The Presidential “Race”

For those who truly believe that Americans have moved “beyond race” Senator Obama’s pastor’s comments will come as a shock. But for the rest of us who live and breathe and survive in a society that clearly still harbors hate and discrimination (see, for contemporary example, the discourse on “illegal” immigrants in this “immigrant nation” built on the displacement and conquest of Indigenous peoples – was that legal?) the controversy is a painful yet also a welcome opening into multiple realities of oppression and struggles for justice.

If history is any guide or if history is predictive of future actions, Senator Obama will suffer the fate of all those who take on White supremacy in this country in ways that unsettle the status quo. So, let’s take a minute to consider the tragedy of these politics.

The “race” here is not just for President, but for what it means to race against history as a person of color, to race against the historical misunderstandings of what Sunday means to Black people of Christian faith, the role of nation building within the Black Church, the building of community and an education that sustains a future generation.

The divide made apparent between what life is like as a Black person and what life is like as a White person in this country today brings out the ugly truth of structural inequalities along racial and ethnic lines. And listen to the class rhetoric put forward by the mainstream and conservative media based on their so-called polls; White working class men will not vote for someone whose pastor says out loud that this country is run by rich White people because that is unpatriotic. Really?

The media focus on what Senator Obama's pastor said provides the fodder for divide and conquer politics. The tragic spectacle of racism is all too familiar to people of color. The pastor's words just brought it out into the open for all to see it on a national level within a national race.

But what do most people agree on? That the American war in Iraq is wrong. What do Senators Obama and Clinton agree on? That this war must end. So, let's keep our eyes on the prize here. There is still racism and classism and sexism in America. Don't kill the messengers.