One Reason Race May Not Derail Obama: The 'Do the Right Thing' Effect

These days, a lot of white folks are asking me about how race is going to affect the presidential election.

It's a question I've often found amusing. After all, most white people these days know enough to avoid expressing racially insensitive ideas around people of color. White people probably know better than I what choice other white folks will make once the voting booth curtains close.

But even as some Obama supporters wring their hands over polls showing that race remains a negative factor for the first Democratic presidential candidate who calls himself a black man -- the Associated Press reported more than one-third of white Democrats and independents agreed with at least one negative adjective applied to black people -- I wondered about a few trends which might make that issue less obvious than you would think.

Ask the white person nearest you whether these ideas make any sense.
The Do the Right Thing effect - I named this for the moment in Spike Lee's legendary film where he confronts a racist pizzeria operator with the observation that the guy makes awful comments about black people but loves Prince, Eddie Murphy and Magic Johnson.

"It's different," John Turturro's Pino Frangione insists. "Magic, Eddie, Prince are not niggers...They're not really black. They're black but they're not really black. They're more than black. To me, it's different."

And that's a dynamic no one can measure. It's been my experience as the occasional object of racism that there are some folks who feel badly about the idea of black people, but those attitudes can change for specific black people they feel they know.

So there are probably some Democratic voters who don't see Obama as a typical black person, and don't transfer those negative, generic feelings onto him -- particularly because he doesn't fit the easy stereotypes, even of black politicians. And as long as Obama has been running for president, there are many voters who didn't really get to know him until he clinched the Democratic nomination in July.

It's something people of color face every day: you're a symbol to the world until you get famous enough that you're not.

The Reverse Bradley Effect - Okay, this one is a little less likely, I admit. But the Bradley effect is a dynamic named for Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, a black politician who went into a tough election for governor doing well in the polls but lost when the votes were counted.

The lesson some learned: people told pollsters they were voting Bradley just so they wouldn't look racist.

But as today's presidential race has taken on a new dynamic, I wonder if a different impulse won't emerge. We are, after all, in an election season where Republicans and even Democrats like Geraldine Ferraro insist Obama is getting widespread support mostly because of his race.

So maybe there are some folks planning to vote for Obama who don't want to admit it.

Already, we see conservatives such as Peggy Noonan and David Brooks saying much harsher things about GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in semi-private settings than they do in their newspaper columns and on TV.

What if some conservatives, turned off by John McCain's increasingly desperate campaign, make a similar choice in the voting booth?

The George Wallace Effect -- Like Hillary Clinton before him, Republican John McCain has tried to reference Obama's difference without mentioning race, emphasizing his loose connections to "domestic terrorist" William Ayers and repeatedly asking "Who is the real Barack Obama?" as if two years on the campaign trail hadn't provided the public a few answers.

But McCain is discovering what Clinton also learned the hard way -- the real point of those kinds of attacks is obvious in the post-Willie Horton-era, and it hurts in two ways. It makes people who are not racist but uneasy about Obama feel as if they are falling in league with racists, and it brings enough racists out of the woodwork that those making the attacks start looking like the famously pro-segregation governor (doubt my words, check the footage of McCain correcting a supporter who worried he was an Arab -- the kind of thinking his campaign seemed to be encouraging just days before).

It's yet another irony in one of history's most bizarre elections: The black candidate can't really talk about race without being accused of race baiting, and the Republican candidate can't indulge in the typical GOP-style coded race baiting because everyone knows what he's doing.

These are odd positions for me to argue, I admit. Back when Obama first announced his candidacy, I along with many other black folks, had a hard time believing a black candidate for president could be much more than a trivia question.

But white friends who were much less cynical about racism argued me down, and seem to be proven right.

Now that the worsening economy is hobbling Republican electoral hopes everywhere, I'm ready to believe that America might be ready to elect its first black president.

The only real question left, is whether enough white folks feel the same.

Comments

[KenFL]

You didn't mention another important effect - the Make Things Right Effect.

I'm a 52-year old white registered republican, and a big supporter of Obama - I've donated to his campaign, and had a letter to the editor published in our local paper.

I was raised in the late '60s and early '70s in Wash DC - in a mixed-race area that is now mostly hispanic. I had black friends all my life, even though I was the victim of anti-white violence a couple of times, suffering vicious beatings (broken bones) just for my skin color. I think that gave me a first-hand appreciation of how much prejudice can hurt.

