Obama’s “bitter” critics weren’t going to vote for a black man anyway
17 comments April 15th, 2008
This column by Bob Herbert in The New York Times
makes a good point about the kerfuffle generated by Barack Obama’s recent comments about small town Pennsylvanians — that they’re bitter because their jobs have disappeared and because of that sad fact, they cling to guns ‘n’ God and fear of immigrants.
Obama’s words were patently untrue about small town America. I know because in 2004 and 2006 I took long trips for the Register Star, talking at some length to voters in small town America (and in big city America.) People were concerned about their future in the small towns, especially because the young people were moving to the big cities. But folks seemed happy with their lives. Really, folks in small towns and big cities are about the same. They don’t cling to religion, they embrace their faith. Gun ownership is as much a part of small town culture as it is in the cities and suburbs.
And most people are concerned about the influx of illegal immigrants. But they’re not panicking over it. Their key concern is the word “illegal,” not immigrant.
On Monday, though, Obama was right in saying that while his original words were clumsy, people are cynical because every four years politicians come around and promise to bring them good jobs, then when the election’s over, they vanish and nothing changes.
The people in a tizzy over Obama’s “bitter” remarks were never going to vote for a black man anyway. That seems to be Herbert’s point.
There is a lot of coded racism oozing out of white America just about now. Consider what U.S Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky, had to say about Obama: “I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button,” Davis said. “He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country.”
For those of you who don’t see the significance of a white man using the word “boy” to describe a 46-year old black man, I’ll explain. “Boy” was a commonly used word by whites in pre-1960s America, used as a polite form of the “n” word to demean black men, letting them know their place in the scheme of things, which was far, far below that of whites.
“Boy” was used prolifically, in advertisements running in major magazines, on the radio, and in popular music. One Glenn Miller tune from the early 1940s says, “Pardon me, boy, is that the Chatanooga Choo Choo? Track 29! Boy you can give me a shine.”
Rep. Davis has apologized, but he still has his head up the wrong decade.
Another incident comes to mind. When the Rockford School Board fired controversial Jefferson High School Principal Dr. Kenneth Jackson last week, it was a topic on local radio talk shows. I’m not going to get into why the board fired Jackson — it was a 7-0 vote.
Rather, I’ll talk about the disturbing reaction of white callers to those radio shows. They were positively gleeful that the dreaded Jackson was shown the door. They were filled with rage, they made tawdry jokes about the man, they danced on his grave.
One talk show host primed the anti-Jackson pump, but truth be told, the callers didn’t need goading. That’s what modern racism looks like in the Forest City. Sure, it’s dressed up in code talk that starts with “I don’t care whether you’re white, black, green, or purple,” but whenever someone says that, you can be sure that race is exactly what they care about.
