Obama’s White Voter Problem

Here’s my analysis of Barack Obama’s purported problem with white voters: There isn’t one.

Barack Obama is in contention to become the leader of our free world because he has garnered the financial support of white people.  He has amassed more financial support than John McCain and Hillary Clinton.  Certainly white people live in Wisconsin, Iowa, Vermont, Colorado, and Illinois all states he has won in his efforts to secure the Democratic nomination.  And, wouldn’t Obama have to had to capture white support in every state that’s had a primary in order to be this far in the game?  This narrative of his “white voter problem” came from the Clinton camp via their surrogate Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell.

 Prior to the primary in his state, Rendell famously said “I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate.”  This statement gave voters’ permission to select their candidate for president based primarily on their racist beliefs.  And, I would assert that this is the real media story.  How is it that we live in the age of supposed diversity and information yet we have a segment of our population that makes life or death decisions based NOT on a candidate’s qualifications, experience, or trustworthiness but on their race? 

Rendell’s statements and Hillary Clinton’s subsequent comments embolden these individuals to step to the fore and feel justified in their selection.  These people say a variety of things in code to rationalize their choice.  They employ language like:  Obama is Muslim, lacks experience, and can’t recite the Pledge of Allegiance or Star Spangled Banner, or (my personal favorite) Obama’s not American. 

Post the Pennsylvania primary and heading into the West Virginia primary Hillary Clinton made the now infamous statement, “I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on.”  Clinton went so far to cite an Associated Press article “that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.  There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said.

So now the popular narrative is Obama’s white problem.

Critical thinkers and readers should note that no such problem exists.  Obama’s problem lies with an issue America has yet to address since the end of the Civil War.  The post-Civil War south or Reconstruction south was an environment fueled with uncertainty and suspicion.  Newly freed enslaved people were now legally able to lead a life without restriction.  The societal structure white people, working class and wealthy landowners, once understood no longer existed.    In efforts to reclaim their coveted lifestyles and positions of authority wealthy white landowners played a sick joke on working class and poor whites; they drew a big, fat race line in the sand.  This line enabled those disenfranchised, poor and working class whites to become a part of “white society” these individuals were now able to assume privilege.  Yet their privilege was one based on the arbitrary but exclusive classification of whiteness not wealth or even education.  Arguments have been made that the poor and working class whites would have benefited more by aligning their social and economic interests with those of African-Americans.  By remaining two seemingly disparate groups of people with similar issues, the wealthy, landowning whites were able to remain firmly in charge of the social, legal, and economic structure of our society. 

Poverty knows no racial boundaries.  And, in my estimation stands to be the largest threat to the social fabric of America.  The Obama hating Appalachians would do themselves a favor and unite with the impoverished blacks of the inner-city.  While their geography is different their micro economies are quite similar.  Race stands in the way.  People should remember that Dr. Martin Luther King was not assassinated gaining voting rights for African-Americans and dismantling Jim Crow rather he was murdered when he decided that poverty-the colorless poverty permeating our society-was the biggest injustice in our society.

For more analysis on this issue click here.