Watching the old cable television news tonight, I heard Rachel Maddow (finally a female host on cable news that's not a dumb bimbo) pose a question to a woman reporter from the L.A. Times. It was basically, why is this election so close if the polls are so much against Bush, the GOP and indicate that something like 85% of the people say this country is headed in the wrong direction?
The woman from the Times, whose name I have forgotten, gave a fairly long and nuanced answer, mostly about how divided this country is right now. At no point did she say the thing that is so damn obvious, and that no other member of the press wants to say either.
IT'S BECAUSE BARACK OBAMA IS BLACK!
Look, I know that Obama's campaign can't say it, they would be accused of "playing the race card" and the Republicans would be able demonize him just like they've been doing it to black people for years with their "southern strategy" (that works in more places than just the south).
(Though this does not stop the McCain-Palin campaign from screaming sexism where none exists)
But come on, why does the mainstream media insist on pretending like it is not there? Who are they afraid of pissing off?
I firmly believe, and I could be wrong but there is no way of proving it either way, that if you put Barack Obama in the body of a white man (like the old Eddie Murphy "Mr. White" sketch) and keep every single thing abut him the same (well, turn his wife and kids white too) he would be polling about twenty points ahead of McCain and could probably win 45 states.*
We will never move forward in this country on the issue of racism by refusing to acknowledge its existence.**
*Maybe not prove, but one strong piece of evidence is how McCain had been getting his butt kicked in the polls all summer by "generic Democrat."
**This is the real issue, not the wrongly-used "issue of race" or "race problem" phrases that get tossed around. Race is not the problem, racism is. Replacing the word racism with the word race is just as ignorant and wrong as saying "terror" instead of "terrorism."
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1 month ago
2 comments:
Fuckin' word.
I also think part of the reason why it isn't talked about is linked to the same instinct that has them cowed by Right wing whingeing.
For some god-forsaken reason, they don't want to seem biased in the eyes of the biased.
It's the mitigating factor in telling the Dems to calm down about the polls. As much as the polls aren't really as bad as we think, as we're still in the expected bump phase and, as Deni pointed out, Obama still has an edge in the electoral map.
But, it is a lot easier to be a little racist in the voting booth, where nobody can see you, than it is while answering poll questions. There are a lot of people in this country who will claim to be voting for Obama, but will walk into that booth with the word "nigger" guiding their hand.
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