Conservative Blacks Consider Supporting Barack Obama
Yahoo! News has an interesting article up about conservative African-Americans who are thinking about throwing their support behind Barack Obama, the first-ever black nominee for a major political party in the United States. They are torn between their ideological beliefs (politically), and the connection they feel with Obama because of his skin-color. Additionally, they understand that Obama may write history by winning, which would be an important step and victory for all African-Americans, or so they think.
Although it is easy to understand why these conservatives are conflicted about this year’s election, it seems to me true racism will only disappear when people stop focusing on race, let alone basing their votes on skin color altogether. The last step of full emancipation is not ‘we vote for him or her because he / she is a black / woman,’ but ‘we vote for him or her because he or she is the best.’ Followed by a question from a journalist: ‘what about his skin color / her gender?’ – Answer: ‘What do you mean? What about it?’
In a way, these black Republicans only keep racism alive. Martin Luther King Jr. understood how a world without racism, without regard for one’s skin-color, would look like. It wouldn’t be a world in which people support someone because they feel a connection to that person because of his race, but a world in which people simply don’t care about such trivial differences and similarities between human beings.
Identity politics will never result in the elimination of racism / discrimination. They may, actually, only increase it. Identity politics are, furthermore, divisive… and irrational (based on emotions).
Well, that’s at least the perspective of an outsider like myself.
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Michael, it would indeed be a great country if we did not have “racism” or color divide in the US. But the sad truth is “slavery” has played and still plays an important role in the psyche of the many African Americans. It is all well and said to say, “voting for Obama just for it’s skin color is wrong. We should vote for the “man himself”. But! however Barak Obama is part of the white establishment and a product of a white society (due to his mothers up bringing), many African Americans see him as a “black man” and just on that level they will vote for him. I bet you a million dollars, if he was lets say, “Italian”, or “Greek”, or “Turkish”, or “Armenian”, respectively those communities who people belong to or identify themselves with vote for that particular political candidate, just for his back ground. Irrelevant of his ideology, or political line he/she follows. In my humble opinion, I love the fact that he is a lot more liberal then Bush, so that is why, he is on my voting list. If he were yellow, red or orange, I would still vote for him. This country cannot afford a second “BUSH” nonsense! BUT! I am not sure what to expect from Barak Obama in the next few years as well. I guess it is a waiting game for me….
If black conservatives are voting for Obama solely on his skin color – they are casting a racist vote. There is no difference between voting for or against a candidate based upon the color of his skin.
Both votes are racist and abominable.
How very sad.
Maybe the black conservatives don’t trust McCain to be a true conservative, and a vote for Obamama is a vote for the lesser of two evils. If Reagan Democrats could vote for Ronny, why can’t moderate to conservatives blacks vote for Obamama?
Ideally the color of a person’s skin should be as meaningful as the color of their eyes. We still have a long way to go to get there, but I’m proud to say our country keeps taking small step after step in that direction.Saying that convervative blacks might vote for Obama because of his *skin color* is a bit reductionist though. You might want to consider that African Americans may be drawn to vote for him not because of mere pigment but because they see him as belonging to the same subculture as them, and they feel they can relate to him more because of that. This is the same thing as, for example, southerners voting for southernern candidates – remember when Clinton picked Gore on the "double Bubba" to shore up the Southern vote? And nobody really complained when Jews voted for overwhelmingly for Gore / Lieberman did they?Being "black" is not so much about having darkly pigmented skin – a close friend of mine from India has darker skin than any black person I’ve ever met. Being "black" or African American means you belong to a particular cultural and ethnic group.If African Americans are excited to have one of their own as the nominee for president, I have as little problem with their enthusiasm as I would Italian-American enthusiasm for Giuliani should he have been the republican nominee.I’m not saying this is ideal – really I think ethnicity, race, religion, etc. should be ignored in favor of *merit.* I just don’t think it’s fair to single out blacks for doing what everyone else already does too.
Michael,
I am very offended on what you are asserting. Being black is more than about skin color, somthing you didn’t pick up in my post. I have a lot of problems with Obama. But I also have respect for him as a black man and I would be lying if I didn’t say that there is a hint of racial pride in wanting to support Obama. Will that translate into a vote for him? Maybe, but I am tend to strongly favor McCain because of his policies.
I am really upset that you would stoop so low.
Dennis, I apologize if you feel offended by what I wrote. There was no intention to insult you in any way, shape or form.
But I’m afraid I don’t quite understand your complaint. I’m not blasting you. I understand the approach of you and many other black Republicans – I understand that Obama may appeal to you because of difficult history of blacks in the US, etc.
I’m not blasting you for that.
I am criticizing, however, the notion that skin should play any role. It’s understandable on an emotional level, but on an intellectual level, the emotions are quickly proven to be counterproductive. It’s logical you feel an emotional connect to Obama and to what he is accomplishing, but intellectually… isn’t it true that "I would be lying if I didn’t say that there is a hint of racial pride in wanting to support Obama" is not exactly in line with the wish to eliminate all racism?
I don’t mean to imply that you are a racist – I think you interpreted my words like – I’m saying that if blacks reason like this (and I’m perfectly sure that many do, considering the ridiculous percenage of AA’s who support Obama) they are unintentionally keeping racism alive. Because, in my opinion, racism will only truly disappear when people of all colors consider race to be completely and utterly irrelevant.
I hope I made myself more clear in this comment.
If being Black is more than about skin colour, then I guess Mr. Obama is not black according to this definition. For example, none of his ancestors were slaves, none of them participated in the Civil Rights Movement, and so on. Culturally, he is a white American from Iowa. He just happens to have this skin colour because his father was Kenyan. But what does he have in common with African Americans?