Full details can be found here: Yahoo/AP Poll (Full poll results are available as a PDF on the right of the page). Here's a brief summary:
To be honest, I am not sure if there is a correlation between what White people think of Blacks in general, and whether that is going to negatively affect Obama. The reason I am hesitant to take this leap is because Obama has very carefully constructed an image of himself that resists identification with any of the negative adjectives used in the poll above. For example, not many informed White voters would agree that Obama, once a professor at Univ. of Chicago, is "lazy," un-intelligent at school, "violent" or not "smart at everyday things." Many, however, would probably call him "determined," "smart," and "hard working." It's also hard to call Obama "complaining," since he has been tooting the horn of the American Dream since day 1.Comments? Rebuttals?
1 comment:
To be honest, the idea that some White Americans (Democrat and Republican) will refuse to vote for Obama because he’s Black doesn’t really surprise me. Nor am I surprised that racial stereotypes have been foisted on him—that he’s somehow lazy, angry, or, better yet, some kind of radical Muslim planning to take over the world for Black people. What I do find absolutely astonishing, however, is how often Obama has been criticized as ‘elitist’.
For centuries some American intellectuals and scientists have sought proof for the assumption that the African mind was inferior, that Blacks feel but don’t think. The science, however, never matched the myth. Now, as if to shatter prejudicial notions of Black intellectual inferiority, a Black, Harvard-trained legal scholar and Senator finds himself knocking on the White House door. And, I think it’s safe to say, that when compared to the war-hero, Obama’s smarts play to his advantage.
So, how do the media and Americans deal with this cognitive dissonance—you know, the Black man that’s smarter than the white man against whom he is competing? One way has been to call him elitist.
Now, indeed, I’m aware that Obama made a comment which led to this characterization. He said that working-class Americans, struggling from check-to-check, often cling to their guns and to their bibles to persevere through tough times. As a product of the American underclass, however, I cannot disagree with Obama: I cling to my Styles-P “Gangsta and a Gentleman” LP and a Moshberg my father-in-law gave me when my daughter was born.
Still, people have a right to be offended, I guess. No one wants to have a leading political figure describe an aspect of her/his identity, like religion or gun ownership, as some middling-class’ coping mechanism. The only reason I’m cool with it is because, after umpteen years of higher education, I accept that my consciousness and identity are connected to my position vis-à-vis the economy. But had he said that nine years ago, when I dropped out of high school, I’d’ve tol’im to kiss mah ass.
I wouldn’t have called him elitist, though. In fact, I would’ve wanted to know how he confronted working class people in the first place, seeing how he’s a Harvard scholar and all. I mean, you’ve got to be thinking about ‘ordinary people’ to really try to understand why churches and shooting ranges are so attractive…
But, then again, this is America, and we Americans have a long history of determining what is and is not an appropriate role for Blacks. These limits make Obama a problem, a controversy—indeed, an elitist. On the one hand, as Danzy Senna might say, he’s a ‘Tommato’, Harvard’s (and America’s) shining ‘symbol of diversity’. On the other hand, he’s just another ‘uppity’ Negro who has ‘forgotten his place’. (He’s running for president for Christ’s sake!) Surprise, surprise.
Post a Comment