I recently heard a white radio host who appears to be leaning towards supporting Barack Obama that many of his white friends and associates are also openly and enthusiastically supporting Obama.
He went on to say that he believes that many white people in America are supporting Obama out of some sense of white guilt. He pointed to predominantly white neighborhoods where he lives that are lined with “Obama for President” signs and bumper stickers on minivans and SUV’s parked in the driveways.
When he asks his friends why they are supporting Obama, many of them can only respond with “it’s time for a change…” or “I like his message about hope…he’s so inspiring” and so on. Precious few of them can point to specific policy issues or plans that they like about Obama. They seem to indicate their affection for him on the basis of his inspiring message. The radio host openly wonders if it is really because of some sense of white guilt. They can quickly point to their Obama signs and say “see I’m not a racist!”
Being black myself I won’t pretend to understand or know what “white guilt” can feel like so I won’t phony myself up and say “I understand…” when I don’t. I can only imagine that it can’t feel good to believe that you have to vote for a black candidate just to prove that you are not racist. I feel that if anyone is voting for Obama from a sense of white guilt that they are supporting him for the wrong reasons.
We should all continue the evaluation and vetting process of the candidates that we are considering and not vote for anyone simply because of their color. I am still considering who I will ultimately pull the lever for in November.
Even though it is immensely tempting for a lot of reasons to blindly vote for a black man (those reasons I do understand) I still have the responsiblity as an American to vote for the best candidate regardless of race. Barack Obama still has to earn my vote. I think that is how he would want it also. Blindly voting for anyone out of some sense of emotion, race or white guilt can in my opinion lead to disastrous consequences.
Make Obama work for it and if he earns your vote on the merits of his plans to improve our way of life then by all means, cast your vote for him. I may vote for him but if I do I will be able to articulate specific reasons why I support him and none of them will be “I just had to vote for another Brother…” That sort of decison making process would be reckless.
Obama still has some work to do to help me understand how he could sit under Jeremiah Wright’s teachings for as long as he did. I’m somewhat conflicted here. I’ve been to Trinity UCC two or three times years ago but didn’t join because it seemed like the message focused on political topics and I was hungry for hearing the Word of God. I didn’t hear any fiery invective as we’ve all heard on the news lately but I just didn’t feel compelled to keep going. I got the sense that Rev. Wright was more interested in preaching about then President Clinton than the Bible.
Not being a supporter of President Clinton that should have been ok with me but I just didn’t get enough Bible teaching so I didn’t return.
Here is where the conflict comes in: many churches black and white sometimes deliver what could be deemed to be political sermons or say something that is “anti-government”. Notice I said “anti-government” and not “anti-American”. There is a huge difference. In my experience many preachers do occassionally say something that is “anti-government”. If this is the case does that automatically disqualify anyone who belonged to a church that delivered “anti-government” sermons? Didn’t our founding fathers attend “anti-British” sermons or even deliver some “anti-British” sermons of their own.
Constructive criticism of one’s government can be a good thing. When done correctly it can get our elected officials to take notice that ‘We the People’ are not happy with their job performance.
So, attendance at Jeremiah Wright’s church doesn’t automatically disqualify Obama in my opinion but I would like to get a better sense from him about the frequency of Wright’s most inflammatory messages and what level of “buy-in” he may have.
The Wright Episode did however set the stage for Obama to deliver the most brilliant speech on race since MLK. When you separate the speech from the political arena, I think history will view it as profound and groundbreaking. Our nation still needs much healing on race and blacks and whites, all Americans have a responsibility to make it better for the next generation of Americans.
And this is why I hope white Americans don’t vote for Obama simply out of some latent sense of white guilt. You don’t owe us anything. We’re all square. Don’t offer me some reciprocity for slavery or anything wierd like that. Black Americans live in the greatest country on Earth and I for one am grateful to be an American. If you vote for Obama, please think long and hard about why you vote for him. If you believe in his message and the merits of his platform by all means, pull the Obama lever in November. Don’t vote for him to repay a debt or because you believe you may have discriminated against someone in the past.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”
No one is perfect bro. Forgive yourself and vote for the best candidate on the ticket.
God Bless America and God Bless Americans in 2008!
