It's Because He's Black... Obama 2008

When people see me they see two things a, black, woman. It is an undeniable fact that I am indeed a black woman, black, of African descent, and woman, person of female gender. I am also a registered Democrat and a proud graduate of a women’s college. I say all of this because for some reason people think there is some dilemma I must be facing or some war raging inside of me over which Democratic candidate I support. “It’s clear isn’t it,” I say to all of my friends, “I am supporting the best candidate for me, whose politics and experiences are most closely aligned with mine.” The Clinton campaign says Hillary is the far more qualified candidate but, if I am asked to vote my conscience on Election Day then I must vote for Barack Obama.

Over lunch my good friend, Ana, a white woman, asked me who I was rooting for and I told her that in my case it was okay to assume that I was supporting Obama. I know that some black folks get upset by this but I’m not. Why should I be? Hell, I’m proud of Obama for having the gumption to mount such an ambitious campaign and the tenacity to stay in the fight. Furthermore, Obama, to me, is the embodiment of America and its’ dream. He is of mixed race yet he and the majority of Americans see him as black. (If that ain’t American I don’t know what is!) His father was absent throughout most of his life. He did not grow up rich and privileged but middle class and he had to take out student loans to pay for his education, like me. He was also the first African American elected president of the Harvard Law Review. He isn’t an actor, oil tycoon or owner of a minor league baseball team but a civic minded lawyer and now a Senator and perhaps one day, a President.

Obama is also Martin Luther King’s dream very nearly realized. He has brought together the races toward the greater good of making change in America. People, at least in the media and other public forums, judge him on the content of his character not by the color of his skin yet the fact that he is a black man running for President is not lost on them. His speeches rouse and ignite the listener and make the impossible seem possible. People, hungry for something new, latch on to him. He represents the little guy, the every man fighting against the political machine, fighting for his equal share of the power. He is the face of the disenfranchised, while Hillary is not. If he is elected President the world will celebrate America’s ability to somewhat transcend our racist past and America will be the first major western country to elect a person of color to lead a country.

Barack and I have shared experiences. Issues that I am most concerned with are racism, classism and sexism, in that order, and race has had the most impact on my life. I have often times been the only or one of very few black(s) in social and professional settings and I have found that whenever I achieve some level of success inevitably my race enters into the picture. Once, I received a promotion at a large insurance firm and a white female colleague said that I got it because I was black, never mind that the majority of the other people who were also promoted were white (five out of the eight who were promoted were white). In graduate school I was selected to make a 35mm film with the total financial backing of the school, I was one of five, some of my white classmates began griping that the only reason I was given this honor was that I was black. (The other recipients were two white men, an Asian man, and a white European woman; I guess I took some poor white man’s space.) In both instances it was my race that set me apart from the others and made me a target of scrutiny not my gender much like the way Geraldine Ferraro said the only reason why Obama has gotten so far in this campaign is that he is black man. (The funny thing is that if we fail it’s because we’re black and if we succeed it’s because we’re black… we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.)

Gloria Steinem asserts that if Mr. Obama were a woman with his credentials he wouldn’t have gotten this far and the fact that he is a man has everything to do with his rise to national prominence. She lists his credentials as a person who became “a lawyer after some years as a community organizer… served as a state legislator for eight years, and became an inspirational voice for national unity.” Then she poses the question, “Do you think this is the biography of someone who could be elected to the United States Senate? After less than one term there, do you believe she could be a viable candidate to head the most powerful nation on earth?”

Hillary supporters like Steinem like to simplify and devalue Obama’s experience saying that Hillary has 35 years experience in public policy but this is due in part to her husband’s various political offices where she surely served him as an advisor. She has only served one full term in the Senate and her experience in the White House was as First Lady… FYI not a political office. Furthermore, if Hillary has 35 years of experience in public policy then Hillary is part of an antiquated political machine in Washington, a woman in an old boys club. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure she went through pure hell at times but she is a part of the machine. In fact, she is such a part of the machine that in order to save she and her husbands’ political careers she turned a blind eye to his numerous documented dalliances and transgressions, standing stoically by her man. She is a centrist in a party filled with centrists there is nothing radically new in her rhetoric and the truth of the matter is if she is elected to lead this country not a whole lot of our policies will change and after the initial oohs and ahhs of having a woman president it will be in effect, business as usual. She will prove that we can run a country as good as any man but not… better.

What Geraldine, Gloria and other Clinton supporters resent is Obama giving Hillary a run for her money. Let’s face it none of us thought his campaign would last this long but it has and Hillary and her cronies can’t believe she has to prove herself against, of all things, “a junior Senator from Illinois.” The funny thing is Geraldine in some ways is right. Race is a factor in this political race because the Clinton’s wrongly assumed that Bill’s presidency had bought the black races’ vote for Hillary but they never counted on the little upstart from Illinois. And no amount of saxophone playing on late night TV, visits to African American churches or counseling from high profile black ministers during a marital crisis can make you… black. (Just ask Duane “Dog” Chapman, the bounty hunter, he found out quite publicly that going to jail does not also make you black.)

Now, I am not a fool. My day to day existence as a black woman in America will largely remain the same if either Hillary or Barack are elected. Electing either of them as President will not change the minds of racist cops who negatively profile me and other people of color as criminals when we drive down the street. Nor will it create a fair and balanced judicial system that does not sentence blacks and Hispanics more harshly than their white counterparts. Nor will it ensure that my gay, lesbian and transgendered friends will be given equal rights as heterosexuals to legalize their relationships and in turn have the private sector, such as HMO’s, recognize those partnerships. Our children will not be magically moved from over crowded classrooms in deteriorating buildings with no books and computers to sprawling state of the art campuses of learning. No, none of these great things will happen… not in Barack or Hillary’s four years as President of the United States of America.

But maybe, just maybe, an Obama Presidency will give those racist cops cause to pause before they pull us over. Maybe, just maybe, parents will begin to demand better schools for their children en masse so that their baby can grow up someday and become… president. Maybe, just maybe, I and others of my race will feel inspired to Pledge Allegiance to this country that has left us largely disenfranchised and stand shoulder to shoulder with their white counterparts and say we are proud to be American. But maybe, just maybe, it will inspire us all to believe in America’s dream of equality, freedom and justice for all.