Running While Black

Whether or not one supports Barack Obama, this piece by Bob Herbert in the New York Times points out the dangerous influences of racism in this presidential election.

Unfortunately, Bob Herbert and the other columnists who have had the courage to speak out against the racism being promoted by John McCain and the Republican Party still haven't mustered the courage to speak out against racism's twin evil--- anti-communism and its kissing cousin, anti-Semitism.

As anyone surfing the Internet can readily find, the right-wing is hard at work using Obama's association with Frank Marshall Davis--- the writer, journalist, poet and member of the Communist Party USA--- to whip narrow-minded bigots into a frenzy using racism and anti-communism.

Unless the reality of this racist and anti-communist attack is confronted by columnists like Bob Herbert, their anti-racist education will be for naught because anti-communism creates fertile soil for racism to fester and grow.

Of course, Obama choosing to be the standard-bearer for the neoliberals' big-business, pro-war, reactionary agenda fosters both racism and anti-communism; only a real progressive agenda where solutions to problems are brought forward in a way designed to make life better for all people will counter the racist and anti-communist campaign now growing in our country without opposition on the Internet which will soon become menacing in our communities... we have seen some of how this bigotry raises its ugly head in local communities around the Kosher meat plant in Iowa where anti-Semitism has raised its ugly head instead of clearly articulated calls for justice for working people.

On the one hand, clearly articulated solutions to problems working people are experiencing is the only real antidote to racism, anti-Semitism and anti-communism; while on the other hand, those big-business forces supporting Obama need racism, anti-Semitism and anti-communism to keep working people divided--- all presenting Obama with a very complex set of circumstances as he tries to juggle it all hoping he doesn't drop one of the balls before Election Day.

The longer Obama and his working class supporters remain silent in the face of racism, anti-Semitism and anti-communism raising their ugly heads the more deep-seated the problem will become. Obama seems to be banking on thinking he can get through the election before this campaign of hate and bigotry explodes.

Obama and his surrogates are playing a very dangerous game which could prove to be deadly; not only for his own campaign, but for the entire country--- as past history has proven.

Alan Maki



From the New York Times

Op-Ed Columnist

Running While Black


By BOB HERBERT

Published: August 2, 2008

Gee, I wonder why, if you have a black man running for high public office — say, Barack Obama or Harold Ford — the opposition feels compelled to run low-life political ads featuring tacky, sexually provocative white women who have no connection whatsoever to the black male candidates.

Spare me any more drivel about the high-mindedness of John McCain. You knew something was up back in March when, in his first ad of the general campaign, Mr. McCain had himself touted as “the American president Americans have been waiting for.”

There was nothing subtle about that attempt to position Senator Obama as the Other, a candidate who might technically be American but who remained in some sense foreign, not sufficiently patriotic and certainly not one of us — the “us” being the genuine red-white-and-blue Americans who the ad was aimed at.

Since then, Senator McCain has only upped the ante, smearing Mr. Obama every which way from sundown. On Wednesday, The Washington Post ran an extraordinary front-page article that began:

“For four days, Senator John McCain and his allies have accused Senator Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.”

Evidence? John McCain needs no evidence. His campaign is about trashing the opposition, Karl Rove-style. Not satisfied with calling his opponent’s patriotism into question, Mr. McCain added what amounted to a charge of treason, insisting that Senator Obama would actually prefer that the United States lose a war if that would mean that he — Senator Obama — would not have to lose an election.

Now, from the hapless but increasingly venomous McCain campaign, comes the slimy Britney Spears and Paris Hilton ad. The two highly sexualized women (both notorious for displaying themselves to the paparazzi while not wearing underwear) are shown briefly and incongruously at the beginning of a commercial critical of Mr. Obama.

The Republican National Committee targeted Harold Ford with a similarly disgusting ad in 2006 when Mr. Ford, then a congressman, was running a strong race for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee. The ad, which the committee described as a parody, showed a scantily clad woman whispering, “Harold, call me.”

Both ads were foul, poisonous and emanated from the upper reaches of the Republican Party. (What a surprise.) Both were designed to exploit the hostility, anxiety and resentment of the many white Americans who are still freakishly hung up on the idea of black men rising above their station and becoming sexually involved with white women.

The racial fantasy factor in this presidential campaign is out of control. It was at work in that New Yorker cover that caused such a stir. (Mr. Obama in Muslim garb with the American flag burning in the fireplace.) It’s driving the idea that Barack Obama is somehow presumptuous, too arrogant, too big for his britches — a man who obviously does not know his place.

Mr. Obama has to endure these grotesque insults with a smile and heroic levels of equanimity. The reason he has to do this — the sole reason — is that he is black.

So there he was this week speaking evenly, and with a touch of humor, to a nearly all-white audience in Missouri. His goal was to reassure his listeners, to let them know he’s not some kind of unpatriotic ogre.

Mr. Obama told them: “What they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He’s risky.”

The audience seemed to appreciate his comments. Mr. Obama was well-received.

But John McCain didn’t appreciate them. RACE CARD! RACE CARD! The McCain camp started bellowing, and it hasn’t stopped since. With great glee bursting through their feigned outrage, the campaign’s operatives and the candidate himself accused Senator Obama of introducing race into the campaign — playing the race card, as they put it, from the very bottom of the deck.

Whatever you think about Barack Obama, he does not want the race issue to be front and center in this campaign. Every day that the campaign is about race is a good day for John McCain. So I guess we understand Mr. McCain’s motivation.

Nevertheless, it’s frustrating to watch John McCain calling out Barack Obama on race. Senator Obama has spoken more honestly and thoughtfully about race than any other politician in many years. Senator McCain is the head of a party that has viciously exploited race for political gain for decades.

He’s obviously more than willing to continue that nauseating tradition.