Big Dogs Weblog

Push for White Guilt Starts Early

by Big Dog on Jun 8, 2008 at 20:24 Political

In the past week Barack Hussein Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee to run against John McCain (the presumptive Republican nominee) for the presidency. While it was a long fight and a bit rocky it has finally ended with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s suspension of her candidacy and her support of Obama. Make no mistake, this is a historic moment in the American story and that should never be taken lightly. A man who identifies as black has secured a nomination and that has never before happened. While we could argue over his ability or merits for the job or even if it was foolish to select him those arguments would be based on any number of things none of which is his color.

Throughout this campaign season though, there have been rumblings about race. Certainly some statements were racist or referred to race but often the statements were made racist in an effort to gain sympathy for Obama and add to the ever increasing list of things we cannot discuss. Obama and his campaign have been very effective at framing those items that may be discussed and have forced opponents to tread lightly less they be labeled racist. The population of West Virginia was labeled as racist because it did not vote for Obama and instead went for Clinton by a large margin. No one even considered that maybe the people liked her message better. They were automatically racists because they did not vote for the anointed one. It is important to note that these were Democratic primaries so the people who were being labeled as racists were Democrats and it is important to note that the people labeling West Virginians as racist excused and ignored the real racists, Reverend Wright and Father Pfleger.

The idea that if someone does not vote for Obama is because of racism is gaining speed and many will quietly push that message. A piece by Errin Haines of the AP’s Atlanta bureau points this out very specifically. Haines, a black woman who covers race and civil rights, describes the elation among the members of the black community at Obama’s selection and the possibility of him being elected president. Their elation is somewhat subdued because blacks are worried about coded references to Obama that set him apart from the rest:

Still, pesky rumors that Obama is actually a Muslim persist. Every now and then, someone publicly calls him by his full name — Barack Hussein Obama — as if to put out a coded reminder of what sets this candidate apart from the rest.

Obama’s candidacy is about race and it isn’t. It has illuminated the fact that black and white America don’t really know each other all that well, and has forced both sides to rethink what they thought they knew about each other and themselves.

Even after Obama accepts the Democratic nomination on Aug. 28 — 45 years to the day after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech — black Americans can’t — or won’t — exhale until the votes are counted, and we have 21 more Tuesdays to go.

Our pained history has taught us that the best intentions don’t always translate into action. As we stand next to white Americans at the polls on Nov. 4, we will wonder:

“What did you do when you were alone in that booth? Did you go with that sticker, that T-shirt, that screensaver and vote for Obama, or was that just for show?” Yahoo News

The use of Obama’s full name, while a reminder to some, is nothing unusual. We call her Hillary RODHAM Clinton. For the longest time Obama’s campaign and the liberal blogs referred to him as BHO and unless I missed something, that H stands for Hussein. It is the man’s name and while it congers negativity in some Obama does not help the issue with his treatment of Israel and his insistence on meeting terrorist leaders in the Muslim world without precondition.

I am at a loss as to what Haines means by best intentions. Let me make this clear, the intention of all Americans should be to elect the person who they believe is the best for this country regardless of what sex or what color the candidates are. No election, but particularly this one, is some exercise in affirmative action that is designed to elevate a black man to the highest office in this nation just because of some good intent or because of white guilt and it is not to break a glass ceiling to make women feel good about themselves. If people vote for Obama because they believe he is the best for the job then that is their right but to suggest that there is some intention to right all the past wrongs by anointing Obama and anyone who fails to vote for him is racist is wrong and anyone who espouses that point of view should not be allowed out in public without supervision.

Haines indicates that when blacks are at the polls and see whites they will wonder what they did [while in the booth]. In other words, did you vote for Obama like you are supposed to or did you commit a racist act and vote for someone other than Obama? You do not have to wonder about this white guy Errin because I will NOT be voting for Obama. It has nothing to do with his color and everything to do with him being the most liberal Senator in the Senate. It has everything to do with his socialist policies and lack of leadership experience. It has to do with his pro abortion stance, his refusal to vote against late term and partial birth abortions and his vote to allow babies to die after they are born because their mothers do not want them. It has to do with his disregard for the Second Amendment and his desire to disarm all law abiding citizens. It has to do with his disregard for the men and women in the armed forces and his desire to hand them a defeat from DC that the enemy cannot exact on the battlefield. It has to do with any number of tried and failed liberal policies that have created a class of people, mostly black, dependent upon government for everything and unable to think or work for themselves, a mentality that led to chaos in New Orleans after Katrina hit. However, if you must believe that anyone who does not vote for Barry is racist because they refused to vote for a black man, let me ease your mind.

Barack Hussein Obama is half black and half white. Consider it this way, I will be voting against the part of him that is white and unfortunately I cannot do so without also voting against the black part. While my vote will have nothing to do with color, there are those, like you Ms. Haines, who will make it all about color so this should help ease your narrow minds.

Americans are no more racist for not voting for Obama than they are ageists if they do not vote for McCain or sexists if they did not vote for Hillary. It comes down to qualifications and how the voting public assesses them. If it involves something else then people are misguided.

Amazingly, the black vote went greater than 90% for Obama in the primary and it will do so in the general election (they are almost always greater than 90% for the Democrat). How is it OK that a portion of the black population voted for Obama simply because of his color but if white people vote overwhelmingly for a candidate who happens to be white, they are racists?

Errin Haines should rethink the reason we vote. If she is hung up on the good intentions rather than the good of the nation (according to the voter’s perception) then perhaps she needs to go back to school.

Tags: affirmative action, Clinton, errin haines, liberal prattle, McCain, Obama, racism