May 13, 2008
Away From Obama’s Crowds, Racist Moments
Washington Post: Obama Campaigners Encounter Raw And Surprising Racism As They Push Democratic Frontrunner
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Young Obama student volunteers Mike Stratta, left, and Christo Logan, right, assist University of Pennsylvania worker Dave Munson, 45, fills up a voter registration form on The University of Pennsylvania campus, in Philadelphia, Thursday, March 20, 2008. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
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Photo Essay Barack Obama A look at the life and meteoric rise of the president-elect.
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Timeline Democratic Campaign Trail Notable events in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
Obama has won 30 of 50 Democratic contests so far, the kind of nationwide electoral triumph no black candidate has ever realized. That he is on the brink of capturing the Democratic nomination, some say, is a testament to how far the country has progressed in overcoming racism and evidence of Obama's skill at bridging divides.
Obama has won five of 12 primaries in which black voters made up less than 10 percent of the electorate, and caucuses in states such as Idaho and Wyoming that are overwhelmingly white. But exit polls show he has struggled to attract white voters who didn't attend college and earn less than $50,000 a year. Today, he and Hillary Clinton square off in West Virginia, a state where she is favored and where the votes of working-class whites will again be closely watched.
For the most part, Obama campaign workers say, the 2008 election cycle has been exhilarating. On the ground, the Obama campaign is being driven by youngsters, many of whom are imbued with an optimism undeterred by racial intolerance. "We've grown up in a different world," says Danielle Ross. Field offices are staffed by 20-somethings who hold positions -- state director, regional field director, field organizer -- that are typically off limits to newcomers to presidential politics.
Gillian Bergeron, 23, was in charge of a five-county regional operation in northeastern Pennsylvania. The oldest member of her team was 27. At Scranton's annual Saint Patrick's Day parade, some of the green Obama signs distributed by staffers were burned along the parade route. That was the first signal that this wasn't exactly Obama country. There would be others.
In a letter to the editor published in a local paper, Tunkhannock Borough Mayor Norm Ball explained his support of Hillary Clinton this way: "Barack Hussein Obama and all of his talk will do nothing for our country. There is so much that people don't know about his upbringing in the Muslim world. His stepfather was a radical Muslim and the ranting of his minister against the white America, you can't convince me that some of that didn't rub off on him.
"No, I want a president that will salute our flag, and put their hand on the Bible when they take the oath of office."
Obama's campaign workers have grown wearily accustomed to the lies about the candidate's supposed radical Muslim ties and lack of patriotism. But they are sometimes astonished when public officials such as Ball or others representing the campaign of their opponent traffic in these falsehoods.
Karen Seifert, a volunteer from New York, was outside of the largest polling location in Lackawanna County, Pa., on primary day when she was pressed by a Clinton volunteer to explain her backing of Obama. "I trust him," Seifert replied. According to Seifert, the woman pointed to Obama's face on Seifert's T-shirt and said: "He's a half-breed and he's a Muslim. How can you trust that?"
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Pollsters have found it difficult to accurately measure racial attitudes, as some voters are unwilling to acknowledge the role that race plays in their thinking. But some are not. Susan Dzimian, a Clinton supporter who owns residential properties, said outside a polling location in Kokomo that race was a factor in how she viewed Obama. "I think if it was somebody other than him, I'd accept it," she said of a black candidate. "If Colin Powell had run, I would be willing to accept him."
The previous evening, Dondra Ewing was driving the neighborhoods of Kokomo, looking to turn around voters like Dzimian. Ewing, 47, is a chain-smoking middle school guidance counselor, a black single mother of two and one of the most fiercely vigilant Obama volunteers in Kokomo, which was once a Ku Klux Klan stronghold. On July 4, 1923, Kokomo hosted the largest Klan gathering in history -- an estimated 200,000 followers flocked to a local park. But these are not the 1920s, and Ewing believes she can persuade anybody to back Obama. Her mother, after all, was the first African American elected at-large to the school board in a community that is 10 percent black.
