Are Americans Ready For A Black President?
June 25, 2008 at 3:53 pm
One of the key questions about Barack Obama’s candidacy for the presidency is whether Americans are willing to elect a black man (or woman) to the highest office in the land. The issue is racism and just how deep and wide it runs through the nation’s electorate. Is it so widespread that no African-American can be elected, ever, or have Americans progressed to the point that the majority of voters would vote for a black candidate.
“A recent Gallup poll reveals that Americans are much more likely to elect a black man or a woman president than a Mormon or an old man.” The poll found that 94% of the voters surveyed would vote for a black candidate and 88% said they would vote for a woman. (outsidethebeltway.com, February 20, 2007). The question is, how reliable is such a survey? Most observers speculate that many people do not answer truthfully when they are asked if they would vote for a black candidate because they don’t want to be seen as prejudiced.
Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson both ran for president, and although they were probably motivated by reasons other than an expectation that they could win, they at least showed that it is possible for an African-American to seek the office. As distasteful and these two may be to many people, my sense is that Barrack Obama is benefiting from their trailblazing efforts, whatever their motivations.
I’m also reminded of the overwhelming support for Colin Powell as a potential Republican candidate to run against Bill Clinton in the 1996 presidential election. Powell’s highly successful leadership of coalition forces during the Gulf War paved the way for him to run for president if he chose to do so. Although he declined, I am firmly convinced he could have won.
The flip side of the white vote is black solidarity at the polls. Although blacks are only about 13% of the U.S. population, they often vote as a block, which enables them to influence the outcome of certain elections, in spite of their minority status, especially in regional or local political contests. Ralph Brauer, author of “The Strange Death of Liberal America,” notes: “The African American candidates who have attained higher office all follow a similar pattern – they come from states that have significant numbers of African Americans, mostly in large cities such as Chicago or Boston, Illinois accounts for 40% of our African-American Senators and two-thirds since Reconstruction.”
Richard Thompson Ford, Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, recently observed, “Defeatists insist Obama cannot win because the average American will never be able to let go of racial prejudice. Yet he somehow speaks to overflowing houses, packed with enthusiastic voters from the American heartland.”
I don’t agree that the average American voter is as prejudiced as the “defeatists” claim, that they will be unable to “let go of racial prejudice” in the voting booth. Thomas Sowell, a highly regarded economist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, who also happens to be African-American, commented: “No doubt it is only a matter of time before there is a black president…The issue is whether we want to reach that landmark so badly that we are willing to overlook how questionably that landmark is reached.”
If Barack Obama doesn’t win the general election, it won’t be because of white prejudice, it will be because of his qualifications, or lack thereof, and his policies. The nation is ready for a black president. It just may not be this candidate.
© 2008 Harris R. Sherline, All Rights Reserved
comments
Leave a Reply
-
Publisher/Editor
-
Spread the Word!
Help us spread the word about our site by bookmarking OPINIONFEST with your favorite social bookmarking application.
-
Sponsors & Partners
Interested in sponsoring or partnering with Opinionfest? Get in touch with Harris to let us know how you can help!
