Racial Divide in AmericaObama's candidacy sparks race dialogue
Obama's candidacy sparks race dialogue
PHILADLPHIA (AP) - Spurred by the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, Americans are finally, inevitably, talking about race - a conversation full of pain, anger, guilt and retribution that America has been sidestepping forever.
This time, the dialogue isn't addressing the aftermath of a murder, riot or hurricane. It's not distorted by crime, welfare, immigration or affirmative action.
Instead, the issue has been stripped down to its unavoidable core: How do white people feel about a black man possibly becoming president?
Carvon Johnson, an engineer at a cosmetics plant in New Jersey, says he has been asked by several white people, “What do you think about your man Obama?”
“I usually go back and ask them, ‘What makes you think he's my man?’ says Johnson, who is black. “And that's when I get to probe them: What do YOU think about him?”
Sometimes, the conversation is among whites. “People who are prejudiced who wouldn't normally have that (race) conversation have to deal with it now. It's right there,” says Sarah Cheitel of White Plains, New York. “More people are definitely talking about it. There's no doubt about it.”
“Even if you're a person who's not prejudiced,” she continues, “at some point when you're thinking Democrat, Republican, old politics or new politics, somewhere in that description, it comes up in your brain that Obama is black.”
For Cheitel and her husband David, the moment came as they drove through their town and saw a black man wearing a shirt reading, “My President is Black.”
David, a Republican, was offended, and said so: “I could never wear a shirt that says 'My President is White.” Sarah, a Democrat, sat slack-jawed with surprise, worried that their three children in the back seat would be influenced by the views of her husband; he is, she says, “a little bit prejudiced.”
Sarah says David has a problem with Obama partly because he's black; David says his only problems are Obama's politics and what he sees as the Democratic candidate's lack of experience and patriotism.
Not everyone is taking part in this conversation. Some people claim race isn't a major factor in the election - though polls seem to indicate otherwise. Some avoid the topic at work, where it can be risky to reveal true feelings. Some lead either monochromatic or diverse lives that make race unimportant to them.
Obama himself isn't even a vocal participant as he courts the white voters crucial for victory. He has floated above traditional race rhetoric, occasionally acknowledging but never emphasizing the special problems and issues that continue to affect minorities.
“With the campaign, the best (race) dialogue would be no dialogue,” says U.S. Rep. Tony Scott, a Virginia Democrat and Obama supporter. “Just consider his qualifications, his vision for America, and determine whether or not he is better than the alternative.”
Terry Edmonds, who became the first black presidential speechwriter when he was hired by President Bill Clinton, says that in the early days of Obama's candidacy he doubted a black man could win, while many white friends were optimistic.
“I had to say to people, ‘Do you realize less than 50 years ago black people were being lynched in this country?” Edmonds says. To many, he said, the idea of a black president is incredible.
Edmonds says his white friends would respond, “We've made so much progress, we're beyond that now.”
“They're actually right, in many ways,” Edmonds says, although he's quick to warn that racial inequality won't disappear if Obama is elected. “I think the Obama candidacy is an example that we can get beyond race in some respects.”
Not everyone, however, is ready for that great beyond.
Forty percent of white Americans hold a negative view of blacks, agreeing with descriptions such as “complaining,” “violent” or “irresponsible,” according to an AP-Yahoo poll released this week, which concluded that racial attitudes will cost Obama votes that a white candidate with identical qualifications would have received.
In an August poll by the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg, most voters said they know someone who would not be comfortable voting for a black president; 25 percent of Republicans said America is not ready to elect a black president.
“A lot of white workers ... and quite frankly a lot of union members believe he's the wrong race,” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said at the Democratic National Convention.
This lingering stain is at the heart of the current conversation. Obama's racial stance has neutralized decades of argument and recriminations over who owes what to whom. Now, for the first time, the main topic of discussion is naked racism - and most Americans agree that it's an embarrassment.
Before Obama, “people had gotten a little bit frustrated and a little bit tired of the racial conversation in America. People were just as well to move on to the next issue,” says Stacy Hawkins, a Philadelphia attorney who specializes in counseling corporations on diversity.
“Especially, particularly, the black-white issue ... the unresolved tension between black Americans and white Americans that stem from slavery and Jim Crow,” Hawkins continues. “The resistance to own up to that legacy and try to rectify the great injustice that occurred in our country's modern history is a conversation that has clearly not been had.”
Eleven years ago, Clinton attempted to have exactly that conversation when he launched an effort to ignite a “great and unprecedented conversation about race.”
An advisory board organized hundreds of discussions nationwide with members of the public and religious and corporate leaders, then delivered a voluminous report recommending strategies to create “One America.”
But the initiative ultimately dissolved beneath persistent attacks from opponents of affirmative action, the weight of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and a reluctance to tackle issues that might alienate white voters.
In January 2001, days before he left office, Clinton issued a short set of race recommendations to Congress that vanished after President George W. Bush took office.
John Hope Franklin, chairman of Clinton's advisory board, says that during the dialogue, many people felt race was a subject to be avoided: “Just let it alone. Let it alone and it'll solve itself ... as though you had a sleeping lion on your hands and should just tip toe around and don't disturb him, and everything will be all right.”
Now, the lion seems approachable.
“They feel a little more open to communicate,” says Johnson, the New Jersey engineer. “With some people, there have been references, 'Wow, he sounds like you.' Usually, my family and I are the one and only (black) friend of a lot of our colleagues.
“It's like this new 'a-ha' moment for them ... finding out that some of the goals that we of color try to attain are similar to theirs. Planning for retirement, talking about stocks and investments, talking about world news.”
Talking won't erase the past, but many agree that it bodes well for the future.
Before Obama ran for president, race was not often a topic of discussion in the white, middle-class Cheitel family.
Sarah and David, who own a valet-parking service and sell antiques on eBay, were more concerned with spiking health-care costs, shuttered restaurants reneging on thousands of dollars in parking bills and the declining quality of their children's public-school education.
The Cheitels have not come to any agreements on whether race is hurting Obama's candidacy, but David calls the discussion “a win-win situation. I've had some really great, in-depth conversations with co-workers and employees, some real eye-opening experiences.”
One recent evening, the Cheitels' company was hired to park cars at a charity event for the pro basketball player Ben Gordon. David Cheitel was sitting in the parking lot with a longtime “employee/friend” who is black, and the subject of Obama came up.
“I asked him, how do you feel if a white person says, 'I'm not supporting Obama, I'm supporting McCain?” Cheitel said. “His response was, 'I feel there's a level of racism in not supporting Obama.”
Cheitel says that doesn't describe his own views, but he still came away with a greater understanding of black people.
“Obama is a black man running for president, he's as close as you can get to being president,” Cheitel said. “This is a proud moment.”
By JESSE WASHINGTON
AP National Writer
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