It’s Ok To Vote For Obama’s Skin Color Because He Is The First Legitimate Black Candidate
I guess Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, Lenora Fulani, Alan Keyes, Carol Mosley Braun and Al Sharpton weren’t legitimate candidates then. At least according to syndicated columnist and member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune Ruben Navarrette Jr.
...some white Americans are turning themselves inside out to come up with excuses for why they’re not supporting Obama. It seems like just yesterday that these folks were arguing there is no racism in the immigration debate, and now they’re insisting there is no racism in the presidential election.
Some want to know why it isn’t racist when 70 percent of African-Americans vote for Obama but it is when 70 percent of whites vote against him.
The answer has to do with history. Over the decades, black Americans have had plenty of opportunities to vote for white people for president. And they have done so. But this is the first time that white Americans have a chance to vote for an African-American with a shot at the presidency. And what are they doing?
Many are responding quite well. Obama won the votes of many — to borrow a phrase — “hardworking white Americans — in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming. But, elsewhere, as Obama said in a recent interview, people may need to get their head around the concept of an African-American even seeking the presidency, let alone winning it.
So, according to this, if you’re not supporting Obama you’re not “responding quite well” to having a black candidate. What utter bunk.
It’s worth noting that Obama isn’t the first black with a shot at becoming President. All of the blacks who have run in the past had a shot. That they didn’t become President was a matter of paltry support, not skin color.
Obama may come closer to the White House than any black candidate before, but they’ve all had their shots. Which makes supporting Obama as the “first black candidate with a shot” absurd. If you want to support Obama because of his policies, that’s great. As an American you are perfectly free to do so.
But to support him merely because he’s black is, while perfectly legal and acceptable under our laws, so repentantly shallow as to be pathetic. If we are to be a color-blind society we must actually be color-blind.













