| A general observation I have is of the insidious nature of racism in this country. Outside of the very small minority of KKK, neo-Nazi types, very few whites think of themselves as racist, (the KKK types we are proud to be called that). When most Americans tell a joke that has a racist aspect, or when they are condescending to people of color, or when they think they are complimenting a black person when they remark about how clean they are, they don't think they are being racist. And when people (whether they are black, brown or white liberals, or whoever) get mad at them for this kind of behavior, they get defensive and are convinced that those criticizing them are overreacting.
That's why the race card thing McCain is doing, the gambit so well-described by Trippi here, is so dangerous. Working class whites who haven't understood why people criticize them for things they think are funny, or even just "being nice," relate positively to the race card frame.
I am convinced that the genius of the infamous Harold Ford "call me" ad wasn't the subliminal white women/black man stuff, but that it got such a negative reaction from civil rights leaders and white liberals to an ad that just seemed to working class TN voters as just a funny ad. The initial run of the ad for a few days did nothing bad to Ford's poll numbers, but the reactions to the ad in the week following the initial run did.
This is what makes the strategy for McCain so good, and the reaction from our side so tricky. I don't think the answer is the response from Obama manager David Plouffe, which was just to say "No, we're not" when McCain and Rick Davis accused Obama of playing the race card. I think the reaction has to be both less defensive and more aggressive. My suggestion would be something like:
"Barack Obama has never asked anyone to vote for him because of his race, and never will. Why John McCain is raising straw men right now leads us to wonder: why isn't he talking about real issues that actually matter to the American public. We want this campaign to be about reviving this economy, about making America safer and stronger in a challenging world, about lowering energy prices and dealing with the health care crisis. John McCain wants to talk about fictitious race cards and Britney Spears. Let's have a real debate."
One final story related to the over-reacting thing, about one of the greatest labor organizers I ever knew, an Iowa Machinist named Bill Fenton. Many, many years ago I was drinking in a labor bar with Bill and a bunch of other guys, and somebody at the table told a racist joke with the word nigger in it. I was getting ready to blast the guy, but I was also curious to see how Bill- who had been one of the leaders in the fight for civil rights in Iowa in the '50s and '60s- would handle it. To my surprise, Bill laughed at the joke and slapped the guy on the back and said, "that's a funny joke, Jim." But then he paused and said, "you know, Jim, even though it was pretty funny, in our labor movement, we can't afford to be using words like that and telling jokes like that. We have black guys in our union, and we fight for them just as hard as we do for you, because if we don't stick together and have each other's backs, the boss is going to pick us apart and mow us down." Well, Jim turned bright red- he was mortified, and he apologized profusely to Bill and everybody at the table. I never heard him nor anybody else in that group of guys ever tell a racist joke again (although they may well have in other settings). By not overreacting but still responding directly to the issue, Fenton made his point with those guys far more effectively than he would have done by preaching at them.
Obviously, a story like this is difficult to translate to a national dialogue or campaign, but my point in telling it is to say this: it is essential that we respond to all the racial issues being raised, but it is equally important that we not overreact. The Obama campaign has done this pretty well through much of this campaign, but they need to be very clear about not getting into a "no, we're not using the race card" spat, because white working class voters will side with the McCain frame in that kind of back and forth. If Obama is very clear that he is not asking for any favors, or overreacting to people trying to provoke, but instead is focused on debating the real issues that are important, I think that's a frame we win with. |