Kokomo, population 46,000, is another hard-hit Midwestern industrial town stung by layoffs. Longtimers wistfully remember the glory years of Continental Steel and speak mournfully about the jobs shipped overseas. Kokomo Sanitary Pottery, which made bathroom sinks and toilets, shut down a couple of months ago and took with it 150 jobs.
Aaron Roe, 23, was mowing lawns at a local cemetery recently, lamenting his $8-an-hour job with no benefits. He had earned a community college degree as an industrial electrician, but learned there was no electrical work to be found for someone with his experience, which is to say none. Politics wasn't on his mind; frustration was. If he were to vote, it would not be for Obama, he said. "I just got a funny feeling about him," Roe said, a feeling he couldn't specify, except to say race wasn't a part of it. "Race ain't nothing," said Roe, who is white. "It's how they're going to help the country."
The Aaron Roes are exactly who Dondra Ewing was after: people with funny feelings.
At the Bradford Run Apartments, she found Robert Cox, a retiree who spent 30 years working for an electronics manufacturer making computer chips. He was in his suspenders, grilling shish kebab, which he had never eaten. "Something new," Cox said, recommended by his son who was visiting from Colorado.
Ewing was selling him hard on Obama. "There are more than two families that can run the United States of America," she said, "and their names aren't Bush and Clinton."
"Yeah, I know, I know," Cox said, remaining noncommittal.
He opened the grill and peeked at the kebabs. "It's not his race, because I got real good friends and all that," Cox continued. "If anything would keep him from getting elected, it would be his name. It might turn off some older people."
Like him?
"No, older than me," said Cox, 66.
Ewing kept talking, until finally Cox said, "Probably Obama," when asked directly how he would vote.
As she walked away, Ewing said: "I think we got him."
But truthfully, she wasn't feeling so sure.
By Kevin Merida
© 2008 The Washington Post Company
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 1105 CommentsThe biggest problem that Barack has is his lack of experience and his relations to people who are clearly extremists. The fact that his chances of becoming president are very small does not imply that we are racists for not voting for him. We just don%u2019t like him because he is not qualified. People generally believe that both Hillary and McCain are qualified but Barack got a free pass until we found out more about him. Now his supporters are distorting reality to cover up the facts. STOP PHONY RACISM.
The same type of racist/sexist attitude is being encountered by the Clinton volunteers.
During their canvassing and phone calls they are told things like....
I am not voting for that F....White B...
I am not voting for any White B.....
Sadly there are people with close minds everywhere.
You''ll are talking about Gov. Rendell right? You got that right! Soooo Sad!
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Posted by taddles at 11:42 AM : May 14, 2008
Ummm, actually, no he hasn''t. Maybe you can count his four years as a community organizer, but I doubt that, as the big project he worked on for asbestos removal was actually completed by the efforts of others.
As a civil rights attorney, in four years, he had 30 civil rights cases, period. Other than that he was working for slum development companies.
He was raised in wealth in Hawaii and went to elitest private schools.
Please show me exactly WHAT he has done for others?
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Posted by BeStillandno at 01:23 PM : May 14, 2008
I''m sure he''ll try, but it''s kind of a no go.
Posted by RowdyTexan2 at 01:14 PM : May 14, 2008
Excellent point, but rest assured, taddles will be able to expain it away.
Hillary is ahead by 29,471 votes if Michigan is included.
These margins are really, really small. There are millions more people still to vote. There is absolutely no reason Hillary should leave the race before the voting is complete and/or someone has reached the required number of delegates.
Posted by taddles at 11:29 AM : May 14, 2008
Well, there''s the FACT that he has William Said, and Debbie Seleeschle (sp?) both from Farrakhan''s Nation of Islam on his campaign team rather tends to make your statement bull *****!
