"ELITISM": The tag that keeps on giving and giving [View All]

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

I don't know whether anyone has pointed this out lately, but Barack Obama actually is an African American guy. Well, "African American" is what we call him around here, for the most part. To most people in white middle America, wherever that is, he's a "black guy." At FreeRepublic he's a "magical negro." Somewhere in a Louisiana backyard he's the other n-word.

Obama hasn't pulled in too many votes from FR or backyards in Louisiana, so here are my questions regarding middle America:
Does white middle America view "a black guy" running for president differently from a white person?
Is some/much of white middle America more prejudiced--at least to some degree--consciously and/or unconsciously against the "black guy," simply because of his race?
Does his "blackness" plug into preconceived stereotypes?
Do those stereotypes plug into the myth of the "black guy's" criminal tendencies, poverty, lack of education, and/or low motivation and laziness?

Or--and here's my point--do you think white middle America is more likely predisposed to think of "the black guy" first as a high-achieving, over-educated Ivy Leaguer?

Thank you, "elitism." It's the tag that crumples the myths wrapped up in white America's uninformed prejudices. In a presidential race when I was certain Obama would have to prove himself against white middle America's stereotype of the "black guy," the Clinton camp and now republicans are doing the job themselves. I realize full well that Obama has to run against stereotyping continuously, but the "elitism" tag does a lot to obliterate that stereotyping.

And one last thing--it's a lot easier to retool a candidate's image a little to show he's in touch (not too elite) than it is to make a candidate appear to be select enough to do the job. No matter what they try, the republicans won't even be able to make McHundred seem like an expert on war (his one supposed strength).