Obama’s Historic White Victory
Understandably, much has been written about how historic President-elect Barack Obama’s election is for African-Americans in a country where they were brought in chains.
But Obama’s victory was also historic for white Americans who succeeded in breaking the shackles of racism. With African-Americans only 12% of the population, a whole lot of white folks had to vote for Obama, and it’s a triumph for them too.
No one’s naive enough to believe Obama’s election will end racism in America. But it could be the beginning of the end of racism as a surefire political tactic.
Before the election, we heard more about Tom Bradley, the late mayor of Los Angeles, than we ever did when he was on the political scene back in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
The Bradley effect was a catch phrase used to describe the fact that when Bradley, an African-American, ran for governor of California in 1982 he was slightly ahead in the late polls, but he didn’t win.
There could be all kinds of reasons for that. But the simple-minded explanation widely accepted by the media was that white people might tell pollsters they were going to vote for a black candidate, but they might not be able to bring themselves to do it.
Well, 54% of white voters eagerly chose Obama in Wisconsin in urban, suburban and rural counties all across the state. Nationally, Obama won a majority of the white female vote and came close to splitting the white male vote.
In fact, Obama won more white votes than any of the white Democratic candidates for president since President Lyndon Johnson in 1964.
Johnson’s election more than 40 years ago was a major turning point in racial politics in this country after Johnson led the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts blocked for years by his racist, Southern Democratic colleagues.
To its shame, the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln, saw racist, Southern whites alienated from Johnson’s Democratic Party, as its route to power.
Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy embrace of opposition to civil rights and racial justice transformed the traditionally Democratic Solid South into the Solid Republican South of recent decades.
Obama’s transcendent political appeal finally shattered that, winning Virginia, the capitol of the Confederacy, North Carolina and even Florida where corrupt tactics eight years ago decided the presidential election for the governor’s brother.
Coded racist appeals became a staple of Republican campaigns since Nixon and this year was no exception.
After Democratic Congressman John Murtha described portions of his Western Pennsylvania district as racist, both John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, took turns campaigning there full time.
Palin identified certain areas of the country as the “pro-American” parts of America. What those areas had in common were they were far to the right and blindingly white.
“Small town values” was another one of those coded phrases. Small towns can be petty, mean-spirited places where people are murdered in bizarre ways and stuffed into freezers.
But the small towns in Republican imaginations are idyllic paradises where the picket fences are all white and so are the people.
Racism has crippled opportunities and expectations for black people in America. It sends them to the worst schools, provides them the worst health care, denies them family-supporting jobs and fast tracks them into the criminal justice system.
But racism also cripples white people in this country. It frightens us into spending enormous amounts of money to build prisons that make crime worse instead of the finest schools for all children that could make our own futures brighter.
How many more Barack Obamas could our country have produced by now if we hadn’t denied so many of our children equal opportunities on the basis of race and economic circumstance?
Many Americans, black and white, didn’t really believe the dream of an African-American president, no matter how brilliant and charismatic, would be achieved in our lifetimes.
Now, all of us need to get busy dreaming what we can accomplish together next.
Nov 19, 2008 at 7:59 p.m.
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Zoom...can you read? I said BY COUNTY results, that is what I posted; from the same page you listed.
Nov 19, 2008 at 10:45 a.m.
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How about linking to the actual site, RAF.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/elec...
Nov 19, 2008 at 10:19 a.m.
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we could try and put "them" into the finest schools but that wouldnt help because "they" dont want that they want to continue to sell drugs and join gangs. "They" would just bring down the finest schools and courrupt the health care system. If we had any form of univeral health care to help "them" we would end up paying for it all and haveing to wait an enormous amount of time for anything as simple as a checkup not to mention the wait that would come with needing something major such as a surgury or transplant. my point is we should leave the system how it is, its worked and its working, if its not broken dont fix it.
Nov 19, 2008 at 9:44 a.m.
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Take a look at the "BIG" landslide by county results http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/elec...
Nov 14, 2008 at 10:11 a.m.
