Groovelady, Salon.com
Instead of beginning with analysis, let's begin with some sad facts; When
Kentucky Representative Ben Chandler endorsed Barack Obama, over 500 phone
calls flooded his office, the vast majority of them using the word
"nigger."
Chandler's
aides (who were white) went home shaken, crying, in utter disbelief. They
didn't think racism still existed.
Now. Sugarcoat it all you want. Call it "Appalachian culture" call
it whatever you want, but make no mistake about it, it is racism.
I'm from Kentucky, and I'm black, and can
tell you that perhaps it was "culture" when I went to a semi-nerdy
mock-government camp in Frankfort,
KY, assigned to a hotel room with
4 white girls, and it was assumed we'd all split beds. There were 2 queen size
beds. ALL four of them chose to sleep in one bed, rather than to sleep in the
bed in which I slept. Perhaps that was just their "culture?"
And that instance was just something off the top of my head ...
Why are we skirting around this issue? Why are we coming up with excuses? It
seems as though people are more afraid of being called racist than they are
afraid of actually being racist.
Obviously not every Appalachian white person who votes for Clinton is racist, but enough (21 percent)
admitted that race mattered to them in their selection of a candidate to bode
poorly for the non-white candidate -- no matter the bona fides.
When that is the case, how can you tell Obama that it's his problem -- as an
earlier poster noted, no matter what he does, the goalposts change -- he's
smart and successful translates into "uppity;" he's the underdog
translates into "he's incompetent." They will not be happy until he
does the cakewalk for them and grins like Jolson.
Thus Hillary's use of code phrases -- designed to be direct and easily
understood by those with animosity towards blacks, resentful of blacks,
distrustful of blacks -- those who are ... let's face it -- racists.
Dee Davis says Obama should have visited rural voters more. Why? So that he
can change the mind of the Marietta,
GA man who portrayed Obama as Curious George? So he can expose his two
daughters to possible death threats, so they can witness the panoply of black
lawn jockeys? I wish I were merely some Hollywood elite,"deriding" these
people; no, I'm just someone who grew up around them, and I knew years ago what
those Chandler
aides just found out this month: racism is alive and well in "the
hills."
-- groovelady