In response to some post-debate instant polling Jonathan Chait offers this thought:
The number that most struck me, less from a political point of view than a historic one, is the question of which candidate seemed more intelligent: 57% said Obama, 25% said McCain. No kidding, you say. Except that Obama is black. I think it says something pretty amazing about the country that such a wide majority would deem the black candidate more intelligent than the white candidate.Ta-Nehisi Coates made an interesting observation the other day about how racism is running smack into necessity and racism is losing. To wit: even racists are lurching towards Obama because in McCain they see a man unfit to be president. Racism as a luxury -- a novel concept being born out by our generation's JFK.
5 Comments:
Only The New Republic would state that it's "amazing" that our country could find a highly educated black politician more intelligent than a half-senile old white dude.
What's amazing is that The New Republic is still a respected publication after the whole Stephen Glass affair.
The New Republic is not saying it's amazing there's a smart black candidate. They're saying it's amazing that he is overwhelmingly viewed as the more intelligent candidate. It is remarkable.
I get what the New Republic is saying, but I don't think it's that remarkable that our country isn't overwhelmingly racist. I get that we've all set low standards for our fellow Americans after the past 8 years of voter idiocy, but it's a little too elitist for me to say that people can't recognize and appreciate an articulate candidate when they see one - regardless of their race. They just haven't been offered one in about... ummm 40 years?
It is remarkable that our country isn't overwhelmingly racist given our history, but I don't think overt racism is what the New Republic is pointing to. It's the latent racism that's been the standard for so many years. It was not long ago that people like Colin Powell were lauded for being articulate (and it was only last summer that Joe Biden said the same thing about Obama). The soft bigotry of lower expectations is what we're dealing with here.
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