Race!

As I predicted, as Barak Obama becomes more and more a credible presidential candidate, Race will enter the national discussion on a more substantive level than it has in the last forty years.

Geraldine Ferraro's comments are classic. For a white person to say that an African American who is making professional progress to dismiss that progress "because he's black," is the typical response that many African Americans expect from white America. It is impossible to isolate the modern African American from generations of second-class status. Taking color out of the equation for a second, everyone I know knows someone who enjoys a position of privilege and comfort because his or her parents gave them money or connections, or were able to position them in a good school. Those are things that are not common in the African American community. The reason for that is the black diaspora that began with the Civil War and continued through the nineteen sixties. Then factor in the overt and covert, conscious and subconscious racial hatred in American society that still exists today, and I think it's much fairer to say that Barak Obama is where he is in spite of his racial background.

Becoming a Harvard grad, a senator, and now a credible candidate for the United States, are all achievements than a tiny, tiny fraction of the entire population of the world ever achieve. And to have Geraldine Ferraro dismiss these achievements with "because he's black," betrays a deeply ingrained sentiment that she herself is incapable of recognizing.

But then, to add insult to injury, when she's called on the racism of her statement, she has the gall to claim victim status, saying that she's the object of racist comments! Again, this is just another layer of what the African American community has come to expect from the white community the second it's threatened by a black man's success.

And finally, the perception that all of white America are secret (or not so secret) racists is confirmed not only by media outlets like Fox News, but even by more liberal sources where white pundits try to discuss the issue, either by trying to diminish the entirety of African American history by pretending it doesn't exist, or suggesting that every time someone tries to put Obama's candidacy into a broader historical perspective they are sensationalistic or whining.

The fact is that white America does owe a debt to African American America, one that has never been and probably never can be calculated, and the biggest disappointment of the current discussion on race fails to recognize that simple fact.