There is an article in this morning’s Washington Post about some of the racial resistance volunteers for Barack Obama have encountered on the campaign trail. It depressing, and somewhat misleading, as out in the field racist responses are few and far in between. But they do happen, and they happen more often in some regions than in others. A big part of the Post article focuses on Kokomo, Indiana, and it’s no big surprise that there is lingering racism there.
On July 4, 1923, Kokomo hosted the largest Klan gathering in history — an estimated 200,000 followers flocked to a local park.
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.
Frederick Murrell, a black Kokomo High School senior, was not there but heard what happened. He was more disappointed than surprised. During his own canvassing for Obama, Murrell said, he had “a lot of doors slammed” in his face. But taunting teenagers on a busy commercial strip in broad daylight? “I was very shocked at first,” Murrell said. “Then again, I wasn’t, because we have a lot of racism here.”
Kokomo is the seat of Howard County, which gave Hillary Clinton 56% of the vote. It lies at the extreme southern edge of Indiana’s Second Congressional District, represented by Democratic freshman Joe Donnelly. Progressive Punch gives Rep. Donnelly a score of 230, meaning that there are only four Democrats in the House of Representatives that have a less progressive record. Nevertheless, Rep. Donnelly has endorsed Barack Obama.
“Today, I am pleased to announce my support for Barack Obama. At a time when too many Americans have lost faith in their government, Senator Obama can move us beyond the politics of stalemate and gridlock that has kept us from meeting the monumental challenges of our time: our dependence on foreign oil, a health care gap that leaves tens of millions uninsured, the steady deterioration of our manufacturing base, and an economy that is not working for working people.
The Democratic Party’s strength comes from its core commitment to the American Dream and from a coalition that is ideologically, economically, geographically and ethnically diverse. Barack Obama will stand with working families while building that coalition so that we can change this country, and that’s why he’s the best choice for America.”
Rep. Donnelly just alienated a substantial portion of the voters that he needs to win reelection in this very tough district. This is leadership. It is moral leadership. In a district where at least some people have no compunction about hurling racial epithets and young black and white Obama volunteers, Donnelly had plenty of incentive to withhold an endorsement, or to endorse Hillary Clinton. I may not agree with how Donnelly votes on a whole host of issues, but he has just earned my respect. Compare his stand with how Bill Clinton is behaving in West Virginia.
“The great divide in this country is not by race or even income, it’s by those who think they are better than everyone else and think they should play by a different set of rules.”
…
“The people in small towns in rural America, who do the work for America, and represent the backbone and the values of this country, they are the people that are carrying her through in this nomination.”
That’s not moral leadership. That’s a naked appeal to the lowest common denominator. It’s an appeal to the mindset of these voters:
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.”
Real leadership comes from standing right up to those prejudices, as Joe Donnelly did, and saying:
“The Democratic Party’s strength comes from its core commitment to the American Dream and from a coalition that is ideologically, economically, geographically and ethnically diverse. Barack Obama will stand with working families while building that coalition so that we can change this country, and that’s why he’s the best choice for America.”
That’s the kind of leadership this country needs right now. Joe Donnelly gets it. The Clintons do not.
Recently I heard both Clinton and Obama speak in person here in NC.
Seated behind me was an African man, I believe he said he was from Liberia (it was very very loud in there!) and he had just become an American citizen. He held on his lap a little boy of about 5, his son, and the boy was trying to read The Audacity of Hope.
It was such a powerful image for this white lady to behold and it perfectly captured what Obama means to his supporters.
Also available in orange.
We’ve got to get over this hump as a society. I can’t tell you how important it is for me to have my two half-nonwhite sons see an AA president in their formative years. My seven year old asked me who I was for (he sees me following this stuff on an almost unhealthy level) and I replied Obama. He non-chalantly said that would be neat because he noticed that all the Presidents had been white men. We had a good talk about that, and why it was so, including that there had been no women presidents. If we lose in November, the hardest part on a personal level will be explaining to my son why it happened, and I hope to god it’s not going to boil down to race.
Very good post. It’s the Edmund Burke quote in action. All its takes…etc. Leadership is speaking out on this issue rather than ignoring it.
Thank God Hillary won’t be in charge.
I felt my blood pressure going up as I was reading this and I just want to share what usually works…shame.
On many occassions people have made racist comments to me. I listen and kindly engage them in a lenghty conversation before telling them are talking with a black person.
They can’t apologize enough.
To be fair, Donnelly’s district voted narrowly for Clinton over Obama (a 51-49 margin)…either way, he was going to piss off a lot of people.
That’s all from Notre Dame.
Boo, what do you reckon might change in the narrative tonight? We all know the math is impossible for Clinton, but do you think we’re going to be dealing with another “Comeback Kid”-fest, or will the press continue to do its job?
No, no comeback kid. Obama’s gained 27 delegates or so in the last week. Clinton gets 10-12 tonight. It won’t matter in the least, even to the press.
There will be some grumbling about the white vote, but not much. Even Carville has conceded.
Yeah, I got Carville’s concession.
Here’s hoping you’re right.
Personally I’d like to think that it would be hard for them to repudiate their statements all week that it’s all over but the shouting, but this is the mainstream media we’re talking about. They have all the fidelity and consistency of the chorus in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, God bless their little hearts.
Angsty Quote of the Day
it’ll be so good to see the back of him.
Wow. That’s a pretty set-in-stone answer.
Poor James. Now the Clinton supporters will call him Judas.
Recently I did a psychosocial needs assessment on a seven-year-old boy, who lives with his grandmother in the inner city. His mother is incarcerated and he does not know who his father was. He was a small, handsome child, who sat quietly with his back straight. He spoke softly and hesitantly as he answered my questions.
When I asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up, his impassive face lit up and he grew animated. “I want to run for president, like Barack Obama,” he said, and went on to tell me his aunt had just attended an Obama rally the night before.
I was tremendously moved. To this child, Obama’s success gave him hope that he too might one day be judged by the content of his character, and not be condemned by people who reject him because of the color of his skin. I hope so much that we can move past our history of racism in this country, but there are obstacles, like the stubborn racism of some voters who will not vote for an African-American. I would never have the heart to tell the child I spoke with that there are such people still around in this country, but I fear he will find out soon enough.
Really, it’s hard to fault these people. It’s what they’ve been taught, it’s what they’ve grown up with, and it’s hard to change a lifetime of prejudices, assumptions and deeply ingrained beliefs.
I’m not sure it’ll happen in my lifetime. More to the point I’m not sure it’ll happen in any of these people’s lifetimes. But I figure having a black president can’t hurt and might accelerate the process. Fifty-four years ago many would not have accepted a black man playing major league baseball. Today we don’t give it a second thought. Sometimes one guy with courage makes all the difference.
Carolyn,
Didn’t Michelle say that Barak would be an inspiration for young children like this?
I hadn’t heard her say precisely that, but she may have. It sounds like something she would say.