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chickpea -> RE: Does Obama's win prove we are colorblind? (1/8/2008 9:24:54 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: samboct
You know, I suspect that people are going to say that a person of different ethnicity than Caucasion can't win an election till it happens. Look at Kennedy- before he was elected, people said that a Catholic would never become president. I find Obama to be most similar to Kennedy's political message- I hope he's the 21st century's version of Kennedy, because we sure need one. My fear is that he'd turn into Jimmy Carter- an honest man who failed at the necessities of political compromise.
From my perspective-people don't have any choices about the genes they've been handed- they have much more choice over religion. While there are some deep seated prejudices against darker skinned folks that may be hard wired (humans are afraid of the dark) I hope that our intellect is powerful enough to overcome these irrational fears. There's lots of genetic diversity in darker skinned folks, more so than in Caucasians. Thus, making sweeping generalizations based on race is inaccurate- the amount of melanin in the skin is not a good indicator of anything. Note that to a geneticist- race is largely useless. (OK, Asians have a smaller genetic pool and are more likely to be interrelated than either Caucasians or Africans.) So if not now- when? But yeah, I was surprised at the results of the Iowa caucus. Obama in my perception went from not being electable due to the race card, to being electable- I've sold my fellow citizens short. I think race may be a red herring in this election.
Sam
I think Obama has found the magic way to reach out to everyone. I don't think we're colorblind because of this country's history. But, I think that there are so many opportunities to become whatever you want in this country for people of all races and for women. Perhaps people question a woman or non-white as president, eventhough they have every qualification in the book because the spot has never been held by one. But that's what they felt when women didn't hold positions of power yet 30 years ago, people wonder if it can actually be done because it's never been done. Just like the first man walking on the moon. Who knew that it was safe? Everything in the book said it was safe to walk on the moon, but people were still leary because it's never been done. That's analagous to a black man as president. It's never been done. I think the Iowa caucus shows that it can happen, eventhough its something new that people would be questioning about. In my opinion, there's no better time for a black or woman candidate to be president than now. Race, sex, or whatever, the climate is ripe, and in this day and age of our world becoming such a smaller place, is seems to make sense that this would be possible. I also like that the candidates don't bring up whiney things like race or sex, but see and look towards what's best for the United States, the country that made it possible for them to run for President.
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