The Race Factor: How Far We've Come

Let's not allow an alleged race-based murder plot on the part of two Tennessee skinheads to dampen the hopeful spirit of the day. If the polls are accurate, for the first time an African American is poised to take the nation's highest political office. We can appreciate just how momentous this is by looking back in history.

In working on my book Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson, I was constantly reminded of how deeply ingrained racism was in America for over a century and a half after the nation's founding. Twelve American presidents, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, owned slaves. The presidency was in slaveholders' hands for fifty of its first sixty-four years. A slave-owner, John Marshall, was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for over three decades and was succeeded by another one, Roger Taney, who held office until 1864. Speakers of the House were almost all slave-owners, as were presidents pro tem of the Senate.

Even some of the greatest pioneers of freedom shared the view that blacks were inferior to whites. Jefferson wrote that blacks were "much inferior" to whites in reason and "dull, tasteless, and anomalous" in their imaginative powers. Lincoln, though strongly opposed to slavery, thought free blacks must be shipped abroad because he thought there was a physical difference between whites and blacks races that forbade their enjoying equal rights in America. He said, "What I would most desire would be the separation of the black and white races." This view that blacks must be shipped out of the country because of racial differences was shared by another antislavery luminary, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Meanwhile, Southern slave owners built a society based on racist views. Alexander H. Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, declared that the South had achieved "the highest type of civilization ever exhibited by man," because "its cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery -- subordination to the superior race -- is his natural and normal condition."

In the era before the Civil War, only two blacks had held political positions in the U. S. -- both from the North and both in minor government jobs. After the war, black political involvement rose as a result of Northern Republicans' efforts to refashion Southern governments and compensate for centuries of slavery. But it wasn't long before white supremacy made a vicious comeback. Reconstruction collapsed. Whites stripped blacks of power in the voting booth. One Southerner wrote, "Every Democrat must feel honor bound to control the vote of at least one Negro, by intimidation, purchase, keeping him away or as each individual may determine."

Then came the 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which made segregation legal, followed by six decades of Jim Crow, lynchings, and the economic and political ostracism of blacks. It was not until Brown v. Board of Education, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr. that the oppressive weight of legalized segregation began to lift.

Thanks to the civil rights movement and its aftermath, blacks have opportunities today that were unimaginable fifty years ago. True, we have not reached complete equality and justice. Racism still rears its ugly head, as in the Tennessee skinheads' foiled plan to assassinate Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people.

Overall, though, America has come a very long way from its racist past. Next Tuesday, millions of Americans of all ethnicities will cast ballots for an African American presidential candidate. Whether or not Obama wins, that fact itself is astonishing and inspiriting. Let's not forget our nation's history. Let's rejoice in our progress.

Comments

[Francis Parker Yockey]

Just because Barack Hussein Obama is Black does not make race an issue in this campaign. The fact that 95+ percent of Black voters support him does make race a viable issue though. If 95+ percent or even 75+ percent of White voters favored John Sidney McCain that would also make race an issue.

[XME]

"Whether or not Obama wins, that fact itself is astonishing and inspiriting. Let's not forget our nation's history. Let's rejoice in our progress."

Yes, we HAVE come a long way, whether Obama wins or not. But, if Obama does win, it will pave the way to moving ahead even farther than many of us imagined we'd see in our lifetimes.

[BluePrideSMW]

We've come a tremendous way... But, if Michelle were named Kaisha, Hillary would win Tuesday. That's how far we haven't come...

A 1965 Voting Rights Act national radio campaign launched by president Johnson, with a Motown beat:
http://current.com/items/89434265_obama_2008_things_are_changing

[Francis Parker Yockey]

Why would any sane African-American parent name a daughter Kaisha or any sane German-American parent name a son Wilhelm?

[ohioan73]

I just want to not be worried for my son. Worry about him going off to college in some hick backwater town like Kent (where I went to college), worry about some crazy white woman making up a fake crime to match his description, worry about police officers beating him for DWB, worry about the backlash of some bigot who doesn't want his daughter to marry my son...

As long as black mothers have these fears, we will never be free and equal.

[johnwinner]

"Whether or not Obama wins, that fact itself is astonishing and inspiriting. (...) Let's rejoice in our progress."
No, it will only matter if he wins. If he loses by honest election, racism will be revived in ugly quas-legalistic ways; if he loses by Repub vote rigging, there will be civil unrest, possibly violence. In either case, it will be hard to get another non-white candidate near the White House for some time to come. Which is why the Repubs have gotten so desparate and so openly racist. Obama wins and King's dream at last becomes material; if he loses, the country's doomed.

