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 Bleeding Heartland

On Blackness

Marc Hansen has a great column on the whole ridiculousness of questioning Obama’s blackness.  All the commenters seem to see through the nonsense too, which makes me feel good about Iowa being first in the nation.

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Drew Miller

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  • there's something you and Hansen are missing

    First, I want to say that Marc Hansen is the best columnist at the Register, and why they’ve never given him a spot on the op-ed page is completely beyond me.

    That said, I think he and you are missing the point about this debate.

    I am Jewish, so I don’t claim to be speaking for the black community in any way. But I do know that a Jewish politician who seemed to ignore, or be insensitive to, issues of great importance to many Jews would be resented by some in the community. We would probably use the phrase “self-hating Jew” rather than “not Jewish enough,” but the concept is the same.

    The issue, as I understand it, is not whether Obama is literally black. Obviously a racist taxi driver who sees him by the side of the road is not going to say, “He looks like he descended from a white woman and a man from Kenya, so I guess I’ll pick him up.” Debra Dickerson framed the argument poorly.

    The question for many black Americans is, will Obama stand up for them on issues of importance to them?

    Steve Gilliard recently moved his blog and the old archives do not seem to be searchable, but he has posted several times on comments by Obama that are offensive to many in the black community. For instance, after a particularly egregious police shooting in New York City (cops fired 51 times, killing an unarmed black man on his wedding day), Obama made some comment about not rushing to judgment and how police have a difficult job. Obama was not seen to step up to the plate to blast the Bush administration in the aftermath of Katrina.

    More recently, Obama chose to announce his presidential bid among mostly white faces in Springfield on the same weekend as the State of Black America forum, which most prominent black intellectuals attended.

    Check out some recent posts by Steve Gilliard here

    What black voters want to know is will he protect their interests or will he seek to pacify them.
    Is he going to push policies which help African Americans, or continue the racial and economic problems we have now under the guise of colorblindness.

    […]

    Obama himself has admitted he must earn the black vote on the merit of his positions. Because he hasn’t earned it. He has not been part of the national black community. He is a relative unknown.

    Gilliard tires to explain the lukewarm reaction among some prominent black people here:

    First of all, Obama has little visible black support. Cornel West dodged police in the streets of Harlem during the Giuliani administration. His credibility and respect is beyond question. What West pointed out was Obama’s obliviousness to two things, one Lincoln’s history, and the importance of the State of Black America forum. Every major intellectual, and many church and community leaders attend. Not attending was a slight many of those same people will not forget.

    Rings kissed? It’s that he has NO RECORD of working for black voters outside of Illinois. His number of white supports makes many black people suspicious that he’s really a liberal version of Harold Ford.

    I would say Dr. West looks at Obama and wonders if he’s a trojan horse for interests which don’t represent the wider black community.

    No one knew who he was before 2004. No one knows where he really stands on important issues to black America.

    A more savvy staff would have had him in Hampton Roads and not Springfield yesterday. It seems the Obama staff assumes there is widespread support for him in the black community, and that is anything but true.

    What people are wary iof are candidates like Ford, Corey Booker and Denise Majette. They had tremendous white support and black voters wondered who they would serve in office. These people seemed to be picked by others

    The fact that Obama’s announcement had a sea of white faces did little to inspire confidence among black voters. There has been a decades search for a mailable black politician who keeps blacks in place but serves the interests of whites.

    Similar sentiments appeared here:

    he has no civil rights track record and got savaged at Tavis Smiley’s state of the black nation for holding his announcement in Springfield to honor Lincoln, who was a racist who wanted to ship blacks back to Africa.

    You and Marc Hansen might think this is silly, but if I were working for Obama’s campaign I would be trying to mend some fences now, and I would fire the scheduler who put me in Springfield on February 10.

    desmoinesdem  Thu 22 Feb 1:44 PM

    • That isn't the point

      The point of this debate is that it is completely ridiculous and racist to question Obama’s blackness.  All candidates ought to have to earn the support of every voter, but that is true regardless of who their ancestors were.

      drew-miller  Thu 22 Feb 3:33 PM

      • I am not questioning his blackness

        and neither is Gilliard. My point is that it is legitimate to question the CW of whether Obama will have overwhelming support among black voters, and to analyze the possible reasons black voters might be reluctant to support him.

        I don’t see this as any different from questioning whether a Catholic candidate like Kerry would get the support of Catholics.

        desmoinesdem  Thu 22 Feb 4:01 PM

        • Is that the conventional wisdom?

          I don’t think it is.  Everything I’ve heard has been that a lot of black voters are loyal to the Clintons, and that it will be a battle to win their support.

          drew-miller  Thu 22 Feb 4:17 PM

  • Obama event last night

    I happened to sit next to a prominent African American activist at the Obama town hall in Des Moines last night, and we spoke a bit about the primaries. Just about every African American at the rally came by and joked with my neighbor, so I think he is pretty in touch with the community in the Des Moines area, at least with the older community.

    My interpretation of the conversation was that he, like many African Americans, is split between loyalty to the Clintons and still figuring out Obama. He thought the race would come down to those two, and I think he is right.

    When he first said to me that Obama was so exciting and different, he quickly pointed out that it was not because Obama was black. I agreed and we spoke about Obama’s appeal to young voters. To me, that is where Obama has it over Clinton. Young African Americans may mostly go to Obama and the older, more traditional ones may stay with Clinton. I am not sure where Edwards is going to fit in, but he is probably not going to do as well with them in 2008 as he did in 2004.

    The issue of Obama’s blackness is crap, and it fits in with what is happening in South Carolina, where two prominent African Americans who supported Edwards in 2004 are now behind Clinton. State Senator Robert Ford said if Obama was on the ticket we would be losing down-ticket races all over the place because voters aren’t ready to vote for a black man. State Senator Darrell Jackson’s firm is paid $10,000 a month to promote Clinton.

    Clinton’s support depends heavily on the loyalty of the same African American community that supported Bill. Obama is a threat to that important base, particularly with the younger crowd. But Edwards also needs to be strong with the African American community, especially in South Carolina. We’ll see in the next year how the contest shakes out.

    tom  Thu 22 Feb 4:34 PM

    • Edwards will need to work hard

      He will be expected to win SC, since he did last time, and he will be expected to win Iowa, since he has led many polls here. I know he will continue to reach out to the African American community, but he probably will lose some endorsements to clinton and Obama. I noticed in Hansen’s column referenced above that Wayne Ford, who supported Edwards last time, says he won’t endorse this time until much later.

      Ako Abdul-Samad went for Kerry at the end last time, even though the Kucinich people were working hard to gain his support. It will be interesting to see if he endorses, and whom.

      Ed Fallon, who used to represent the district Ako represents now, is for Edwards. It’s a district with a fairly high proportion of minority residents, at least for Iowa.

      desmoinesdem  Thu 22 Feb 6:05 PM

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