One of the reasons I support Obama is because he's black - I think young black children need to see a successful black man who is not a sports or music star. I want white people of all ages to see that not all blacks are thugs. Barack Obama is a nice, thoughtful, intelligent man - a man who will make us proud, a man who is not caught up in his own selfish desires, but truly wants to help the country he loves.

The Make Things Right Effect is not about whites making themselves feel better about past racial injutices they participated in, or a general-purpose cleansing of White Guilt over slavery. I'm talking about white folks, like myself, who truly hate the racial division in our society, and see the election of Obama as a step towards healing.

[Asmodeus]

I decided to go with Barak after Edwards left the race, even though his message was (at the time) less of a populist one. It was begrudging, but I felt he was the better choice. What really put me solidly in the Obama camp was his speech about race during the Rev. Wright controversy. Though I think he could have articulated it better, he made a very important point. On racial issues, he has desperately needed perspective. How did I get that out of what he said? From my own life. I have white skin, but since earliest childhood have been very proud of my Cherokee ancestry. Growing up in a place where that can still occasionally get you called a Prarie N****r. And believe me, when you're 13, it takes balls to correct the history teacher in class. On the other hand, even though I love going to powow, and got involved in groups, I was often treated as just another white guy who wanted to be cool. All I wanted was to explore my heritage. My point, and Barak's, is this: When you grow up like this, you can identify with, but are not a true part of the different sides of the equation. This allows a person to operate without all the embitterment incumbent upon the involved parties. When you grow up proud of ALL of the different cultures you represent means you have to come to terms and make peace with the issues involved.

[jsinaiko]

I've been talking about that scene in Do The Right Thing for months! He stole my idea!

But seriously, it's probably the case. Back in July and August all the pundits were saying "Obama has to introduce himself to the American people." Well, now he as, and it seems - to paraphrase another movie scene - that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

[furryone]

excellent blog! and Do the Right Thing is one of the greatest American movies ever made. :)

[englishness]

I couldn't agree more, excellent article and Do the Right Thing is a great film... whilst using a certain brechtian technique of foregrounding its own construction (see WJT Mitchell's book Picture Theory) it reaches a certain truth, which seems apt still for today and for the upcoming election. Soon the American public will have their moment to vote and I think it might be little like the moment when Mookie stands before the pizzaria, with the dilemma of whether to throw the trash can through the window... it is a radical moment, but given that it takes the violence away from people, towards the infrstructure and system, it has a revolutionary edge... We exist now in a complex, weighted semiological history... as an article on Virtual Scholars site puts it:
¦in keeping with the "Do The Right Thing" effect, and reminding ourselves of the presence of sports wear and its associated, global slogans which appear as parody in Spike Lee"s film, we might now most usefully take Nike"s mantra - JUST DO IT! - and get on with that dream which never died¦ (See: http://virtualscholars.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/obama/ )

[likeicare]

Mr. D. --

An omen, perhaps, of the coming tsunami for Obama? --

NC's gov, Mike Easly, was being interviewed on some MSM vanity-gasbag show the other night, and he said he thinks Obama will take the state. Why?

He said he knows of white folks who say they won't vote for Obama, but they're going to pull the lever for him, anyway, and just not announce it.

And, he saw a good ol' boy riding around in his pickup, with a gun in the rack behind him, and with two Obama stickers on the back bumpers.

To better days!

[reelcobra]

I cannot wait until our guy Obama wins so we can look at 4 years of non-stop race card politics!

Anyone who opposes his socialist policies will be lambasted for being racist. Perfect.

When he continues to make massive foreign policy mistakes (like secretly attempting to negotiate with Iraq to not work with Bush until we take the White House) that will be the fault of racists all over the world. Perfect.

Actually - Priceless.

BHO '08!!

[LeftRight]

"When he continues to make massive foreign policy mistakes (like secretly attempting to negotiate with Iraq to not work with Bush until we take the White House) that will be the fault of racists all over the world. Perfect."

Okay, first, that's been done before, and amazingly enough there was a LOT of evidence that it was occurring then. Now, there's NONE of that evidence! The fact of the matter is that BUSH is refusing to negotiate with Iran, not the other way around!

[Squirtapotamus]

Just like now in the campaign, It will be folks like you who play the "race card politics". Obama has done an excellent job of keeping it about the issues and not the personality. You, on the other hand, not so much.

