Are We Ready for a Negro President?

Posted: September 1st, 2008 | Filed under: Culture, Personalities, Politics | 2 Comments »

One summer while an adolescent I went to Camp Tall Trees in Otter Creek Park. One of our activities was an exchange of sorts with Camp Sky High, a short hike through the copperhead-infested woods away.

All the kids at my camp were white. All those at Sky High were black.

To foster connection and understanding, our swimming buddies were from the other camp. As a safety test the counselor/ lifeguards would blow their whistles and we’d have ten seconds to hook up with our buddies.

My buddy and I were among a number of couplings that were set out of the pool for awhile as penalty due to our inability to clasp hands within the alloted time. I simply couldn’t recognize my assigned partner. The color of his skin, along with the many other blacks in the pool, overwhelmed any sense I might have had to distinguish other characteristics.

I guess it was the same for him.

It was my first lesson in racial sensitivity. But not my last.

Several years back a friend started an interaction which he dubbed White Guys/ Black Guys. Once a month ten or so fellows, half and half, would meet to discuss racial differences. We were an open minded group, seeking insight and understanding. We would alternate meeting places between the west and east ends.

After several meetings, despite an earnest desire for connection and understanding, it became obvious to all of us how very different our perspectives were. To the extent that the group eventually fell apart in a sort of resigned futility. And we were a willing lot.

Anybody unable to recognize or acknowledge this seminal divide suffers from Tommy’s disease. Which is to say they must be deaf, dumb and blind. It is the sad reality.

There is a racial divide in America. How serious and deep is open for discussion. Whether it is as deep-seated as some believe or as insignificant as others opine, it is a fact.

One guy’s opinion, and one because of political correctness not oft stated during this election year, is that it is Barack Obama’s biggest impediment to inauguration as president. Forget his inexperience, forget his politics, forget the “divide” with the Clintons, forget the bump the Republicans might have gotten from the off-the-charts gotcha of a veep candidate.

Given the national malaise, the unwinnable unpopular war in Iraq, the bloated national deficit, the price of gasoline, the loss of jobs, the mortgage crisis, the egregious lack of leadership by the current administration embraced by McCain, the age and temper of the elephant candidate and the disgraceful inexperience of the GOP veep choice, there is only one reason why Obama might not win.

He is a Negro.

John Hope Franklin has long been the preeminent African American historian in the U.S.. Despite the state of racial politics in the republic, a topic that Franklin has spent his life forcefully expressing, much to the dismay of many, he has been quoted sharing this memory of his parents. They “taught me to believe that I could be, as they then articulated it, the first Negro president of the United States.”

There is no chance of that for the octogenarian professor.

The question is whether our country is ready for such a major cultural transformation?

We can only hope.

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