The Race Against Race

A raging reality that we must come to grips with is the fact we will never eradicate racism in America until Jesus returns but that does not mean that we should not try to work even harder to improve race relations.

While America is the land of the free and the home of the Brave, we are still a country where blacks and whites look at each other through the prism of racism. A raging reality that we must come to grips with is the fact we will never eradicate racism in America until Jesus returns but that does not mean that we should not try to work even harder to improve race relations. Having said that, a late September poll revealed that if the Presidential election is extremely close that race could to decide who becomes the new occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The poll said that 1/3 of white Democrats said that they could not vote for a black man as President of the United States.

The racial divisions in this country are real and in some parts of the South where I live, they are very deep and divisive. Far too many blacks and whites are skeptical and scared of each other for many reasons but primarily because of the misconceptions of each other that they have inherited from their foreparents and due to the vociferous venom spewed by hate groups. What is scary about the non-shocking poll results is that there is a segment of the Democratic Party that says that four more years of George Bush where war rages and the middle class is economically massacred trumps an intelligent and articulate agent of change because the color of his skin matters more than the content of his ability to bring about change.

Yet, I find consolation in the fact that one of the reasons that Obama has gotten this far in his unprecedented bid for the most powerful elected position in the known world is due to the fact that millions of good will white voters have proven that Obama’s ability to bring about change transcends his race. There is no way that Obama could have gotten this far without the help of white volunteers and voters. These voters and volunteers have proven that Obama’s ability matters more than his race.

I said to my friends three weeks ago that the economy would help Obama to overcome the race issue in his race to the White House. National polls now have him with an overall eight point lead. Just this morning the CNN/Time magazine/Opinion Research Corp. polls of likely voters in Indiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin reflect a significant nationwide shift toward Obama. The white voters in these crucial battleground states are moving beyond race to the reality that Obama represents change.

I also said to the same group of friends that the farther behind McCain falls in this presidential race the more likely he and/or his surrogates are to attempt to play the "race card" against Obama. Lo and behold Miss Sarah Palin tried to slowly slip the race card out of her back pocket on yesterday and later said that she was not trying to interject race into the race. She and Mr. John McCain are slowly slipping down a slippery slope of salacious silliness born out of political desperation. This race should not be decided by race! "This is not a normal campaign. Normal personal or character-based attacks are not going to work particularly well," said Stuart Stevens, a Republican consultant who worked for President Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004. "If your house is on fire, all you care about is who can put the fire out the best." Voters of all races believe that Obama can best put out this economic fire.

Pain, suffering and a bad economy are not discriminating based on race. When babies cry, they do not cry in black or white. Tears are colorless! Americans of all races are being impacted by our economic woes. As a result, I believe in my heart of hearts that white voters will not punish Obama for being born a black man. They will cast their ballots for him because he is the best candidate in this race.

Finally, upon my arrival in France last week, I got off the plane wearing an Obama tee shirt. I was almost mobbed. People came up to me asking to take pictures and to send their good wishes to Obama. I was simultaneously humbled and blown away. Later in the day when I was standing at the memorial bridge where Princess Diana lost her life in that terrible wreck, I looked to my right and there was a Barack Obama billboard. At the Louvre people ran up to me shouting "Obama! Obama!" In Bucharest, Romania my host begged me for an Obama shirt and I gave it to him. In France and Bucharest the white citizens said to me "it would be ashamed if your country did not elect Obama President because he is a black man." I concur with the world citizens in France and Romania.