David Sirota: Acknowledging the Race Chasm

from Truthdig:



Acknowledging the Race Chasm

Posted on May 8, 2008
By David Sirota

When it comes to race, American politics is as polarized as a red and blue election map. On one side are those who try to distract from the issue; on the other side are those who work to sensationalize it. As this campaign season shows, what unifies both is bigotry.

Take the reaction to my recent In These Times magazine article about Barack Obama winning states with either very small or very large black populations, but losing most states in the middle.

Those results, while troubling, aren’t surprising. In very white states, racial themes are simply not part of the political dialogue, and a black candidate therefore faces fewer inherent disadvantages. In states with large black populations, race is a major political force, but the African-American vote is big enough to offset a racially motivated white vote. It is in the Race Chasm—the states whose populations are more than 6 percent and less than 17 percent black—where race is a political issue but the black vote is too small to counter a racially motivated white vote.

The trend continued in the last few weeks, with Obama losing two states in the Race Chasm (Pennsylvania and Indiana) and winning one outside the Chasm (North Carolina). Nonetheless, the response to this phenomenon by some in the intelligentsia has been willful ignorance.

The Atlantic Monthly’s Reihan Salam said the data are not driven by race, but by Hillary Clinton’s “waitress-mom sensibility sell well in these regions.” The New America Foundation’s Michael Lind said the evidence does not reflect America’s historic black-white divide, but instead Germanic and Scandinavian migration patterns (I’m not kidding). This is typical behavior from the Establishment’s “serious” thinkers. When confronted with race, they become ostriches and shove their heads in the sand. .......(more)

The complete piece is at; http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080508_acknowledging_the_race_chasm/

That doesn't mean, however, that Obama couldn't win. It will be difficult for either Democratic candidate to win. Like most rural states, we're really hurt by gas prices. Every Democratic ad this fall should be in front of a gasoline station, regardless of the subject matter. Remember Cheney saying "high gas prices are a sign of a failed administration"? Never let them forget it.

There's a lot of Bush fatigue here, and it could be enough to seal the deal for our candidate.