It is not obvious. Why is it an indispensable precondition? Which problems are you talking about, and how is government the only answer to solving them?
This is in direct conflict with your OP. If Louis Farrakhan was running for president, should black voters have an interest in voting for him because he is black, as opposed to say Hillary Clinton? Do you think that blacks that vote for him solely because he is black, have legitimate, non racists reasons for doing so?
I think the OP’s premise is flawed. Is it really believable to anybody that anyone votes based on one criterion only?
Race is quite possibly (and likely) a salient factor in people’s decision making regarding their vote. But it’s not just that Obama is a Black guy, it’s that he married a Black woman with a working-class family, goes to a church similar to that which many Black Americans attend (Rev. Wright stuff notwithstanding)… there is a cultural link that some - likely many - find appealing.
Conversely, Clinton, having roots in small-town Pennsylvania, being Methodist (is that right? I think it is), and being part of a large extended family that has roots in the industrial midwest, speaks to a cultural link.
I think most voters aren’t voting on just one issue, or characteristic. One may be very important, but if Obama had genuinely bad ideas I don’t think he would have the support that he has. And it would be interesting if the pollsters actually asked more Black voters about their reasons for voting for Obama. I was at my barbershop a few weeks ago, and in a room of about 20 Black men, the room was fairly split (more Obama supporters, but maybe a handful more). People talked about him being a new presence on the scene, how he would handle foreign policy, etc. Similarly, the Clinton support was based on her experience, being close and advised by Bill Clinton, her toughness. Nobody said “He’s the Black guy!”
It’s only obvious to you because you’re adjusting your definition of racism to support your argument.
If a white person votes for McCain because he’s white, that’s racist.
If a black person votes for Obama because he’s black, that’s racist.
They’re the same thing: Voting for someone based on the color of their skin is racist.
BrainGlutton is arguing that in some cases they are not the same thing. He is arguing that simply saying it was “because he’s [insert color here]” can be to underdescribe the situation.
In some cases, one might vote for X because X is black and one believes white people are better than non-black people. That’s racist. In other cases, one might vote for X because X is black and one knows from experience that white politicians generally show no concern for the plight of lower class neighborhoods.* That’s not racist.
-FrL-
*I’m not saying this is true, I’m just writing up an illustration of the way in which simply putting it in terms of “because he’s black” can underdescribe the motivation and so fail to establish racism.
Sure it is. If all you know about the guy is that he’s Black, then how the hell do you know he is going to care for “the plight of lower class neighborhoods”? If you know for a fact that he will (and you think that is important), then you’re not voting for him because he’s Black, you’re voting for him for his political position.
It’s pretty much impossible to vote for someone “solely because he is black.” Such a vote would hardly count as a coherent action. Rather, a politician’s being black enters into one’s decision to vote for him, it’s going to be because of the politician’s being black and because of a lot of factors that make his blackness relevant to you in your deliberation. What those factors are is going to be what determines whether you are being racist or not. BrainGlutton is arguing that there is a certain set of factors that can be relevant to a decision to vote for a black politician that don’t make that decision racist–but which, were they made relevant to a decision to vote for a white politician, would make that decision racist.
-FrL-
If one only knows the following three things:
- This guy is black.
- The only other candidate is white.
- Generally, white politicians show no concern for the plight of lower class neighborhoods (and it is not the case that black politicians generally show no such concern),
And if one is oneself concerned mostly for the plight of lower class neighborhoods, then one is going to vote for the black person–because he is black. Not only because he is black, but still, because he is black. BrainGlutton’s OP does not say Black people have a reason to vote for a person only because he is black. He is saying they have a reason to vote for a person because he is black, as well as for other reasons which make that blackness relevant. And he is saying that the reasons he is talking about are such as to render the decision to vote for the man “because he is black” non-racist.
-FrL-
Ouch. That was pretty darn mean don’t you think?
Marc
I didn’t think you were either misunderstanding or playing on the ambiguity. I just thought you were pointing it out. In response, I was saying the ambiguity is there technically, but it’s not one any decent reader would be confused by. You weren’t confused by it–you understood exactly what was meant.
-FrL-
ETA: Probably my use of the phrase “play on” was not ideal. What I meant was, if any reader either fails to understand, or understands but uncharitably insists on interpreting the ambiguity in the worse light, then we shouldn’t really pay much attention to their reading.
If you are preferring a candidate of your own race because of his/her race, then that by definition is racist. All politically correct doublespeak aside.
BTW, I think that Obama is the best candidate in the field of any race and that there are plenty of legitimate reasons to support him.
It’s really not that complicated.
Fact 1. There has never been a black president before.
Fact 2. 100% of the presidents present and prior have been white.
Fact 3. Because of a history at being at the bottom of society, blacks have an emotional reason for wanting to see “themselves” at the top of empire, just this one goddamn time.
Fact 4. Whites don’t have this reason because they have been at the top of society since the beginning of the frackin’ beginning.
Blacks being biased towards the black guy is not racist if that desire has more to do with seeing a black person elevated to the top than it does with with keeping others down. Most black voters who are under the influence of race in this election are not acting out of prejudice against whites, and its disingenous to portray them as if they are by branding them racist. All things being equal, a black president will do something positive for black people if all that something is is prove that its possible to realize the most ambitious of dreams, race be damned.
What stigmas are whites trying to overcome? What lack of power do whites have? How are whites underrepresented in national politics? Answer me this, and maybe I’ll accept that white racial bias in this election is no different than black racial bias.
you with the face I think that BrainGlutton’s OP is evidence of the Politically Correct debasement of language. Arguing that blacks making a prejudicial decision based on racial criteria isn’t racism is simply an abuse of language. On the other hand, arguing that black racism is historically justified in this situation, is tenable.
How does one know #3?
Let’s try this out:
- One guy is Black
- The other guy is White
- Blacks are more likely to be criminals than Whites.
Therefore, I’m not being racist if I watch the Black guy in my store more closely than I do the White guy.
See, here’s the thing-- You are making a judgement about an individual based on what you think you know about the group he belongs to. And you don’t even know if that’s the relevant group to ascribe him to. Maybe it’s more important to know if the pol grew up poor or middle class or wealthy.
Great reasons to vote along racial lines if you’re black.
You have a mouse in your pocket?
Perhaps we should make such a decision for ourselves.
You need to demonstrate how prejudice at is work before you insist that it is.
And you can call it racism all you want, but that’s nothing but silly semantics. You need to show that white motivations for keeping the status quo is just as justified as black motivations to change it, even if that change is small.
Umm the premise of the OP is that prejudice was at work.
If you are voting for someone based on race, it’s racism, pure and simple. That’s the definition of the word.
As for your strawman about showing something about white motivations, well, I won’t address it because I never argued anything like it.
I tried to edit this into my last post but ran out of time.
I don’t necessarily agree that OP’s reasons are 100% justifiable as he worded it. But then again, I don’t think blacks are under the impression that Obama will make everything bad disappear or revolutionize policy so that it caters to blacks. I think the reasons are more emotional than that (i.e. they want to see a black CiC because they’ve never seen one before except on TV). And I don’t think you can villanize that desire the same way you can villanize the desire to keep Obama out of the White House because of a “only whites are supposed to be president” mentality.
No, it isn’t. At least not any definition I’ve run across.