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Racism Emerges In The Democratic Primaries
Bonnie Erbe 5/14/2008
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A telling point about white, working class voters and how some of them will vote when (and it looks like when, not if) Sen. Barack Obama becomes the Democratic nominee was made in an article in this week's Washington Post.

The monster lurking behind the curtain in the Democratic presidential race is racism. Up to now, Obama's supporters in the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party, have tried to ignore its existence. This article is proof, it not only exists, it is unfortunately alive and well, particularly in factory towns:

"For all the hope and excitement Obama's candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed -- and unreported -- this election season. Doors have been slammed in their faces. They've been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they've endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can't fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president."

It's ugly but it's real. It's been largely ignored by the media as well as Obama supporters up to now. But the fact is there are a lot more American voters who identify with low-income factory
workers than there are voters who identify with Harvard Law School graduates. My sad prediction is, assuming Obama secures the Democratic nomination, a racial chasm will open in this country that will rival the Daisetta, Texas, sink hole in depth and the Grand Canyon in width.

Why did Sen. Hillary Clinton score her biggest wins (including her 2-1 victory in West Virginia) in states with large populations of white, older, less educated and in many cases rural voters? Why is she, yet another Ivy League, effete intellectual female, such a hit among the working class?

Could the answer be the chimera of race consciousness, if not racism? Race consciousness, certainly, among these voters is a much more formidable issue than it is among younger, better-educated, urban voters. She's winning the former. He's winning the latter.

In Tuesday's primary vote Obama won 28 percent of the white vote. He's been winning 90 percent of the black vote or more in nearly every state. Even in neighboring Virginia, he won 40 percent of the white vote, according to CNN. And this is white support from among the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. He is much less likely to be able to woo as much white support in the general election where voters overall are a lot less liberal.

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