Preoccupied By Race
I've been reading an article asking Is Obama the end of black politics? This excerpt jumped out at me:
I asked [Michael] Nutter [the black mayor of Philadelphia] if, during his private conversations with Obama early in the campaign, the subject of race and the historic nature of his candidacy came up. He stared at me for a moment. "Um, I knew he was black," he said finally. "I'd really kind of picked up on that."
Later, when I mentioned that it could be hard for a white journalist to understand all of the nuances of race, he looked over at his press secretary, who is black, and interrupted me. "He's not black?" Nutter deadpanned, motioning back at me. "You guys told me it was a skin condition. I thought I was talking to a brother." Nutter is known to have a dry sense of humor, but I also had the sense that he was tweaking me in these moments, watching with some amusement as I tried to navigate subjects that white and black Americans rarely discuss together. He seemed to think I was oddly preoccupied with race.
In fact, Nutter seemed puzzled by the very notion that he should be expected to support a candidate just because they both had dark skin.
Indeed, Matt Bai does seem oddly preoccupied by race. Most of the media seems to be. Most of the older generation of black leaders seem to be. Unfortunately, Obama himself seems to be oddly preoccupied by race. (At the very least, his supporters are.)
Isn't that sad? 40 years after Dr. King, many people still can't seem to see beyond skin color.
This entry was tagged. Barack Obama