Sadly, Race is a Factor

Now that Barack Obama is the (not just presumptive) nominee, we move into the home stretch of election 2008.

Today all the buzz is about history being made, about how incredible it is how far we’ve come to have a man of color as a presidential nominee. If you thought race was a major issue in the primaries, you have no idea what’s coming. We now have, for the first time, the choice to pick a black man to be President of the United States of America. Not to make light of Obama’s accomplishment, but I don’t see it as anything all that amazing. This is long, long, long, long overdue, and if you’re really all that surprised then you’ve had your head in the sand for the last 40 years.

It would not shock me to see a black President. I grew up after the civil rights movement, in a very integrated urban environment, and some of my closest friends are African Americans.

But.

But. But. But.

As much as I hate to admit it, I have felt a sliver of racism creeping into my subconscious as Obama has drawn closer to the presidency, and I’ve been trying to figure out why.

I’m currently reading the book Emotionomics- a marketing guide that puts forth the idea that customer emotions are by far the most important factor in effective advertising. One of the key principles in the book is that people have two reasons for any single decision: the rational reason, and the REAL reason.

My rational reasons for not voting for Obama are plentiful: he’s part of a stagnant, corrupt 2 party system. He only has a few years of experience in the Senate, he supports free trade, which hurts the middle class as much as anything, and he makes no promise to scale back our imperial forces.

But what are the real reasons? I have claimed that I have gone negative on Obama because the media is so enamored that the only voices of dissent you hear are from the far right wing. But is that just an excuse? Why am I really opposed to voting for Obama?

Is it because somewhere deep down I am afraid of the prospect of a black President? I would be lying if I told you that race never has entered my mind when considering who and who not to vote for.

America has some soul searching to do from now until November, and I am no exception. I sincerely hope that my reasons for not supporting Barack Obama aren’t rooted in some ass-backwards, cleverly hidden, cross-burning prejudices, but I have to consider the possibility that I’m full of shit and I really just won’t support an African American, and if it’s true I’ll have to rise above it.

I am going to take an intense look inward. We all need to. If you’re white, are you voting for Mccain because of Obama’s race? Are you voting for Obama because you feel guilty? If you’re black, are you voting for him primarily because he’s black? We need to ask ourselves these questions, and if we do, no matter what happens in the Election, our country will be making steps forward in racial relations.

We are far more primitive than we pretend to be. But I promise that I’m going to try my best to rise above our country’s shameful legacy of racism and make a decision based on the content of my candidate’s character, and nothing else.