Is America Ready for a Black President?

Today, we have two very different sources addressing that puzzler. The satirical paper The Onion asks the question:

Do We Really Want Another Black President After The Events Of Deep Impact?

Have we learned nothing from the tragic events of 1998, when, under the watch of President Morgan Freeman, this nation was plunged into chaos, and hundreds of millions of people died at the hands of the deadly Wolf-Beiderman space rock? The mere fact that this country is even considering putting another black man, Barack Obama, in the Oval Office proves that we have not.

You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate," he said bluntly. Our eyes only met briefly, perhaps because the governor wanted to spare the only black guy in the room from feeling self-conscious for backing an obvious loser.

"I believe, looking at the returns in my election, that had Lynn Swann [2006 Republican gubernatorial candidate] been the identical candidate that he was --well-spoken [note: Mr. Rendell did not call the brother "articulate"], charismatic, good-looking -- but white instead of black, instead of winning by 22 points, I would have won by 17 or so."

I say we solve this thing once and for all, what do you think? Is America ready for a black President? After the jump, we'll talk it over, and we'll also decide if Rendell's remarks should hurt Hillary and/or re-ignite the race issue in this campaign. Update: See end of story for Rendell's side of the story

Let's get the easy ones out of the way. Ed Rendell is a knucklehead. What he said should have no impact on Hillary, unless she miraculously refuses to repudiate the remark, or agrees with it. Can you imagine that? "Hey, look, Ed's just keeping it real. I mean, there are 2 kinds of black people..."

Not likely. Hopefully, there's a swift denunciation, and this thing dies on the vine. The much-hyped "Race Crisis of Several Weeks Ago" ended in a truce between the Obama and Clinton camps, and there's no reason to believe that Rendell was acting on orders from Clinton to marginalize Obama.

Obama, for his part, should, and will probably, take the high road. I imagine he'll come up with a great rejoinder, something along the lines of, "I know Lynn Swann, Lynn Swann was a friend of mine, but I, sir, am no Lynn Swann."

"The Onion" article references Chris Rock's film, "Head of State", but Chris himself offers a great repudiation of Rendell's statement in his stand-up act. I'm paraphrasing, but he said something like, "Only white folks would try to get Colin Powell to run for Vice-President against somebody he could beat."

Obama has proven that race alone is not a negative when voting for a presidential candidate, but a lot of people take issue with the use of race as a positive. They make the assumption that, because Obama pulled 90% of the black vote in Virginia, for instance, that those people are voting for him just because he is black. It's compelling at first blush, the way a lot of stereotypes are, but think about this. If the audience for "Seinfeld" was 90% white (I actually suspect it was higher, but who knows), does that mean they only watched it because Seinfeld was white?

Of course, the big difference is, there are lots of "white" shows to compare trends with. There's only been 1 (non-fictional) black candidate with a chance to win. Hardly enough data to establish a pattern.

I'm sure Rendell is right on some level, there probably are some white people who are afraid that Barack Obama will turn the White House into a raucous, "Soul Plane"-esque madhouse, or whatever other horrors they can imagine, but I don't think those are Hillary's voters, either.

Update: Governor Rendell tries to backpedal with MSNBC's Nora O'Donnell, video below. First, he tries to say that he was talking about a "tiny, tiny percentage" of voters, yet in his original remarks puts the figure at about 5%. Then he seems to want credit for all of the non-stupid stuff he said. Finally, did he throw a little flirt in there at the end? I think he did.

To be fair to Ed Rendell, it is very difficult for white people to address racial issues in a frank manner, as even the most well-intentioned analysis can come off as clumsy. I believe that he belongs to a large subset of old-school white people who crave racial harmony, but just kinda don't "get it." Whatever the intention of remarks about Lynn Swann's "well-spokenness", he reinforces the tacit and more insidious brand of "He's one of the good ones" racism.

Chris Rock touched on the "well-spoken" issue very effectively, too, in reference to Colin Powell, and it is a recurring theme with black public figures. The implication is that the default setting for black people is to be inarticulate. In Obama's case, he is such an exceptional orator that it has become "safe" to make the observation, but I get the feeling from a lot of white people that a large part of Obama's ability to transcend race is the fact that he doesn't "sound black."

How does one "sound black" or "sound white"? There's such a broad spectrum for each, yet I suspect that every reader, black or white, knows what I mean. In that way, the "Onion" article highlights another problem with white America's attempts to bridge the racial divide. Morgan Freeman's character in "Deep Impact", and Dennis Haysbert's "24" character, are almost completely devoid of any traits that accentuate their "blackness." I don't mean, necessarily, stereotypical traits, but merely touchstones of the black experience that inform who they are.

Which is fine in a broader context, but in a media landscape that portrays black people in a handful of narrow ways, the "black role model" is uniformly one of white assimilation. This, again, reinforces that "one of the good ones" style of racism without necessarily intending to.

I've observed this phenomenon particularly in sports. Black superstars like Terrell Owens or Donovan McNabb, or in my generation, Reggie Jackson, are not considered role models because they get labeled as "hot dogs", or "not team players", while a prick like Pete Rose gets called "Charlie Hustle." It stems from a failure to recognize the different set of obstacles, and the traits required to navigate them, that black people face in America.

Update: For Joe, who asked about Obama's Mom: