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Fall Election Hinges on Race
Race permeates society, hides in different disguises
The end of the longest primary last week was high drama. Some might want to compare it with the work of the great Greek playwrights, such as Euripides and Sophocles, for hubris and catharsis and purification. It is difficult, however, to see how characters such as Harold Ickes, Howard Wolfson and Terry McAuliffe would fit into such a drama. They might be better suited for a Swedish film by Ingmar Bergman or, even better, a surrealistic Italian play by Luigi Pirandello such as "Six Characters in Search of an Author" or perhaps "Right You Are, If You Think You Are."
Sen. Barack Obama's victory, we are told by the cheering sections, was a great victory for the American dream. Racism may well be in retreat. In the immortal words of Humphrey Bogart: Not so fast, Louis. The United States looks pretty good now -- for a change. What if Obama is defeated? The whole world and most African Americans will scream "racism!" Better not to try at all than to try and fail.
In fact, only a little more than half of the Democratic voters chose the senator from Illinois as their candidate. Were the other voters racist? Influenced by racism? Inclined to racism, which they hide even from themselves? Surely all of these factors were at work, but it is virtually impossible with the current research technology to sort them out. Moreover, is the voter a bigot who says -- to himself or others -- "He's too young for it," "I don't know anything about him," "He's an elitist," "He's just a lot of fancy talk," "The country isn't ready for a man like that," "He's weak in his support of Israel," "He's Muslim, possibly the anti-Christ!" Are these hints of lurking prejudice? Are the voters of regular members of the Democratic coalition -- Hispanics and union members -- against Obama partly because of racism?
How many of the male readers of this column who are habitues of bars, locker rooms, commuter train bull sessions, pool rooms and men's clubs have not heard the indigenous racial slurs of such environments applied to Obama?
And surely some of the explicit chatter during the campaign was racist, especially the obsession with the various clergy who mounted the pulpit of his church. By what stretch of sick logic could the candidate be responsible for what his clergy said and did?
Certainly there are solid political and personal reasons that some Americans might have had for voting against the senator that would not be in principle racist. He is one of the most "liberal" members of Congress. He stole the election from a woman who was entitled to it. He is one of the "boys" beating up on the female candidate. He is a not a patriot dedicated to final victory in Iraq. He is weak on national security. He lacks experience. He supports abortion. Yet behind these arguments, might racism lurk?
The point is that racism permeates American society and hides itself under many different disguises. The nomination of an African-American candidate was a near-miracle. Only the innocent and the naive think that the November election will not be about race.
The odds against the replication of the primary miracle in November, even against a disgraced and discredited Republic administration, are very high.
Race will silently trump the war, the economy, the cost of gasoline, the disgust with President Bush. One may wish that it will not be so, that if Obama loses it will not be because of the color of his skin but because the country genuinely wants another Republican administration.
Andrew Greeley is a priest in good standing of the Archdiocese of Chicago. for 52 years, a columnist for 40 years, a sociologist for 45 years, a novelist for 28 years, distinguished lecturer at the University of Arizona for 28 , research associate at National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago for 46 years.
© 2008 The Chicago Sun Times
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26 Comments so far
Show AllIf the good reverend is correct then US citizens stand to learn a very painful but necessary lesson over the next few years.
In the middle of another disastrous presidency, those who voted for McCain based on race will discover just how meaningless that criterion is.
jj
So, if I understand this guy correctly, a vote for McCain is a racist vote, and not voting for anyone is a racist vote. And of course that thinking is circular in that it conveniently re-inforces the idea that only non-racist whites will vote for Obama and that all other whites, whether they vote for McCain or don't vote at all are racists. Which of course will fully justify Black community outrage if Obama loses. From my perspective, this entire election is a lose/lose situation and the only way to escape the steady, relentless drumbeat of the endless cries of "racism" is to fully, formally and forever leave this country.
Andrew Greeley:
I have been a fan of yours for a long time. Noola Anne McGrail lights up my life & Father Blacky is a delight.
However, I really hope that you exaggerate the bigotry and racism in the electorate. I know that some portion of our voters are hung up in the past and the paradigm of hate, but I see the vast majority of those that I contact daily as ready to let all of that go.
We in the Obama camp see much more than a black man or a bi-racial man.
We see a real man, a brilliant man, a calm and caring man.
