The AP reporting that is “racially tinged.” This is monumentally important.
Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee “palling around” with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn’t see their America?
In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers’ day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.
Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as “not like us” is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.
These are the sorts of callouts we need. If you haven’t seen it already, the AFL-CIO’s (largest federation of labor unions in the US) Richard Trumka gives on the subtle, implicit, and silent racism undermining support of Barack Obama. If you, like me, are feeling almost as cynnical as John McCain about the true nature of the American public, it’s pretty breathtaking.