You claim Obama has socialist policies. Why must you be so anti-social.

You claim he will make massive foreign policy mistakes. Your fortune-telling abilities are weak, not to mention you ignore the massive foreign policy mistakes your team have made these last eight years.

[Indie2008]

It surprised me to see elderly Jewish voters in Florida openly admitting they had a problem with voting for a black man for President. Although in this TV piece, some had been turned around in their thinking by the efforts of their grandchildren "Schlepping for Obama"- (Good thing they caught them before they got set in their ways!) These are the "compassionate and tolerant" Northern transplants to Florida, who were barely middle age during the turbulent 1960's.
The last time I saw racial prejudice expressed so freely was during the civil rights struggle in the South, and that was subjected to,appropriately, condemnation by most of the nation, and the media.

[cthomp7280]

Obama IS America. You would be hard-pressed not to find a part of Obama's story that you can identify with.

He is Bi-Racial.

He was raised by his grandparents.

He grew up in a state that celebrated more racial harmony than most.

He traveled the world, not as a rich elite, but as a child.

He paid his way through school; be it grants, loans, or scholarships. No legacy admissions or grandfather status' to help him out.

Obama's brilliance is not that of world scholar turned street patron. His mind is elevated enough to think in past, present, and future, while humbling himself to connect with Everyman. He has proven himself to be bigger than the situation while not making proclamations of being better than "us". Barack has a cool that we often find in great leaders. His fire burns from within without threatening to burn the exterior that harnesses it.

[Pupadup4oBama]

I think people's KIDS will have a lot of influence on them too.
After all, kids today grow up with all kinds of races, cultures, sexual preferences and to them it's no big deal. They look beyond that. I HOPE that these kids will reach out to their parents.

[readyfornewleadership]

Great, thoughtful article. I had been following Obama but I was stunned when Obama won Iowa. A virtual all-white state. (I am 54yo white woman) I became an instant believer in the possibility of a black man winning the white house. Of course, it had to be a pretty extraordinary black man, but we have to start somewhere.

Also, with regard to traditional republicans, I think the reverse Bradley effect is happening in full force. I live in a very repub area and there are almost no McCain signs. My neighbor, Harvard biz school, fiscal repub. decided months ago he couldn't vote for McCain. He isn't making a big deal of it, or bragging that he is voting for Obama, but he is.

I think Obama will be one of the best presidents we ever have.

Yes we can!!

[voting4BO]

You made a great point with this article. When I saw the title, I thought of the movie.

[GrammieJ]

Great article. I often wonder if we were still in the radio age and our newspapers were black and white photos, that we would have to READ and make our decisions "color-blind".

We would listen on the radio and read statements and platforms the candidates present. We would be challenged to use our MINDS when we make our decision on how to vote.

I feel that we as Americans would chose Obama because he truely talks about what and how we need change and need to have a straight forward plan to help us become a sufficient nation again.

Just my thoughts

[metalpipe]

I have been thinking this way for weeks, if not months. Amazing how this writer is in tune with my thoughts. I think the 'Obama as the right choice' effect will prevail. I mean, is McCain really white after all? More of a pasty grey if you ask me.

[SueEll]

A lot of people are going to want to be on the right side of history. For example, imagine looking back and knowing you'd voted against JFK.

[LeftRight]

Or FOR Nixon........

[Krikkit]

Eric, there's something happening that I never in my life expected. Openly proud racists are also planning on voting for Obama. I have two brothers who fit that bill. Their reasons fall into 2 categories -- distrust of John McCain and distrust of Republicans in power. Both of these men are voting their pocket books.

Obama will win this election, there is no doubt in my mind on that score. But if he doesn't begin to turn around the damage Bush and the Reagan crowd have caused quickly, the Republicans will make sure they regain some House and Senate seats in 2010 (enough to block Obama's initiatives) and they'll have their eyes on retaking the Presidency in 2012. They won't pull any punches and they are stockpiling the cash.

Obama has a lot to accomplish in the next 2 years, more than any other president in our lifetimes. We may all look back on these times as the good old days. Be prepared.

[SadButWiser]

Interesting article. You may be surprised, but many will be voting for him without wasting a second thinking about his color or race. I honestly believe that there are more people who do not judge people by their color, race of faith than those who do.

[obamagramma]

Great article.