Reply #90: I think you're completely missing the point [View All]

[EffieBlack]

Katz is not talking about YOU. And while it's wonderful that your vote is not based on race or gender, your approach is not universal.

There are many people black and white who are NOT voting for Obama or Clinton because of race and gender, regardless of the basis for your vote for or against either of them. And there ARE black people who are not supporting Obama specifically because they think a black man can't win and they don't want to take the chance. That's a fact. And Rev. Lowery, a man who is deeply rooted in the black community and knows from whence he speaks, understands this and is addressing this.

Normally, this kind of "straight talk" would never go beyond a small circle of people since the news media usually has absolutely no interest in anything that most black people say about any topic, unless it's something that can be spun a negative stereotype. But with Obama in the campaign, some of the dynamic has changed and the media is falling all over themselves to talk about race. Unfortunately, they haven't bothered to try to learn anything beyond sound bytes and knee jerk, shallow, ill-informed opinions and taglines ("playing the race card," "injecting race into the campaign," "transcending race," "electability," etc.), so their late-breaking coverage of such things grossly distorts the issue.

Bottom line - there ARE black people who won't vote for Obama because he's black - not because they are racist, but because they believe that he won't ever get a fair shot and they don't want to be disappointed again. And, given that there are plenty of white people who won't vote for Obama - not because they are racist, but because, like those black folk, they believe he can't win (or in the popular parlance, "he's not electable.") - that viewpoint among blacks can't be discounted as bizarre.

Rev. Lowery was talking to those people who feel that way, not to you.