Worrisome
Ann Althouse is worried about what black people will think if Barack Obama loses the election. She's also worried that her worry might be a factor in who she decides to vote for, and she's worried that it's wrong for her to even consider it as a factor.
If that sounds schizophrenic, it's only because it is.
In her post, she links to this essay by Randall Kennedy in the Washington Post. Now, before I go any further I urge you to click on the link and read the entire essay. It's thoughtful, well-reasoned and a very interesting read. But having said that, this is the paragraph that caught my attention:
If Obama loses, I personally will feel disappointed, frustrated, hurt. I'll conclude that a fabulous opportunity has been lost. I'll believe that American voters have made a huge mistake. And I'll think that an important ingredient of their error is racial prejudice -- not the hateful, snarling, open bigotry that terrorized my parents in their youth, but rather a vague, sophisticated, low-key prejudice that is chameleonlike in its ability to adapt to new surroundings and to hide even from those firmly in its grip. (emphasis mine)
This is the kind of pretzel logic that we've descended to in our discussions about race. Gone is the open bigotry that used to terrorize, only to be replaced by a vague, sophisticated, chameleonlike prejudice. As long as otherwise intelligent people hold this belief, we will never get past race as an issue in this country, much less in this election. The idea of voting against a man because you're not sold on his qualifications or his character or his judgment means nothing.
This kind of prejudice cannot be fought or defeated or stamped out. How can you fight something that hides from you even while it holds you firmly in its grip? This kind of prejudice is eternal.
So, with that in mind, let's all just admit it, shall we? Those of us who aren't voting for Barack Obama aren't doing it because we don't believe in his politics or his lack of experience or his poor judgment or even his long association with an unrepentant American terrorist. Nope. We're doing it for one reason only.
The color of his skin.
There. No need to worry anymore.
posted by VermontGuy @ 6:57 AM
2 Comments:
VG, this is now the second time you've tried the "fine, we're all racists then" gambit. It strikes me as nothing but a rejection of intelligent discourse, because you obviously don't mean it.
I'm sure you'd concede that there are some people who won't vote for Obama because of the color of his skin. (One woman polled on NPR last week said she knows he's a muslim and will always be a muslim until the day he dies. That's some poorly masked racism, eh?) By trying to lump yourself and other, non-racist, principled voters, you accomplish nothing but providing cover for the actual racists by insincerely joining their midst.
Foolishness about chameleon racism deserves to be attacked and deconstructed and even ridiculed, but I would submit that the "fine, you win," approach accomplishes nothing of the sort.
There was an interesting piece on the National Review site about how conservative commentators would have reacted had Barack Obama's hypothetical single, pregnant 17 year old daughter brought her angry young black baby daddy on stage at the Democratic convention. Like it or not, that's racism.
That's racism? If it is, it's quite a lot better than something like millions of Americans turned off by Obama because he's a mixed breed. Now that's racism!
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