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It Ain’t the Color of the Skin, It’s the Thickness
By Larry JohnsoncloseAuthor: Larry Johnson Name: Larry Johnson
Email: larry_johnson@earthlink.net
Barack Obama’s supporters, fearing a blowout in Pennsylvania, are already “preparing the battlefield” for the spin war to come tonight. As Susan noted so brilliantly yesterday, the root of the racism that permeates Barack’s campaign resides in fear. A Hillary victory in Pennsylvania today will stoke their fears. They will attribute Barack’s poor showing to racism. You know, “white Americans don’t want to vote for a black man.”
What Barry Obama and his acolytes don’t understand is that today most Americans don’t give a damn about how much melanin you have. The days of Jim Crow are gone. The days of putting people with dark skin at the back of the bus are gone. It is not the norm. It was in the sixties, but the courage of Martin Luther King and other black leaders coupled with the action of white leaders, such as Lyndon Johnson and the Civil Rights Act, helped us start turning a corner on race relations.
Those of us who are over fifty can remember a time when it was unusual to have a black man or woman serve in public office. Blacks weren’t mayors, governors, or senators. But no longer. We don’t just celebrate black entertainers and black athletes. Dr. King’s dream is becoming fact. But Barack and his campaign have tried, with some success, to play the victim card.
He did this the other day when he performed his Jay-Z mime.
He and his campaign did it in January when they pushed the message that Bill and Hillary Clinton were racists. As reported by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post:
Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has prepared a detailed memo listing various instances in which it perceived Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign to have deliberately played the race card in the Democratic primary.
The memo, which was obtained by the Huffington Post and has been made public elsewhere, is believed to have been given to an activist and contains mostly excerpts from different media reports. It lists the contact info and name of Obama’s South Carolina press secretary, Amaya Smith, and is broken down into five incidents in which either Clinton, her husband Bill, or campaign surrogates made comments that could be interpreted as racially insensitive.
The document provides an indication that, in private, the Obama campaign is seeking to capitalize on the view - and push the narrative - that the Clintons are using race-related issues for political leverage. In public, the Obama campaign has denied that they are trying to propagate such a perception, noting that the document never was sent to the press.
Bill Clinton, whatever his personal faults, has been a leader in trying to erase the remnants of racism from American society. And now, because he has the audacity to fight for his wife’s nomination as President he is vilified by many of Barack’s followers as a Jim Crow, KKK, noose-toting racist. Well, most white folks see thru this nonsense. We are sick of the race card. We don’t want to go back to separate but equal. We just want equal.
Unfortunately, Barack’s campaign pushes the message–sometimes subtlely and sometimes blantantly–that criticism of Barack is racist. If you have dark skin and don’t support Barack you are a self-hating black person. That’s the nonsense that is turning off many American voters.
It is not Barack’s beautiful chocolate skin tone that turns many of us off. It is the realization that he is thin skinned. His reaction to his poor performance at the last debate in Pennsylvania comes off as petulant, whiney, and juvenile. When Hillary confronts her previous tormentors–Richard Mellon Scaife springs to mind–she did not react like the stereotyped bitch the media promotes. Turns out she is gracious, charming, and can laugh at herself. It is these traits–being able to smile and remain calm when you are in the midst of a crisis–that Americans want in their President.
So Barack, you can stick the race card where the sun doesn’t shine. Toughen up and get some callouses. If our challenges to your candidacy chafes your ass, then you are certainly not ready for the bloodsport that is general election. Hopefully the good people of Pennsylvania send a clear message today that you need more seasoning, more grace, and more patience. It has nothing to do with the color of your skin. It has everything to do with you being too thin skinned.
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