We see our hopes and dreams embodied in a package that exudes confidence and compassion.
We see an end to childish things and a focus on real issues and real people.
Ray O. Driskill
Houston, Texas
glide625, you do not understand the article correctly.
jj
There are many reasons why this BLACK man would NOT vote for Obama. The man is quite frankly a flake. Flakes are beautiful, attractive, but melt quickly in the sun. Not all flakes are white; some like Obama are off-white.
He stands for nothing, and therefore falls for everything. Look at him, genuflecting and puckering up to AIPAC. Does the man have any shame? True all the other white politicians do the same thing. Same question.... do they have any shame?
For the Zionists it is always 1938 and .... (name your politician)... is always Chamberlin, an appeaser. Obama has outdone Chamberlin in appeasement and AIPAC looks and sounds more like Nazi Germany! Funny how everyone says that he has a Muslim middle name. These same people forget that he has a Jewish first name!
Vote Obama in November and reap the Obamination!
Face it, America is racist.
America has a long, brutal, disgusting history of racism. First against native Americans then against black skinned people.
I believe most white skins are scared that if an angry black skinned person gets into a position of power there will be retributions. Thats why angry black skins do poorly in politics.
It's time to progress. Lets talk content of character and not color of skin. Andrew Greeley, unsecular man, progress don't regress, lead America, don't make it about race, because I believe that's were most Americans want to go.
Rodrisk said: "We in the Obama camp see much more than a black man or a bi-racial man. We see a real man, a brilliant man, a calm and caring man.
We see our hopes and dreams embodied in a package that exudes confidence and compassion. We see an end to childish things and a focus on real issues and real people."
And I see a sucker who bought into the whole "Change" bullshit. Nothing is going to change Ray... Obama is just another establishment hack working to further the goals of the moneyed class... working stiffs like you and I have zero impact on anything Obama would do... Seems to me like you've fallen into the cult of personality. Sure, he's charming and articulate... but seeing him bend over and take a screwing from AIPAC says more than anything Obama has ever said in a speech. Hopes and dreams my ass...
Also, the whole idea that it matters that Obama is black says much about the backwardness of the United States... get over it people. Race doesn't matter... except in the US that is. The rest of the world couldn't give two shits if you black or white, man or woman... what matters is can you do a good job.
As well, this whole idea that race matters is thrown around time and time again by talking heads on all sides of the political spectrum which of course perpetuates the idea that race matters.
Why is everyone calling Obama a "black" man? Are we going back to the odious "one-drop rule," where if you had a drop of African blood you were black??
What keeps getting overlooked is that Obama is half-white and half-black ... and he has lived with one foot in each of those worlds. We whites don't know what that's like. (The average American black doesn't either, I'd bet.)
But who better to bridge the gap between the races? It's already closing, but to have Obama as President would be a giant step in the right direction -- not to mention the message it would silently, and beautifully, send to the world.
this is silly.....obama has not won anything yet....and people are shooting down his presidency already......i wonder what people are afraid of ?......oh i know...he might be a damn good commander in chief...we can't let him have a chance at solving some of our problems,even if we all benefit from it........
Seems to me that one thing we all need to be very vigilant about is the African-American vote in November. One would predict a record turnout. Will it happen? Will there be efforts to disenfranchise them as in the last two elections, but times ten? What precautions will the Democratic party have in place to closely monitor election day practices around the country? Has the UN been asked to send monitors to our election as they would be to any country with a reasonable probability of rigging the vote or intimidating blocs of voters?
I am so sick of this grossly flawed theory that if you don't vote for Obama you're a racist ! Give me a black (I'm talking fully black) candidate with good solid experience and credentials and a genuine desire for public service, and I'll vote for him/her in a second ! I've done it many times before.
Re: Dagwood's comment: What would need to be done to ensure that the U.N. would monitor t he 2008 presidential election in the U.S.? After the last two presidential elections,this would seem to be necessary common sense.
"Only the innocent and the naive think that the November election will not be about race."
I never ould have never given race a second thought, yet this author and the MSM won't give it a rest. Who cares if the candidate is only half European?
