Tears For Obama?

The political cartoon that has probably affected me the most in my life was the Bill Mauldin drawing after the Kennedy assassination. As you can see, it shows the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln memorial, with his face in his hands, obviously crying. In response to Barack Obama winning the Presidency, maybe an appropriate cartoon today would show Lincoln crying once again, but this time they would be tears of joy or amazement.

I'm not so naïve as to think, as Rush Limbaugh and others scorn, that Obama is "the one," the Messiah, the person who is going to single-handedly cure America of all of its problems. I don't even know if he's going to be a great President -- only time will tell. I'm also not so naïve as to think that his election means that bigotry is a thing of the past in the United States. I'm sure there are people who don't think Obama's election represents progress so much as a lucky Democrat who happened to be running at the right time. I disagree. There are several areas of real progress. Personally, I'm going to give Obama a chance and my support despite his rooting for the Chicago White Sox and my being a Cubs fan. I think you'll agree that's real progress.

Barack Obama and his family are now preparing to move into the White House – which was built with slave labor. That's progress, isn't it? Apparently, there was no "Bradley effect" in this election in which people claimed to the pollsters that they were going to vote for Obama but when they got into the voting booths, they just couldn't bring themselves to vote for a black man. It's possible that some people did feel, "I hate voting for a black man, but this economy is killing me and maybe he can get us out of this jam better than McCain." If that's true, maybe it's not such a bad thing. It means that some people's self-interest trumped their prejudices. Maybe in a few more generations, their families won't have these prejudices at all. No progress?

Something that seemed to elude Sarah Palin and some of the Palinites is that while it's true that "Joe the Plumber" is a real American, he's not the only real American. The Muslim who became a citizen a year ago is also a real American. The rabbi with Russian parents who was born in Brooklyn is a real American. And the black woman whose great-grandparents were slaves is also a real American.

One thing the election seemed to do was repudiate fear of or hatred for "the other." It didn't represent a triumph for the stereotypical "typical American," but for all Americans.

Most of all, to many of us, it represented an enormous step forward in American history. Just like the elderly African-American woman crying in Chicago's Grant Park, I never imagined that I would see the election of a black or a multiracial President in my lifetime. I'm old enough to remember visiting Florida in the Fifties and seeing "colored" water fountains and bathrooms. I recall going on driving vacations with my family to Wisconsin, and not being able to stay at certain motels along the way because they were "restricted" to white Christians. I can certainly remember the killings, the lynchings, and the other violence associated with the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties.

Coincidentally, I was in Grant Park for the last big political demonstration there during the violent days of the 1968 Democratic Convention. (I wasn't a war protestor, I was a journalism student at Northwestern. I was covering the all-important delegation of Hawaii. They showered me with flowered leis, not tear gas – but I think I'm allergic to both). Even though there were many more people in Grant Park for Obama's acceptance speech, there was no violence. That's real progress, too.

"It's Because He's Black, Stupid"

The election is only a few weeks away, and there are still "undecideds." What are they waiting for? And how can they be torn between these two guys. They're so different. They are offering voters a very clear choice. Besides, what more could the undecideds possibly hope to learn or see about the candidates? Is Obama finally going to gain a few pounds? Is McCain finally going to stop saying, "My friends?" What is taking these people so long to make up their minds? Well, when it comes to some of them, to paraphrase a famous political saying, I'd have to say, "It's Because He's Black, Stupid."

Now before you start angrily typing to me, let me make a few things clear. I'm not suggesting that everyone who dislikes Barack Obama and plans on voting for John McCain is doing it because of race. I'm not saying that all of the people who are still undecided are racist. What I am suggesting is that we have to look at and wonder about those voters who agree with Barack Obama on issues that are very important to them and disagree with John McCain's positions, yet are still thinking about voting for McCain. Why? Could it be race?

Lately, political pundits have been talking about "The Bradley Effect." This refers to the 1982 California gubernatorial contest in which Tom Bradley, an African American, was ahead in the polls but lost to George Deukmejian. Some experts feel that some white voters were embarrassed to tell pollsters that they really planned to vote for the white candidate, and others who favored Bradley just couldn't vote for the black candidate once they got in the polling booth. There is some feeling that this may happen again in the Obama-McCain contest.

But I think there's also something going on that I'll call, "The Who, Me? Effect." This involves white voters who don't consider themselves anti-black. They may live among or work with African Americans and would certainly never use a racial slur. But, well, they just aren't completely embracing African Americans. They feel uncomfortable, weird, and awkward about the whole thing. When they're having a public conversation in a restaurant, etc., they always seem to whisper the word, "black" (like some people always whisper the word, "cancer"). If someone called these people bigots or said they were prejudiced, their response would be a shocked, "Who, me?"

But they agree with Obama on all the issues that are important to them, yet they're just not sure about voting for a black man. So they remain undecided. And they are desperately searching for some reason, some excuse, some rationalization for voting for McCain that doesn't involve race. Apparently, they couldn't convince themselves that eight-year-old Barack Obama was a radical member of the Weathermen, so they're still looking for some reason not to vote for Obama without feeling guilty.

When you combine "The Bradley Effect" with "The Who, Me? Effect," the numbers could be quite significant. A whole vocabulary has evolved to help the "Who me-ers" rationalize their opposition to Obama. I can help with the definitions:

"I don't like him because

he's arrogant" really means, "He's black."

"He's inexperienced" really means, "He's black."

"I know he's not a Muslim,

but how can I vote for

someone with a name like

that in these times?" really means, "He's black."

"His speeches are too fancy" really means, "He's black."

"How did a guy with his

background end up at Harvard?" really means, "He's black."

"I like his ideas, but

there's just something

about him" really means, "He's black."

"I don't like his wife" really means, "He's black."

One good thing about America is that you are not required to justify whom you vote for. If you want to vote for someone because you like his eyes or the way she dresses, you may do that. And if you don't want to vote for someone because of the color of his skin, that is your right. I just hope that not too many people exercise that right.