I’ve been seeing this idea floating around a lot lately. That somehow it’s a miracle that Obama is doing so well in places like Iowa and New Hampshire where the majority of people are white. The unspoken implication is that these places must be unusually hostile towards black people and if Obama is accepted there, he’ll make it anywhere.
I have to burst any balloons but Iowa and New Hampshire are not going to be the proving grounds for American racism. The fact that these states are overwhelmingly white means that there’s actually very little racism in them. White children do not just wake up one morning and decide to hate black people; prejudice is something they learn from the people who surround them. And if there’s no black people around nobody bothers hating them. Racism in America is strongest in cities and the rural south where white people and black people live together.
So the question isn’t going to be whether Obama can overcome racism in Iowa and New Hampshire. The question will be whether he can overcome racism in South Carolina and Michigan and Florida.
I suppose this post is actually more Great Debates than BBQ Pit. But I also realize that having raised the issue of which parts of the country are more racist than others, it’s probably a foregone conclusion where it’ll end up.
I disagree with your disagreement. The implication is that if the White people there can vote for a Black man, then White people across the nation can.
You’re saying that if a Black family moved into an overwhelmingly White town, there wouldn’t be problems? How about a Muslim family into an overwhelmingly Jewish town? People don’t have stereotypes that they have picked up from the culture at large? They can only get those stereotypes from living with the people they start to hate? What you are saying is uncomfortably close to that old racist saw “I don’t want to hate group x, but every member of group x I see is Y. They make me hate them.”
How can we disagree with each other, when I agree with you. The implication is that if Obama can win in an overwhelmingly white state, with the white residents having the usual degree of hostility toward blacks that whites have elsewhere (whatever that is), then he can win anywhere.
While I agree that the media’s amazement that Barack can win in lily white states is silly and overblown, I have to tell you that you’re wrong in asserting that racism cannot thrive in racially homogenous places. Racism is alive and well in the upper midwest, I can assure you. I’ve known people in rural North Dakota who have never seen a black person except on TV, yet who think that the “n…s” are the cause of all their problems. There is a lot of white supremacist crossover with the gun and militia cultures up here. Christian Identity and Posse Comitatus bullshit is all over the place. Go to a gun show and you’ll see people selling Hitler T-shirts and copies of the Turner diaries and no one thinks anything of it. This is all in rural areas where black folks and Jews are about as common as albino hippos.
I’ll grant you there’s a vocal minority of white supremists in some rural northern areas. But they’re people who deliberately moved to these areas to avoid black people - that kind of racial phobia is atypical of average white people even in the communities they live in.
Comments I’ve heard seem to assume that rural white people are more hostile towards blacks than average.
I’m speaking from personal experience to a certain degree here. I grew up in a rural area where you could literally go weeks without seeing a black person. People didn’t feel hostile towards black people - we were basically indifferent on the subject. We didn’t harbor any more feelings towards black people than we would towards Egyptians or Brazilians - they just weren’t part of our society.
Later in life, I would more into other more urban areas. I found that white people there were much more racist than the people I grew up with. And I also found that many of these people assumed, that having grown up in a virtually all-white area, I must subscribe to the same racist beliefs they did if not more so. I find it bizarre to see people who I consider racist based on things I’ve heard them say but who consider themselves to be enlightened compared to me.
I suppose they might start having some kind of prejudice against black people if a black family moved into town. But my point is that most of these towns don’t have any black families living in them. Do you think people in little towns in Maine are staying up nights worrying about the possibility that a Mexican family might move in next door? Or a Korean family? Or an Algerian family? Or a Latvian family? Bigotry usually requires an actual target to latch onto. People aren’t going to worry about a black family that lives three hundred miles away. Prejudice against some minority requires you actually have somebody around you can be prejudiced towards.
No, the unspoken implication is that, all other things being equal, people are more likely to sympathize with/vote for/whatever people who they see as being like themselves. And it’s not like skin color has never played a role in that.
This isn’t about racism per se so much as the tribalism that’s hardwired into our lizardbrains.
Even when that black family is moving into 1600 Penn. Ave.? Voting for Obama is essentially inviting a black family to move to your town for the next 4 years.
You’re going to hear his name, and see his face practically every day. His decisions are going to affect you personally. He is going to become a small part of your life, and you’re going to be stuck with him until the next election.
The fact that folks in overwhelmingly white areas are seemingly willing to make that choice, and vote for him when it counts, is significant.
It should end up in the trash bin. I haven’t been everywhere, but I’ve been to Boston. Lots of racism. And Philly. Lots of racism. And Phoenix. Lots of racism. Minneapolis. Lots of racism. San Fransisco. Maybe not so much. But also not so much in Jackson, Mississippi.
I’m with you. People who think the South of today is more racist than the rest of the country are fooling themselves. The most vile racist comments I hear in the Atlanta area come from northern transplants. Meanwhile, I think most white Southerners are OK with voting for a qualified black candidate. Hell we’ve done it before. Here’s Georgia’s Attorney General. He survived an electoral challenge from a white Republican. Here’s Georgia’s Supreme Court. Two of its black members (including its chief justice) have survived electoral challenges by white candidates.
I already agree with the OP. I was born in Iowa, but I never really encountered widespread racism until I moved to Detroit, where it was accepted “fact” that “the blacks” were ruining everything. Well, them and John Delorean but that’s a different thing altogether.
As a person who once lived in Philadelphia and now lives in a predominately white town in the predominately white state of Indiana - what living here does most is separate race from class. What is really striking out here is that bus drivers, hotel maids, and virtually every one else in those types of low-paying service jobs is white.
Blacks are present, but predominately moved here to work at a university or in other professional capacities. Taking the class aspect away really changes one’s experience with other races.
I think the experts ignore the fact that for the overwhelming majority of Americans - in Iowa, New Hampshire and everywhere else - our neighbors, role models, and best friends are the fictional ones we see on TV. The younger generation has grown up with every one of their sit-com families having at least one black friend. Their favorite hospitals have black surgeons and lots of them. Their favorite law firms, police districts, and chatty girlfriends are black. TV has homogenized our culture to a huge extent, thus the racial make-up of the place anyone lives is not that important any more.
Keep in mind that this is only Democrats, and generally the more politically active ones at that, which probably means it’s skewed toward the liberal side.
And as much as I hate to dwell on the race issue, I think it is a notable milestone that a Black man has, for the very first time, a real shot at not only the Democratic nomination, but at winning the presidency. Oh Happy Day…!
While I think it’s quite possible that racism could be prevalent in Iowa despite lack of diversity, the fact is that it isn’t. Iowa is relatively progressive for a rural state. We’re a “blue” state. We’re more like Wisconsin and Minnesota and not very much like Mississippi or Kentucky.
That said, I still contend that people who are fierce racists are not very likely to vote Democratic anyway, either in the caucus/primary or the general election.
Liberal and spoke, you both seemed to have failed to read my post. I clearly said that racism is not confined to the south. It’s unfortunately a very common phenomenon in the north as well.
A lot of people hate George Bush. But that doesn’t mean they’re prejudiced against Texans.
As I’ve been saying, bigotry doesn’t just happen. It takes years to dig itself into place. Bigotry is a learned behavior not an instinct. People who were never around black people didn’t grow up learning to be prejudiced against black people.
Iowans may be prejudiced against Obama but they’re more likely to be against him because he’s a Democrat or a politician or a college professor or from Illinois rather than because he’s black. And if he gets elected President, they might hate him and eventually decide “we should never elect another black president because he’ll be just like Obama” and at that point they will have become prejudiced against black people.