Wouldn't it be nice if we could just concentrate on the issues for once? Health care, nuclear disarmament, minimum wage, tackling corporate corruption, impeachment of the Bush cabal, ridding the U.S. of this hyped up terrorism crap, forcing auto manufacturers to make more fuel efficient and alternative cars, reducing a massive prison population, increasing the social safety net, dismantling the military industrial complex, building the social industrial complex, re-establishing a free and courageous media, providing free post secondary education, feeding America and the world's poor, taxing Big Oil and signing the Kyoto agreement would all rank higher on any voters list of issues. Instead though, the media chooses to concentrate on a candidates complexion.
Go figure.
Just for once I'd like to see an article that doesn't talk about gender or race when describing a democratic presidential candidate.
Obama is a better candidate than Hillary ever would be. This video about Hillary was hilarious by the way...
http://www.minimovie.com/film-128295-Welcome%20Back,%20Clinton
Humans do not deserve to inhabit this planet. We have been a scourge on it since our arrival. We fight incessantly about everything and anything. I was going to vote for McCain as a progressive just because I know he will accelerate the neocon agenda so we can go ahead and blow everything up. Maybe the earth can survive and then it could live on without humans here.
The point here is that race is used to divide us by the elite, yes that's the Rothschilds, Rockefellers and the like. Apparently Americans think it's impossible that white men with hundreds of trillions of dollars in offshore accounts from England and a god complex couldn't possibly do anything to hurt them. Whites are especially incredulous when it comes to the New World Order. Do we really think the so-called elite (more like Malthusian low lifes) would tell us that they wanted to depopulate the planet to make life sustainable for themselves?
We are living in the Matrix. It was not just a movie. Only a few have escaped and know the truth. We are being targeted for elimination and it will happen to many of us whether we resist or not. The chemical are in our food and water. The chemtrails are being dropped on us. The vaccines are sterilizing us. AIDS is decimating populations worldwide. When are people going to see the plain and obvious truth. We are victims of a prolonged, centuries long attack on our humanity. The elite consider themselves another species and we are not welcome on their planet, except as obedient slaves. Prepare for the end because this way of life will not see another century.
No, Adele, we're not using the one-drop rule.
But were *my* racial blood composition (or whatever you want to call it) the same as Obama's, *I'd* consider myself Black. And I say this a White Georgian. Maybe it's because I've actually witnessed racist holdovers from the antebellum period (as in racist attitudes from not the 1960s but the *1860s*, and that's not exaggerating too much) but I am totally in line with Obama being considered "Black" first. Sure, he might not be 100% Black, but 50% is more than enough for the racists to justify your oppression. Were Obama to time travel to the year of his birth, he would not have been allowed to vote in my state. My wife's grandmother is lily-white, but during the summers of her youth -- pre-sunscreen, I guess -- she would get so dark that she'd have to sit in the "Colored" waiting rooms at the doctor or dentist, even though they knew who she was *and* that she was White.
My point is that "Black" is the label of the Outgroup into which Whites would inevitably put Obama. As such, it is as "Black" that he will tend to identify himself if forced to limit his racial identity to a single "race". I've done similar things in my life. Example: I grew up in a fairly moderate Methodist church. Late in high school, around the time Newt Gingrich and the GOP swept into Congress, I was seeing born-again evangelicals everywhere I turned. They preached. I disagreed. They said I wasn't really a Christian. I said if they were deciding who was and who wasn't part of their group, then I was more than happy NOT to be a part of it.
Not the same thing, I know, but it's a similar principle.
If my mother were white and my father was a black Marxist from Kenya, already married to someone besides my mother, and my father abandoned me, and I grew up in Indonesia, and then moved to Hawaii to be raised by white grandparents, one of which (his grandmother) was the VP of the Bank of Hawaii, then how do I identify myself as being African American, and not bi-racial.
I could see it if he grew up in a city where there were racial tensions and overt discrimination by whites against blacks, but Hawaii and Indonesia?. In Hawaii blacks were only 2.5% of the population and 80% of them were military or military dependents. I doubt Obama experienced or observed much white on black racism. In Hawaii, whites were and are a minority, called "haole" and there was discrimination against whites. In his days, he would have regularly seen housing ads that made no effort to hide racial preferences. Ads that read, "No haoles" or "AJAs (Americans of Japanese ancestry) Only".
Perhaps when he went to college, but that was in the late 70's when much of the civil strife of the 60's and early 70's was scaled down.
