"The outbreak of race in the debate lends itself to a
rational argument about the fragility of the Black candidate. In the mind,
these unspeakable racial divisions secretly lurk, and mark the campaign with a
strong emotional impact. The debate constitutes a profound test for both
Democratic candidates."
Why is it such a struggle for Obama to get elected?
The question of Blacks in the United States is the best kept secret in the American
family. Forty years after President Johnson’s great campaign for civil rights,
much about race relations has changed, but not the essence: the
semi-condescending, semi-frightened, mostly disguised fear of African Americans
by the White majority.
The Black community has been shaped
largely by a series of dramatic episodes, and it will soon commemorate the 50th
anniversary of some of these events: The
death of Martin Luther King, last great advocate for Black integration [40
years ago]; the assassination of two Kennedys [John
and Robert - 40 years ago], the dawn of the campaign for civil rights, the
birth of a Black middle class, the growth of inter-racial marriage, the advent
of minority studies (Black history) in academia and minority participation in
the arts.
In short, African Americans, who have built their
unity based mostly on the way others view them, have experienced unprecedented
economic and civic progress.
Barack Obama serves as an indicator of this
spectacular progress, while at the same time he is confronting - despite
himself - its incompleteness. His strategy thus far has been not to play the
race card, but to present himself as the promoter of change in America, more
committed to redressing income inequalities than the burden of racial inequity.
This was his appeal to Whites who have been
disadvantaged due to the structural injustice of American democracy, and to
up-and-coming Black and the White liberals who deeply share his rejection of
the racial barrier.
Campaigning in the rain
at the American Legion Mall in Indianapolis, May 5.
More out of expediency than conviction, Hillary
Clinton, who lost a copious number of primaries, had to alter her message to
force Obama to adopt an identity of color, without giving the impression she
was treading on the taboo of race.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
But this strategy, which seems to work with the media
and has threatened Obama's electoral advantage, precisely reveals the
importance of the issue of race as a family secret. Psychologists analyze such
secrets as things that have happened within a family and which, in spite of the
passage of time and apparent lack of reality, continue to have an impact many
years later, devastating the family entity.
In the case of relations between the White majority
and African Americans, the secret is the memory of slavery and in the eyes of Blacks, all that followed from it: racism, then
discrimination, and today the fear and the condescending attitude that Whites
deny; all the issues that Pastor Wright, one of Obama’s spiritual mentors, has
been vilified for.
The outbreak of race in the debate lends itself to a
rational argument about the fragility of the Black candidate. In the mind,
these unspeakable racial divisions secretly lurk, and mark the campaign with a
strong emotional impact. The debate constitutes a profound test for both
Democratic candidates. One hopes that after the voting, the race issue isn't
completely turned to their disadvantage.
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