Acting White: The Clinton Question

Hillary Clinton does not think that America is ready for Barack Obama, a black man. Because of this, she says ‘pick me, forget the rules, just pick me – I’m white!’ She says that blacks vote for Obama because he is black, so we should plan for whites to prefer her over him, regardless.

If we believe her appeal, the only sad conclusion on race (in America) is that we are broken-down on the side of the road, in need of AAA. Add in the race-hucksters on both sides, from Sharpton to Limbaugh, and her logic gets more believable. Is the Democratic nomination really a battle between working-class whites and everybody else?

Hopefully there’s more to it. True, blacks are voting for Obama, but perhaps not only because he is black, but because he credibly summons them, like no other, to throw their lot in with whites who also feel left out of the American Dream. And perhaps the cynical working-class white Democrats that Hillary thinks will vote Republican rather than for a black Democrat are not so spitefully stuck in the past. Yes, they want Hillary, but will they stick a knife into their partisan guts to prove her point?

There’s only one way to find out – and we really need to know. Regardless, we will continue to move forward. The question is not direction, but rather how far we have come and have yet to go.

James C. Collier

READ MORE ACTING WHITE...

Technorati Tags: Acting White: The Clinton Question, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Racism, Progress, Acting White