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Racism Stings Obama Campaigners
By Denise WilliamsMay 13th 2008 9:31PM
Filed Under:eBarack Obama, Featured Stories, 2008 President, Race
The Obama campaign doesn't talk about it much, but will admit when pressed that they started this process knowing that there was a small, but not insignificant, segment of the population that just will not vote for an African-American.
Running just below the surface in the campaign and in the media, is the undercurrent of racism still to be found in pockets around the country - rural, urban and suburban. While Senator Obama's message is inclusive and pan-racial, the workers on the ground have felt the sting that the campaign itself does not wish to highlight and the media has mostly ignored.
The Washington Post today has some harsh stories of field workers, phone bankers and surrogates having doors slammed in their faces, being called the most derogatory of racial terms and physically threatened.
Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"
Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said she, too, came across "a lot of racism" when campaigning for Obama in Pennsylvania. One Pittsburgh union organizer told her he would not vote for Obama because he is black, and a white voter, she said, offered this frank reason for not backing Obama: "White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people."
The Obama campaign responded to questions about racial issues by saying, "After campaigning for 15 months in nearly all 50 states, Barack Obama and our entire campaign have been nothing but impressed and encouraged by the core decency, kindness, and generosity of Americans from all walks of life. The last year has only reinforced Senator Obama's view that this country is not as divided as our politics suggest."
But that doesn't do too much for the spirit of some supporters not even old enough to vote yet themselves and not used to the epithets thown their way like their parents and grandparents experienced.
Campaign field work can be an exercise in confronting the fears, anxieties and prejudices of voters. Veterans of the civil rights movement know what this feels like, as do those who have been involved in battles over busing, immigration or abortion. But through the Obama campaign, some young people are having their first experience joining a cause and meeting cruel reaction.
On Election Day in Kokomo, a group of black high school students were holding up Obama signs along U.S. 31, a major thoroughfare. As drivers cruised by, a number of them rolled down their windows and yelled out a common racial slur for African Americans, according to Obama campaign staffers.
The media has been very quiet about the campaign headquarters that have been vandalized and defaced by racist grafitti. The campaign honchos would like to keep it that way. After a recent break-in at a campaign office in Vincennes, IN, volunteer Ray McCormick took some pictures of the damage. When he asked the campaign about distributing his pictures to the press, he was asked not to make a big deal of it. McCormick did as they asked, but told the WaPo, "The pictures represent what we are breaking through and overcoming".
Recent Comments
(Page 1 of 25)betsyfromtexas8:15PMMay 13th 2008
WE'LL MOVE AWAY FROM THIS 'RACIAL BS' WHEN THE RACE-BAITER OBAMA PACKS UP HIS TENTS AND GOES BACK TO CHICAGO!
Leslie8:17PMMay 13th 2008
Betsy,
and as soon as you pack up your hood and sheet...
maggie8:19PMMay 13th 2008
I am not racist. If Colin Powell ran, I would have voted for him. But not Obama. Too many shady friends. Thats not change, thats just old politics in young blood.
Barbara8:19PMMay 13th 2008
Well the Republicans should be very happy. With Obama the nominee McCain is sure to get elected. If Hillary had won she might have had a chance with women voting for her. Obama is a loser, can't rely on his word. At first couldn't denounce his minister, then when the press got bad he denounced him. He says what people want to hear but look at this record and you'll see he speaks out of both sides of his mouth.
Leslie8:21PMMay 13th 2008
Maggie,
that sounds too much like " I have black friends" LOLOL!!!
Aaron8:27PMMay 13th 2008
If Obama wins as our nominee I an VOTING for McCain. He is the lesser of the two evils. Hillary Clinton is the only person that can get us out of all of this mess. This has nothing to do with being black or white this is just fact.
Leslie8:29PMMay 13th 2008
Aaron,
that is baloney and you know it. Hillary and Barack's policies and views are a lot closer than John McCain's. At least be man enough to admit the truth.
taffywilliam8:29PMMay 13th 2008
I dont know the real Obama and many other voters have echoed this., If Colin Powell or Condeleza Rice was running they would have my vote as a White.Lets stop all this race baiting...
dar8:29PMMay 13th 2008
I think that there might be more sexism than racism. Can't prove it, but I do think the good old boys club through politics and media supported Obama and ganged-up on Senator Clinton. Obama kept looking like a saint when he said negative things, but Hillary got labeled with every ugly negative you could think of. Yeah, I saw the ugly blogs about Senator Obama. I want Hillary, but some of the things said about both candidates are just plain hateful. Disappointed with my Democratic party.
d8:29PMMay 13th 2008
Democrats, Choose which of the two you wish, but for the love of God, stop the hatred. The Republicans are having a hey-day with us. As usual, they aren't racists. We are because we are all hypocrites, liberals, stupid, and racists. They, of course, continue to live in denial.