Thats a personal choice, so I do not judge it, but find it curious all the same. It seems to be, that should I wish to unite the country, I would at least remind people that I am half white. Politically, being African American doesn't help him much. Most vote Democrat anyways, those that are not subjected to election fraud and caging. It hurts him with Hispanics, since blacks and hispanics have their own racial thing going. It certainly does not help with the White rural folks, especially in the South, who might want change, but fear being enslaved by blacks (not saying this is a rationale fear).
Politically, calling himself biracial was the way to go (the black community would still adopt him anyways). Of course, his book Dreams From My Father published in 1995, and proof read by his dying Mother, which includes some unkind comments, made that difficult since he clearly had some racial anger towards whites. But people can change their outlook.
But he sticks with being African American, his choice, it's a free world. Then after becoming the presumptive nominee he immediately kneels at the alter of the temple of AIPAC and Israel, one of the countries that supported South Africa in the apartheid years when most countries were sanctioning them, selling them weapons and giving them nuclear weapon capability. If I was African American, I might be a little unhappy.
Our ruling elite want to bring race back to the table. Thats one of their divide and rule tools. See how it plays out.
Repeatedly bringing race into this campaign as an issue makes it one. In fact, Obama does not share in African-American cultural history --- he is not anymore a descendant of slaves than is McCain and not can he be fitted into any traditional American racist stereotypes. It would be best for progressive writers to focus on the issues rather than joining in with the racist right in focusing on the African features Obama inherited from his Kenyan father.
The fall election will hinge on Diebold e-vote fixing, GOPathological lies and fear-mongering and caging lists and other pathetic underminings, maybe a "surprise" Cheney bombing here and there, crazy dittohead rantings, and Big Corp Media's issue-less "reporting."
Race is only relevant to the few who want race to be relevant. Oprah and Tiger top Forbes 100 list of most powerful and richest celebrities, Kobe rules the NBA, and war-criminal Powell is still treated as the only "good guy" of the anti-American Bushmafia.
Are there racists in the country? Sure - anyone see a Jew running for President lately? An Italian? Asian? WASPs are the most racist demographic of all, which is why they are so desperate to make race an issue. It's not.
frank1569: "Are there racists in the country? Sure - anyone see a Jew running for President lately? An Italian? Asian?"
In fact, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, a devout Orthodox Jew, was Al Gore's running mate in 2002 and competed for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. Two Italian-Americans, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani and Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, were Republican presidential candidates this year. For a while Giuliani was even considered the front-runner. Plus, former Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro -- another Italian-American -- was Walter Mondale's running mate on the Democratic ticket in 1984. Can an Asian-American be far behind?
fpal June 11th, 2008 2:50 pm
America is as little racist as I've ever seen. This claim is given the lie by the position Obama currently holds.
"Only the innocent and the naive think that the November election will not be about race."
I don't believe I'm either, of course there will be some factor of race, but not that much. And I don't know about listening to another Catholic Priest from Chicago with ties to the University of Chicago.Is this guy like the last one?
"But he sticks with being African American, his choice, it's a free world."
Right! I view him as a black man because he says he is.
alexnosal June 11th, 2008 8:54 pm
Good post!
ctyank43 June 12th, 2008 10:46 am
Excellent point!
atheist June 11th, 2008 4:50 pm
Good for you!
Only someone stuck in the 60's could write: "Only the innocent and the naive think that the November election will not be about race."
Good thing that Greeley didn't deliver this speech at Trinity United Church of Christ, or mention HRC in the context of racism as a factor in determining electoral outcomes. Or like Father Michael Pflieger, he might have been silenced by Chicago's Archbishop Cardinal George and tossed under the nearest campaign bus.
Father Michael Pflieger, he might have been silenced by Chicago's Archbishop Cardinal George and tossed under the nearest campaign bus.
Racists like this guy should be silenced. The David Dukes and Pflegers of the world should never be heard from, just despised for the bigots they are.
Doggone, I hate racists and bigots and America haters. They deserve it.
NFAMOUS, isn't it amazing how blind people are - they just dont see the big picture that is happening all over. Is CD the only news they read?
The election will be about race, Obama is a bi-racial male, with great rhetoric but no vision he's sharing with us. He might have fire in his belly to get into that White House, but that's an event! Then What?