See if you can follow me here: There's a bit of a spurious argument going around that many, if not most, African-American Obama supporters voted for Barack "solely" because of his race, and so were as guilty of racism as white McCain supporters who voted GOP solely because they would never support a black candidate. This theory was put to me during some water cooler talk at work this very day. The rumor is that blacks split for Obama over McCain 95%-to-5%, and somehow that makes for reverse racism.
Really?
Let's review, shall we?
2004 Voting by Race: Black voters supported John Kerry over George Bush 88%-11%.
2000 Voting by Race: Black voters supported Al Gore over George Bush 90%-9%.
In fact, if you look back even further, blacks supported Bill Clinton 84-12 over Bob Dole and 83-10 over George H.W. Bush.
So no, the overwhelming support black voters showed Barack Obama was not reverse racism. It was the natural culmination of blacks' decades-long repudiation of the Republican Party. This racial divide actually dates back to the early 1960s, when southern Democrats who opposed the Civil Rights movement were welcomed into the Republican Party with open arms.
At the time he signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, Lyndon Johnson remarked that, by taking a stand for equality, the Democrats had "lost the South for a generation."
Republicans, on the other hand, incorporated institutionalized racism as a part of their platform, calling it "the Southern strategy" and cynically riding it -- and its trove of southern state electoral votes -- into the White House repeatedly, from Nixon to George W. Bush, with only the brief interludes of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton (both Southern governors at that).
Make no mistake about, Black America did not reject the Republican Party in this election, the Republican Party rejected Black America in the 20th century.
Only now are they beginning to pay.
Really?
Let's review, shall we?
2004 Voting by Race: Black voters supported John Kerry over George Bush 88%-11%.
2000 Voting by Race: Black voters supported Al Gore over George Bush 90%-9%.
In fact, if you look back even further, blacks supported Bill Clinton 84-12 over Bob Dole and 83-10 over George H.W. Bush.
So no, the overwhelming support black voters showed Barack Obama was not reverse racism. It was the natural culmination of blacks' decades-long repudiation of the Republican Party. This racial divide actually dates back to the early 1960s, when southern Democrats who opposed the Civil Rights movement were welcomed into the Republican Party with open arms.
At the time he signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, Lyndon Johnson remarked that, by taking a stand for equality, the Democrats had "lost the South for a generation."
Republicans, on the other hand, incorporated institutionalized racism as a part of their platform, calling it "the Southern strategy" and cynically riding it -- and its trove of southern state electoral votes -- into the White House repeatedly, from Nixon to George W. Bush, with only the brief interludes of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton (both Southern governors at that).
Make no mistake about, Black America did not reject the Republican Party in this election, the Republican Party rejected Black America in the 20th century.
Only now are they beginning to pay.
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