1. His WHITE MOTHER taught Obama he could be anything he wants %u2013 how dare they do that to him %u2013 that was abuse
2. How dare his WHITE MOTHER love a black man and have a child with him at a time when the rest of white America hated blacks %u2013 how dare they do that to our UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
3. How dare his WHITE grandparents love him and teach him good values. What type of WHITE grandparents would do such a thing?
4. Why would his WHITE MOTHER allow this mixed child to even think he could one day be a lawyer or a doctor or a President? They should have raised him to be a thug, a criminal, a drug addict not a good person %u2013 Dayum them.
5. His WHITE MOTHER worked on her doctorate degree instead of staying on welfare,. Who do she think she is to make a better life for her son, dayum this WHITE WOMEN.
6. His WHITE MOTHER gave him a life experience by traveling the world, What is wrong with WHITE WOMEN?
7. His WHITE MOTHER left him at an early at dying from cancer, and he promised her he would make her proud. Why would a man love his mom that much?
8. His WHITE grandparents taught him values, loved him, yes he made some mistake but their values held out. Why would two WHITE grandparents love a black child so much %u2013 how dare them love a black child%u2026...who the hell, do they think they are?
I say we ban all WHITE WOMEN from raising black males to be anything, its wrong,
Wright yes, Farakhan no. Get your facts straight. The problem with having a debate with people like you is that you don''''t bother using facts, you just use innuendo and falsehoods.
Feel free to show me anything anywhere where Obama has said he supports Farakhan. And before you post it, the half page article in the TUCC church newsletter was not his words.
Posted by taddles at 11:29 AM : May 14, 2008
My, my, my aren''t we testy?? LOL
I think my POINT, as you so typically have missed, is more along the lines of Obama is taking a beating for some pretty obvious reasons and if Romney was the republican candidate, he would be taking a beating, BY YOU, because he is a mormon. Even though he is not FLDS, he would be "guilty by association" so to speak, by the democrats and people like you, taddles. So...in case you''re wondering, you and I, dear, are not having a debate. I stated things as I see them, and you would be having a field day with Romney, if he were the nominee right now, just like repubs are having a go at Obama right now. And another thing, Why do "people like you"...your words not mine, act as if you have no idea why people would find Obama''s ties to Wright through his chrurch and ties to Farrakhan through Wright the least bit suspicious? Like I said, right or wrong, if the shoe was on the other foot, you would do it. Even if it is wrong for people to tie Obama with these people, don''t be dumb enough to act like you don''t get it.
Posted by BagdadsHere at 08:57 PM : May 13, 2008"
Bush''s approval rating on the war is below 20%, no one wants us in Iraq anymore except fools like you. Bush was not authorized to go to war, he was authorized to enforce the UN sanctions and to complete the UN inspections which he did not do. Your claim that Obama is a terrorist supporter is ludicrous and juvenile.
Obama (and Hillary) wants to end the war and get our troops home alive, something that McCain is not as concerned with. Your statement that he is using the war to his own ends is simply untrue.
He is more an American citizen than you are having been born in the US to an American mother and having worked his whole life to make the US citizens lives better. What have you ever done to justify your "citizenship"? Have you ever served your country in any way, have you ever helped your fellow Americans. Obama has helped people his whole life, what have you ever done?
Love your country, Vote against "O" cult!!!
Posted by metroduck75 at 10:03 PM : May 13, 2008"
Your stripes are showing. ;o)
Posted by tracymorgan0 at 10:47 PM : May 13, 2008"
Yea, that''s why the majority of the 15 million people who voted for him in the primaries and caucuses were white. They must not know they were supposed to "detest" him. You''re an idiot bigot, nothing more.
Posted by BeStillandno at 11:00 AM : May 14, 2008"
Wright yes, Farakhan no. Get your facts straight. The problem with having a debate with people like you is that you don''t bother using facts, you just use innuendo and falsehoods.
Feel free to show me anything anywhere where Obama has said he supports Farakhan. And before you post it, the half page article in the TUCC church newsletter was not his words.
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