say they would not consider race, but would; say they would judge only competence, but wouldn’t; or say they were undecided, rather than admit they had already firmly made up their minds. His rule of thumb was essentially to take 2-3 points off Obama poll numbers and assume a substantial edge for McCain in the breakdown of undecideds.

If we believe columnist Herbert, then the race is much closer than published polls would suggest. If we do not believe Herbert, we need a naïveté check.