I don't know much 'bout politics. But I was annoyed by an article in yesterday's NY Times: "
So Far, Obama Can't Take Black Vote for Granted." The gist of the article is that many African Americans don't feel Obama is "black enough" or "one of us," and that as the son of a white mother and Kenyan father, he doesn't share the struggles and experience of a typical black American.
But, A: neither do most white presidential candidates share the struggles and experiences of the average white American. It seems to me that many white presidential candidates were born into wealth, often belong to families that are already politically prominent, and have enjoyed the benefits of private education and ivy league degrees. This is obviously not the experience of your average American of any color. Also, I know that my elected officials are supposed to represent me and my fellow "average" Americans, but they don't have to be "average" themselves. In fact, I hope they are a lot smarter and more educated than I am.
Secondly, I have a big problem with this analysis of Obama's lack of support, as given in the same article:
The black author and essayist Debra J. Dickerson recently declared that “Obama isn’t black” in an American racial context.
To me this is reminiscent of one analysis often given to explain the persistence of the achievement gap in schools between black and white students. In her book "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?", psychologist Beverly Tatum expounds on the idea that as black adolescents begin to form their racial identities, it often seems "white" to do well in school, and that black students who do excel academically face being ostracized by their peers. Dickerson's analysis suggests to me whole masses of the kids in Tatum's book growing up without growing out of this mindset and thinking, "you know what else 'isn't black' in an American racial context? Being a politician. Therefore I don't think I'll support Obama."
It seems silly to me to think that anyone would decide on whether to support a candidate based on whether or not they fit into a certain racial paradigm, or whether they're somehow representative of any vague notion of the average American experience. On the other hand, I guess politicians are always trying to show us that they come from backgrounds "just like us" to secure our votes. And as a nation, we did vote for Bush, a non-intellectual cowboy, just like the rest of us Amuricans. So is my thinking on this naive and overly idealistic? I welcome your comments.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!! I love you.
