Obama's candidacy shows racial progress, and fault lines

May 10, 2008

No matter who wins the presidential election, one thing is clear: America is still a nation stuck in the miry clay of race.

That's not what some wanted to believe when Sen. Barack Obama launched his historic campaign 15 months ago. He was supposed to transcend race, and expose America's beautiful multicultural facade — not the racially-scarred side we wish didn't exist.

In reality, Obama's candidacy has done both.

His rise to most-likely presumptive Democratic nominee is a testament to America's progress in race relations. But recent controversies, hyped by the media, indicate how much work has yet to be done.

Obama's opponents — with right-wing radio hosts leading the charge — have done everything in their power to fuel stereotypes and scare the American public.

First, Obama wasn't black enough, then he was too black. He was a radical Muslim, then he was a racist Christian. He was an underground revolutionist and high-flying elitist at the same time.

If he had identity issues growing up the son of a white mother and Kenyan father, imagine what he's been feeling as the embattled candidate.

As recently as Thursday, Obama's Democratic opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton, injected race into her campaign when she bluntly announced that white voters were shunning Obama and she would be in a better position to attract them. Her comments were just the latest attempt to paint Obama as "the black candidate" whites would never support.

A few months ago, her husband, former President Bill Clinton — once considered the first black president — tried to marginalize Obama by comparing his South Carolina victory to Jesse Jackson's in 1988. Jackson, of course, didn't win the nomination, and President Clinton's comments implied a similar fate for Obama.

When Obama knocked the wind out of that theory with victories in predominantly white places like Iowa and Vermont, Clinton supporters Gloria Steinem and Geraldine Ferraro credited his success to skin color. It doesn't matter that Obama has proven to be the most inspirational candidate of a generation; that he's a constitutional lawyer with a degree from the most prestigious university in the nation; that he has served his country as both a state and U.S. senator; that he was a community organizer on behalf of the poor. His blackness trumps all.

This is America 145 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and 45 years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. It took us forever to get to the point where a black president is even a possibility, and we still can't get it right. You would think race baiting would be "oh, so passé" by now. But it's still the political tactic of the day.

Of course, Obama's 20-year association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright did little to help the situation. The pastor's incendiary comments, damning America and promulgating AIDS conspiracy theories, have revealed some racial baggage black America needs to address.

In March, Obama tried to open much-needed dialogue between the races, challenging the nation to turn the page.

"We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism," he said, standing in front of a row of American flags at the Constitution Center in Pennsylvania. "But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change."

When all is said and done, that may be Obama's greatest legacy — not that he transcended race, but that he forced us to look a divided America in the face long enough to want something different.

Alva James-Johnson can be reached at ajjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4546.