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Amazing how
racism is blind to its own bias
E.
Ablorh-odjidja, Ghanadot
April
26, 2008
Pennsylvania
is over and Hillary won. How Obama fares in the polls ahead
should not be a problem for him or Blacks.
It should be
a problem for America because by the end of election 2008,
America would have revealed her maturity, or lack of it, in her
race relations.
Hopefully, the revelation would be less
negatively
profound than
it was in the 2000 elections when it was said that the Black
vote was suppressed.
However, and
for now, we have Hillary, a white woman, and Obama, son of a
Black father but born of a White mother in a crucial
presidential primary race.
Consider
why Obama, with a white mother, could be deemed strictly Black,
and therefore be subjected to the usual racial stigma and then ask
why the epithet does not grate on the motherly
sensibilities of any white woman.
Whatever you do,
don’t ask Hillary. She has already spoken.
On from
Pennsylvania, the tussle to be the Democrats candidate for 2008 US
presidential elections is very tight. It appears the
selection may have to depend on super delegates within the
party's hierarchy.
Don't ask me how the super delegate
selection may work. But whatever the outcome, it
will not be
the choice of the popular vote, which by every indication favors
Obama.
Hillary
argues that she has won more big states; therefore, she is
entitled more for the super delegate votes than Obama.
We can
presume from her argument that the big states that voted for her
in the primaries would rather vote in the general for the Republican nominee than
vote for Obama, if she did not get to be selected.
And she also
by the same argument shows no concern for the tipping
power of the Black vote, which traditionally has strongly favored
Democrat presidential candidates, including her famous husband
Bill.
Or she thinks by this same reasoning that the Black vote is a
Democrat property. That whoever the nominee finally is,
this vote will come to that particular Democrat, in this case,
her.
The above
can explain why she doesn’t mind damaging Obama, even if that
would mean offending Blacks. And her attitude is beginning
to offend some Blacks.
Mr. James E.
Clyburn, a Black Democrat leader in the House of Congress thinks
that the Black community is incensed about Hillary's husband,
Mr. Bill Clinton, antics
against Obama in the primaries.
Speaking to
the New York Times, Mr. Clyburn said that “Mr. Clinton’s conduct
in this campaign had caused what might be an irreparable breach
between Mr. Clinton and an African-American constituency that
once revered him.”
If this charge is heartfelt, it must
be remembered that it was the Black vote that put Bill into the
presidency and helped sustain him throughout his ordeal with
Monicagate.
“When he was
going through his impeachment problems,” said Mr. Clyburn, “it
was the Black community that bellied up to the bar.”
For Bill
supporting Hillary in this manner, Mr. Clyburn says
that “Black folks feel strongly that this is a strange way for
President Clinton to show his appreciation.”
Indeed, the
Clintons all consuming political ambition is causing them to ride
roughshod over a
favorite Black American son, Obama. But the message so far
has been that the
Clintons just don’t care.
They are White, privileged, and don’t
mind patronizing Blacks, as Democrats do all the time.
Blacks will always come to the
Democrats side before the general contest, the Clintons will
assume.
And
whatever the damage
may be from this community, the
Clintons can expect that little vote difference caused by Black
backlash to be balanced by White votes that can be generated by racial angst.
This
mindset may explain why Hillary will not allow the race issue dogging the
Obama’s campaign to go away, without bringing it up now and then.
And in a bizarre way,
Hillary has been
effective. Her constant reference and hammering on the Rev. Jeremiah
Wright’s and his preaching episodes is a perfect study in race baiting.
The Reverend
Wright’s issue should have been dead by now.. Instead,
controversies about Hillary, like the
lie that she told about visiting Bosnia, that have gone dead.
Her
lies about dodging bullets on a tarmac in Bosnia, when in
reality her experience was a serene, peaceful reception seen by
all on
television, should have been the hot topic in the primaries to
pierce her character and integrity as thruth teller.
Instead, it is
Hillary rather who adroitly uses the inflammatory
remarks of Reverend Wright, a third person, to frame negatively
Obama’s character. And she is allowed by the media to get away with this
pretense
too.
Silence
from the media allows her the room to
pursue the Reverend Wright’s topic and in a sense to race bait
Obama in her campaigning.
Strangely,
she is one on topic with Hannity, a conservative Talk Radio host
with listeners she has never hesitated to call racists.
Both Hannity
and Hillary are going after Obama and Rev. Wright, the pastor of
Obama's church with sledge hammers; and you ought to ask, what a
pair!
Principles
considered, one can understand why a conservative like Hannity
would want Obama, a liberal, defeated.
But when both Obama and Hillary are liberals, you ought to
wonder why Hillary would seek to race bait Obama.
In
Pennsylvania, White blue color workers have won the state’s
primaries for Hillary.
The Clinton campaign, after first
creating the false impression that her victory would be in
double digits, has settled for a 9 point margin victory.
Still, the euphoria
for victory, with many votes coming
from this group of White voters, is thick with pride among
Hillary and her followers..
Ironically,
the euphoria is about a candidate who just six weeks
into the Pennsylvania primaries had about 25 points lead over Obama.
The resulting shrinkage in the actual vote count is forgotten in
order to cement Hillary's victory as a solid one.
Hillary's 9
point margin is now declared as the workings of a miracle
worker; Previously, she had been
touted as the favorite to win the
primaries.
The miracle
worker was outspent by Obama 2 - 1 in television adverts in
Pennsylvania. Obama had more money to
spend there than her.
Much earlier
Hillary was at the top in donations. That she had the
smaller war chest pulling into Pennsylvania must indicate a
desperation on her part, but this was never noted by the media..
The media were loud on basing
popularity on the amount of donations a candidate collected.
Things
changed abruptly once Obama got to the top of the money
pole.
With no name
recognition, Obama has managed to out raise and out spend the
Clinton campaign machine by a 2 – 1 margin in Pennsylvania and
to manage to downsize Hillary’s delegate haul there.
It is Obama who
should be called the “miracle worker.” But will he be able to
overcome built-in racial prejudice in America to become the nest president of the
United States?
The drama unfolding in this particular primary
season is historical. It is not about Hillary being a woman.
She has and will always be, but she will be White first.
Obama is Black, despite
his mixed race. Any attempt through the ages for the
Black man
to try to rise above his societal limitations in America has always been met with
racial animus.
Plessey v Ferguson was one instance. So was
Rosa Park
famous bus ride.
Meanwhile, among liberals, there are those like the Clintons, who will
claim they are never racists.
But along the way, the same as above are those willing to
play the surrogate for the Black man
because they fear there would always be doubts about his
readiness for prime time; such is this compassionate deal
between Blacks and White Democrats.
Hillary, for the good of Blacks, will be happy to be that
surrogate rather than have Obama become the first Black
president of the United States.
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher
www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, April 26, 2008
Permission to publish: Please feel free to publish or
reproduce, with credits, unedited. If posted at a website,
email a copy of the web page to
publisher@ghanadot.com . Or don't publish at all.
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