Kevin8:32PMMay 13th 2008
I always knew that people said they would vote for an African-American, but when the time comes, they'd show their true colors. It dispiriting to say, but in the end, there are a lot of people in this country that in the privacy of the voting booth will act far differently than they are willing to tell pollsters or friends and family. Yeah, they said they'd vote for Colin Powell too, but would they really? I doubt it.
Let's face it, Obama's going to have to count on five to ten percent of the people who say they'd vote for him on being full of BS when it gets right down to it.
HILLARY for PRESIDENT8:32PMMay 13th 2008
HIS OWN RACISM HAS COME HOME TO ROOST.
If its good for his supporters to be black racist voting along black color line, what do they expect?
WAY TO GO WEST VIRGINIA, YOU ARE AWESOME !! HILLARY IS AWESOME!!
HEY PUNDITS, MEDIA, OBAMA,
YOU ARE NOT GOING TO TELL MY CANDIDATE HILLARY TO STEP DOWN OR GET OUT. HOW DARE YOU!!
YOU DON'T SPEAK TO MY CANDIDATE!!
The hard working American people will keep voting for Hillary until ALL 50 states have voted, votes counted and delegates seated. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE MEDIA.
This is American democracy in action.
HILLARY YOU ARE OUR CHAMPION, WE LOVE YOU !
CONGRATULATIONS FOR THE LANDSLIDE VICTORY IN WV.
HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT !!!
loriyacht8:34PMMay 13th 2008
My son wants Obama to win. He said he was a very good speaker. Im VOTING for Hillary Clinton. Like Aaron said shell get us out of this mess.
Bobby8:35PMMay 13th 2008
what about sexism? dont you think hillary clinton gets hecklers yelling at her to go back into the kitchen? BOTH candidates are breaking barriers, but usually sexism goes by unnoticed because the attitudes against women are so ingrained in society that we take it for granted.
Candi8:35PMMay 13th 2008
To say that America is not racist any longer is a fools fantacy.Although there has been a lot of change one thing America will never be rid of and that is the race problem
I read on the comments that some white person stated that caucasians,help caucasians and blacks help blacks.
I beg to differ .Caucasias have always thought themselves superior than all races it's a known fact.Now let me flip the script blacks have never trusted caucasians that's a fact and we are as equally as suspicious as the caucasian are of us.From the time a caucasian is knee high to a grass hopper he is told who to trust and by the same token so will a black person tell his child who to trust .
We do not trust or respect each other that is the problem.
I remember watching a movie in the seventies "Guess who's coming to dinner the part of the black guy said to his father and the brides father that when their
generation would pass away it would be a better world to be truthful America has improved but there is still a division.There will always people who will see the black man only as a half man and we will always see the caucasian as a beast.there you go the superior and the inferior that is how we see each other, I am sorry that's what that is.God have mercy on us.
Stephanie8:38PMMay 13th 2008
Obama is doing all he needs to do to proove that he is the better candidate for the job and the numbers show it. Keep doing what you do my brotha more power to you Obama 08!!
ron pierce8:38PMMay 13th 2008
i do nt beleive racism stings this campaign,,, closed mide people stings this campaign...
for me all this banter about religion is just that banter,...... and if we will beleive the so called professional analists, that should obamam and hilary unite it will send mixed messages......i say no.... one has to have a past to be able to initiat a new beginning, hilary clinton is that past/present & obama is that new beginning .. contary to so calle dprofessional analist; if these two do not unite there will not be a democrate in the white house ..some say if hilary do not win they will go to republican just becasue of the mans color, not because of what he represent .... other say if obama do not win they will not participate due to the fact they know obama was not chosen strickly due to his color... to sum it up this = democratics being devided ... which =. Senator Mccain will be the next republican President ....
regardless of what these so called PROFESSIONAL ANALISTS. surmise the mixed messages etc. .... if you dont want republicans in the white house vote .... your best ticket is
*******OBAMA PRESIDENT ......HILARY CLINTON V- PRESIDENT *********
Terry Andreasen8:40PMMay 13th 2008
Get over yourselves'''''''. I do not believe you were harrased or even called racial slurs. This campaign has done everything possible to create racism themselves. People in the United States have generally accepted Obama. He has not been spit upon or called racial names. Please do not put this in the media on a day Hillary has had a victory. Shame on the media and Obama's campaign.
Today while watching Keith Olberman on MSNBC a campaign supporter of Obama made the comment we have allowed Hillary to continue her campaign. WHO does he think he is. Last I looked we are in a FREE Democratic society she can continue has long as she wants. I hope she goes to the end. Giv e them Hell Hillary.
Dog Lover Ca.8:41PMMay 13th 2008
Looks like Obama is trying to play the race card to me. He atteded a raciest all black church for 20 yrs. That pretty much tells me who racist.
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Leslie8:11PMMay 13th 2008
Hopefully one day we as Americans can move away from this racial BS....