A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on August 4th, 2008 in Campaign News

Which candidate is more racist, Barack Obama for saying he doesn’t “look like those other Presidents” or John McCain for comparing his opponent to his supporter’s daughter, Paris Hilton?

If you answered, “Neither!” then you should get up right now and give yourself an extra Oreo (no racial overtones intended).

McCain’s comment has nothing to do with race, whatsoever. Obama’s brushes against racial matters, but it isn’t racist. You could say that he is accusing McCain of being racist, in a sort of backhand way. But suggesting that a candidate might eventually say racist things as part of a larger attack campaign isn’t, in itself, racist. That would be like McCain saying that Obama hates old people because he might, at some time, point out that McCain is likely to be suffering from a debilitating medical condition before he has the chance to serve out two full terms in the White House.

Unfortunately, that second story — the continuing divide in how Whites and Blacks perceive racism — gets buried because “the majority” (which, of course, is dominated by Whites) thinks Obama was racist and McCain wasn’t. The Black voice gets subsumed by the White majority, and ceases to be a relevant competing view — it’s just the minority (wrong) view. But I think it is very relevant that Blacks consider McCain’s ad to be more racist than Obama’s comments, and that Whites think the reverse. Is it racial loyalty? Is it a greater perception by Blacks about what racism actually entails? Is it partisanship? Who knows. But it is relevant, and the way the story is being covered hides that fact.

Also, a quick digression: It is interesting to me that White voters considered Obama’s words to be racist, given that they don’t pass the general threshold of racism in American public discourse, which is that nothing can be racist unless it explicitly and overtly expresses malice and hatred towards a racial group. Obama’s comments were way to subtle for that, but presumably were covered under the “Black speaker” exception where anything that a Black person says that ties to race or otherness automatically is presumed to be a playing of the race card. And that gets transformed into “racism” because there is nothing more racist than a Black person ever insinuating that there is anything racist in what White people do.

Okay, let’s separate the two and look in a bit more detail.

McCain first, because it’s easy to disect. The point is to say that Obama has no substance. He is shallow – as shallow as Paris Hilton. Is there any racial content? No. But McCain is criticizing a black man, and there is nothing that will offend the hyper-sensitive than a white man criticizing a black man. Well, there is one thing – a white woman criticizing a black man. Ask Hillary Clinton. Just as Obama is a symbol of black aspirations, McCain is a symbol of black frustration. It is only fair when you understand that it works the other way, too – the difference, of course, is that there really is no white frustration at never having a white man in the White House and that blacks have not, historically, held back whites from social and economic advancement. If that seems unfair, then consider that Obama will also have some amount of white people that will make sure that they get to the polling station early just to vote against “that dark fella”. I’d like to think that that number of people will be much less than the total number of people who vote for Obama simply because he’s black. I don’t know why, but it just sounds a bit less insidious that way.

On the other hand, there is at least a veiled reference to race in Obama’s statement. It isn’t much, of course. Obama is saying that McCain has nothing to run for so he’s just going to scare people about Obama. It doesn’t matter what stupid insignificant thing is used – his name, for instance. Or the fact that “he doesn’t look like all those other Presidents”. Yeah, he could be talking to any number of physical characteristics – but he isn’t. We could pretend we don’t know that, but why?

The question is: Is it over the line somehow?That is going to be open to interpretation. In effect, Obama is saying that McCain will become so scared that he’ll be appealing to the David Duke crowd, because even that voting bloc might be in jeopardy. Which is just silly. And that’s why it got a good laugh.

Is Obama playing the “race card from the bottom of the deck”? Well, possibly. But if that’s true then we have lost all sense of allowing humor anywhere. Hey, I say that McCain should use that line, too. Now THAT would be funny. Almost as funny as Obama making a reference to McCain’s celebrity.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, John McCain

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