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People also have to keep in mind that this election is a great example of how the internet is leveling the playing field for everyone! Obama's campaign team had the vision to utilize that valuable tool. It's a sure sign of the times. If we can digitally link a country of voters together like we saw happen, what makes people think it can't happen on a global scale....? Actually, it's already happening. We all have the power, individually, to reach out and touch someone in any part of this world! The question is, what kind of values do we have and how willing are we to use this awesome tool for good and making a difference?! The internet is a haven for evil as well. I like our chances doing using it the right way!
Nov 13, 2008 at 8:56 a.m.
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nemesis
He changed the electoral map and won every key battle ground state in the union. Plus, how many seats did the democrats gain?
I would say this victory is at a minimum a mandidate for something besides the good ol boy republican, run up the debt, start wars based on lies, don't give a crap about the shrinking middle class BS we have seen the past 8 years.
Nov 12, 2008 at 8:48 p.m.
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Regardless of the 52%/48% difference in the popular vote...at least the winning candidate actually did win with the electoral votes AND the popular vote.
Nov 12, 2008 at 7:48 p.m.
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Cry a river...then build a bridge and get over it.
Nov 12, 2008 at 7:44 p.m.
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For those who are not in full messiah mode with Obama. Let me inform you that Obama did not win the election with the landslide everyone thinks or the media reports. He won with 52% of the voters while McCain had 48%. Hardly a mandate and hardly overwhelming. The media's fascination and fondness with Obama was and is sicking. It is reminiscent of their love affair with Bill Clinton.
Nov 12, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
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The title of the article alone is racist... Joel should be ashamed. What year is this again?
Nov 12, 2008 at 1:53 p.m.
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Joel Mcnally is a two bit hack. I won't read what he wrote but I read the comments and the "small town...stuffed in a freezer" comment sounds like something this nit wit may say.
Nov 12, 2008 at 1:39 p.m.
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Is Obama now also the president of Africa? You know, that country that Sara Palin was talking about?
Nov 12, 2008 at 10:59 a.m.
Nov 12, 2008 at 10 a.m.
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the comments regarding this article are dead on! ihavealife~ you said it all! I will be the first to say, I was not an Obama supporter from day one. I will respect him as my next president and get behind him anyway I can, however, my worst fear is already transpiring it feels like! The simple minds that exist in mainstream America (I'm talking all races) will opt to make this a black and white thing!
I give Obama credit for not feeding the fire with that too. We are in this together. We're running out of time to make excuses as to why we can't unite in this country. It's time to be "ALL IN".
Nov 12, 2008 at 9:31 a.m.
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I hope this means Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton now have to go find a real job and quit oppressing the people they are suppose to be helping.
Nov 12, 2008 at 8:55 a.m.
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Leave it to a mindless, left wing hypocrite like McNally to put a racial spin on a simple win by one of the two candidates in the broken American two-party joke of a political system.
There is nothing so "stimulating" as the hypocrisy and the racism of the braindead left.
Nov 12, 2008 at 3:08 a.m.
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"Obama’s transcendent political appeal"
Some of the points here are well-made, and it's easy to empathise with some of the sentiments. Unfortunately, whatever wise thoughts might have been included are obscured by the empty and partisan platitudes. Such as the sentence above. Obama is appealing in many ways, but most of all, he's a non-Republican. If he were Republican this year, he'd be lucky to be dogcatcher.
"Palin identified certain areas of the country as the “pro-American” parts of America. What those areas had in common were they were far to the right and blindingly white."
You're implying that whiteness is their main driving motive, when it is actually those areas that are mainly anti-terrorist, anti-socialist, and most importantly, not very Democrat. If I had accused Democratic areas of being motivated mosly by blackness, I imagine the foam-flecked diatribes would be deafening.
"“Small town values” was another one of those coded phrases. Small towns can be petty, mean-spirited places where people are murdered in bizarre ways and stuffed into freezers."
As opposed to big city values, where they don't, apparently, bother to stuff them into freezers. Give us all a break with the "secret racial coding", will you?
"It frightens us into spending enormous amounts of money to build prisons that make crime worse instead of the finest schools"
Do you really think your readers are that stupid? Stupid enough to think that prison money (often federal) is being taken from school budgets (funded locally)? Stupid enough to think that NOT putting criminals away is a way to reduce crime?
Back to school with you. A good one this time, please.
Nov 12, 2008 at 12:57 a.m.
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Joel, your whole view is racist.
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