African Americans are justifiably proud and excited that that a man who bears the same stigma of skin color in our racially charged society as they do has a chance to become our next President. And I imagine that if I were a member of a group, most of whom have experienced racism, discrimination and open bigotry in their lives, as well as the effects of institutional racism due to the fact that they as a group have been consistently denied opportunities that white Americans have taken for granted over the course of the last 400 years of our history, I’d be pretty ecstatic about Obama’s historic campaign, too.

“Obama is like the Martin Luther King of my day,” said Latisha Bolden, 36, a trainee nurse shopping in a dollar store on a street of boarded-up houses and derelict lots in a neighbourhood called Bronzeville. “He’s motivating young African-Americans to feel they can achieve their goals and overcome barriers and do just about anything.”

Rob Williams, 38, an hotel security officer, said: “I’m ecstatic. He’s telling our youth that you don’t have to stop at a certain level, that you can shoot for the stars. You may not attain them but you can come pretty close.”

Tiffany Shanell Gates, 28, who cuts hair in a spartan barber’s shop on 47th Street, exclaimed: “For ever they’ve said, ‘You’ll never see a black president’, but it’s happening right now, today, and if he makes it — oh my God, I hope my heart doesn’t stop.”

But tempering that joy is a fear that too often those of us living in predominantly white communities fail to recognize, or too readily dismiss, but which the current Republican “pep rallies” led by Sarah Palin have exposed for all to see: the real danger that the dark side of white racism poses to the first African American Presidential nominee of a major party. A danger that the black community, which has long suffered from a history of violence and oppression against them by white Americans, a multi-generational effort that has dehumanized and scapegoated African Americans, feels viscerally in ways that even whites like myself cannot fully comprehend:

[T]he corollary of all this hope is a widely held fear that this greatest of prizes will be snatched away by the machinations of the white Establishment, by assassination or by white voters who — whatever they tell pollsters — will simply refuse to tick the box for a black man.

“When it actually comes down to it and people see this black man is going to be President of the United States — I don’t think [white voters are going to be able to deal with that,” an African-American photographer, who refused to give his name, said.

“Racism is alive and well,” agreed a middle-aged black woman at the Baptist church, who also asked not to be named.

“I don’t think it [an Obama presidency] is going to happen,” Ms Gates, the hairdresser, said. “The Republicans are not going to let that happen in any circumstances . . . They can rig votes. They could try to kill him.”

Joe Biden calls what Sarah Palin and John McCain are doing at their campaign rallies “mildly dangerous” but I believe he was deliberately understating the danger of such divisive political demagoguery now on display anytime A McCain/Palin rally or political event is staged. As Obama’s Vice presidential running mate, and part of a ticket that hopes to convince white voters to put aside the ingrained biases and cast their ballot for a balck man, I understand that caution. It is the same caution that has led Obama, Biden and their surrogates to repeatedly preface their criticisms of John McCain by referencing that they honor the sacrifices he made as a member of the military and the suffering he endured as a prisoner of war at the hands of the North Vietnamese.

Obama and Biden cannot risk alienating white voters so they have demonstrated a reserve and shown a measure of respect for their Republican adversaries that McCain and Palin, by their own actions on the campaign trail, have not earned nor do they deserve. Their blatant racist and smear tactics in which they have attempted to portray the Obamas as unpatriotic, terrorist sympathizers and the beneficiaries of “affirmative action,” are, in fact not only extremely reckless, but they have stirred up a hornet’s nest of bigotry and hatred that we have not seen in this country since the days of the Civil Rights era and the assassinations of the Kennedy Brothers, Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers and other prominent liberals and African Americans.

Just this summer we have witnessed two episodes of violence directly tied to to right wing anger and hatred: the murder of members of a Unitarian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee by a gunman with well known right wing leanings who targeted them for their “liberal views.” We have also watched as a deranged gunman took out his anger at his employer by killing the head of the Democratic Party in Arkansas. And lest we forget, just over a month ago several individuals with ties to white supremacists were arrested with sniper rifles, ammunition and other military gear in Denver during the Democratic National Convention after bragging of their plans to assassinate Barack Obama.

So you can understand why African Americans are both full of hope, and yet deeply afraid of what may happen to Obama and to themselves over the course of the next several weeks. Those fears will be heightened should Obama win the election, And, though many white Americans may be unable to fully comprehend that fear on an emotional level, we must admit that their fears are fully justified. We all know of people — friends, relatives or acquaintances — who see nothing wrong in displaying their casual racism and prejudice toward blacks when no African Americans are present. Indeed, I suspect many of us know of someone who has expressed a desire to do violence upon black Americans for their perceived “special treatment” by society, even if his or her comments were no more than mere bluster.

But as the outbreak of noose incidents, and the exploding use by police of tasers and other forms of unwarranted force against blacks, liberal protesters or others who are perceived by law enforcement authorities to be suspect because of their political beliefs, their religion or merely the color of their skin, there is a significant element of American society that is more than willing and able to use violence against “those people” or “that one” as the case may be.

Considering the past 30 years of our history in which right wing hate radio has come to dominate the airwaves, and religious fundamentalists constantly and consistently demonize liberals, gays, and –yes — minorities as being unpatriotic, treasonous and not real Americans, this is not a surprise. But the candidacy of Barrack Obaama has crystallized this hatred, intensified it and given it a specific focus. And it is this wave of hatred upon which John McCain and Sarah Palin are placing their bets for victory in November. I don’t think it will gain them the Presidency (absent another stolen election like 2000 and 2004) but it could bring about something far worse: political, racial and ethnic violence on a scale we have not seen since the days of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. They are playing with fire, a fire that is ready to break out in ways they will not be able to control.

The African American community in this country knows this at a deep level; they can feel it in their bones. And despite their hopes, they are not wrong to fear what may come if McCain, Palin and the Republican party continue down this ugly, divisive and extremely dangerous path.

Update [2008-10-9 9:48:23 by Steven D]: Speaking of the Devil, look what I found at Raw Story after writing this:

75-year-old Wade Williams, arrested Wednesday morning, was angry that he hadn’t yet received his voter registration card. According to the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office, Williams threatened a state official over the phone that he would “empty his shotgun,” stating an urgent need to vote to “keep the nigger out of office.” On the way to be booked at the Ouachita Correctional Center, Williams reportedly “continued his ‘tirade’ about niggers and also stated that he had a shotgun, but had hidden it at his residence.”