[Nommo]

I am always wondering who "we" is.

[pattyfish]

I just watched the PBS special on LBJ....thi­ngs I watched as a kid on the news...Ame­rica has come a very long way.

[EllaBee]

Racism will always be a problem in America. If Obama becomes president there will be hate crimes esp. down here in the South.

[Indie2008]

Whether from a news network or a political campaign, It borders on being criminal to incite people with racially tinged rhetoric in an attempt to bring their dormant prejudices to the surface. Maybe after the election the MSM can again feign outrage over every random racially insensitive remark by people in the public eye.

[Poboy]

"In the era before the Civil War, only two blacks had held political positions in the U. S. -- both from the North and both in minor government jobs."

1. Alexander Lucius Twilight, 1836, Vermont legislature.

2. John Mercer Langston, 1855, Town Clerk, Ohio

[robbie44]

Thank your higher power that these two KNUCKLE HEADS only have the combined intellegence of a gnat.

[twiggy2writes]

every man has an experience unique to him, out of that experience comes his perspective. each man's perspective is valid, based on his experience.

[nauni211]

It is ironic that a majority of Americans think that racism does not exit today. But those of us who experience the bigotry, prejudice, and out and out hate EVERY day know better. Obama will not change or solve anything in regards to race in America. Let him deal with the economy and we need to deal with our own attitudes and beliefs. Racist attitudes are formulated in one's mind and nurtured in one's heart. That said, I try not to let other peoples attitudes or words change the direction I'm moving my life in. We can only effect change within ourselves--I choose to love my neighbor as one of God's children. Don't get me wrong...I do get pissy and mad as hell at times about race in America; of course, I do. But I was raised with a better attitude about who I am and what I can do and more importantly how to rise above. Let us continue to write our future without hate because hate and fear take way too much energy to maintain and castes a putrid shell on an otherwise good life. Hold on...I'm about to go to church...G­od, the bible says, created US in his image--not in his skin color but in his image. So lighten-up! There are haters, lovers, likers and the indifferent among us. Deal with it and move on because you can't change what was...you can only effect what will be.

[NebulaNoxx]

I don't know that 'a majority of Americans think that racism does not exist today.' But I do know one young man who may be representative of his generation. He honestly does NOT believe that the racism my grandparents, parents and I grew up with still exists. He is tall, blondish, blue-eyed, dates interracially, co-habitates with and is close friends with people of varied hues and backgrounds. He grew up in small town America, sucked up racism with his baby formula and got trained out of it by a father to whom education and facts were vital. He will argue until his head nearly explodes to try to convince me that the kind of racism I experience is all in my head and not out in the job marketplace of today. But, as I heard on the news, I know what "You're just not a good fit for us." means.
Of course, we have come a long way (from the table back by the kitchen). One of us may even make it to the Oval Office (someday soon would be good). And you're right about one thing - hate takes way too much energy to maintain and gives your power away to the hated (person, thing or concept.). We, all of us, have much more positive things upon which to put that energy to use. Let's get Obama elected and get to it.

[DavidNOE]

Certainly there is still a lot of racism in this country. But it's much, much reduced from what it was 50 years ago. Recently I had occasion to be in Jackson, MS, for the first time since my father was fired from his pulpit in 1963 for taking exception to some of his deacons forcibly preventing a handful of black students from worshiping in their lily-white church. It was very interesting to see that at the restaurant where we ate (I think it was a Red Lobster - that class of restaurant, anyhow), more than half the patrons and about half the staff were African American; back in 1963 not only would that restaurant have been white-only, it's doubtful if very many of the local black people could have afforded to eat there if they'd been allowed.

[Luigi53102]

The election of Barack Obama will be a fantastic thing for Black Americans, It will also be a fantastic thing for all Americans. The reasons why are not racial, beyond the fact that it will show that, finally, Americans can recognize a great leader regardless of racial or ethnic background.

[Texas4Obama]

I believe now is not the time for divisiveness.
There is always someone in the bunch that wants to spoil all of the fun!

Obama for America '08 and '12

[Einstein44]

If Obama wins,racism is not dead.Howev­er,it will be the beginning of a new era.