Poll Shows a Clear Majority -- 59 Percent -- Says the Country is Ready to
Elect an African-American President
Obama on the Topic of Race and Politics in America: 'America is Still
Caught in a Little Bit of a Time Warp: the Narrative of Black Politics is
Still Shaped by the '60s and Black Power.'
NEW YORK, July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- In the July 16 Newsweek cover "Black &
White" (on newsstands Monday, July 9), Senior White House Correspondent
Richard Wolffe and Correspondent Daren Briscoe report on whether Illinois
Senator Barack Obama, who wants to be the nation's first black president,
can appeal to both black and white, while still being true to himself.
Obama faces many challenges in what he calls his "improbable candidacy,"
but few are as complex or emotional as the politics of race.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070708/NYSU004 )
Newsweek reports that on the day Obama was announcing his candidacy,
600 miles away Cornel West, the brilliant and bombastic scholar was
lambasting Obama's campaign. "He's got large numbers of white brothers and
sisters who have fears and anxieties and concerns, and he's got to speak to
them in such a way that he holds us at arm's length," West said, pushing
his hand out for emphasis. "So he's walking this tightrope." West
challenged the candidate to answer a stark set of questions: "I want to
know how deep is your love for the people, what kind of courage have you
manifested in the stances that you have and what are you willing to
sacrifice for. That's the fundamental question. I don't care what color you
are. You see, you can't take black people for granted just 'cause you're
black."
A few days later, West was sitting in his Princeton office after class
when the phone rang. It was Barack Obama. A few weeks later, the two men
met in a downtown Washington, D.C., hotel to chat about Obama's campaign
staff. Just a month after ripping into him on stage, West endorsed Obama
and signed up as an unpaid adviser, Newsweek reports.
West may have come around, but he raised one of the most potent -- and
controversial -- questions facing the candidate: is he black enough? It's
one that has long dogged Obama's career, though he says he settled his own
struggle with racial identity (as the son of an African father and white,
Kansan mother) in his late teens. Questions about black "authenticity" are
hardly unique to him; many successful African-Americans face them, too.
Obama just happens to be grappling with the issue in full public view as he
runs for the highest office in the land.
To the candidate, the debate says more about America's state of mind
than it does about him. "I think America is still caught in a little bit of
a time warp: the narrative of black politics is still shaped by the '60s
and black power," he tells Newsweek. "That is not, I think, how most black
voters are thinking. I don't think that's how most white voters are
thinking. I think that people are thinking about how to find a job, how to
fill up the gas tank, how to send their kids to college. I find that when I
talk about those issues, both blacks and whites respond well." Newsweek
reports that he may be right. Nationwide, according to the latest Newsweek
Poll, race is no longer the barrier it once was to electing a president. A
clear majority -- 59 percent -- says the country is ready to elect an
African-American president, up from 37 percent at the start of the decade.
Nationwide racial politics are a key source of his campaign's energy,
but they could also be his undoing. He needs to win a clear majority of
African- American votes to win his party's nomination. Yet he isn't running
purely as a representative of African-Americans, nor can he afford to. He
also needs to win the backing of a wide swath of white America.
On the campaign trail, Obama doesn't seek sympathy; he evokes hope,
Newsweek reports. No matter how he positions himself on the campaign trail,
when Obama returns home to his wife and two daughters in Chicago, there's
no ambiguity about identity. To Michelle, the persistent questions about
Obama's roots are not about him. "We as a black community are struggling
with our own identity and what it means to be black," she tells Newsweek.
"We see what is shown of us on TV but we also know that is not the full
picture. So what is the picture? We're figuring it out. It's a conversation
that needs to take place."
Also in the July 16 cover package, Contributing Editor Ellis Cose
writes, "That Obama cannot take the "minority vote" for granted is a
reflection of progress in America's struggle to get beyond race. It also is
a reflection of the unprecedented diversity among Democratic presidential
candidates. With a black man, a Latino -- and a white woman, of course --
in the race, clan solidarity is less of an issue for minority voters than
at points in the past."
Correspondent Daren Briscoe also reports on the rising young black
politicians who, like Obama, represent a 'sea change in black politics,"
according to Artur Davis, a third-term black congressman who represents
Alabama's Seventh District. Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker and Davis, like
three other successful black politicians Newsweek interviewed --
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick; Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty, and
Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown -- ran mainstream campaigns appealing to
all races, stressing consensus and competence, and often forging close ties
with the business community.
(Read cover story at http://www.Newsweek.com)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19651719/site/newsweek/
SOURCE Newsweek
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