Opinion Columnists
Email
Print
Primary: It's not just black, white
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: May 4, 2008
Updated: 05/03/2008 11:35 pm
A reader who lives here now but is "not from around here" sent an e-mail suggesting that I write about the role of race relations in this state's Democratic presidential primary.
I venture into that mine-laden territory from time to time, but in all honesty, I do not believe that race will be the most important factor at work when North Carolina's Democrats choose between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. The emotions and interests at work here are much more complicated than that.
Even though this is a Southern state with a sizable black population, I think it's simplistic and insulting to assume that black voters will automatically go for Obama just because he's black. It's equally simplistic and insulting to assume that white Democrats will avoid him in large numbers simply because he's black.
Whatever their color, North Carolina voters are capable of thinking for themselves.
Beyond that, Obama did not start this race as the automatic choice of the vast majority of black voters, here or elsewhere. Remember, there were many who thought that the senator from Illinois, whose father was African and whose mother was a white American, wasn't "black enough." His ancestors had not toiled as slaves in Southern fields or dealt with the Klan or suffered through Jim Crow and the civil-rights battles. His Harvard education, his mannerisms and his interests weren't exactly from the 'hood. And a lot of black voters had a solid history with and affinity for Clinton's husband, Bill.
One of those black voters is Maya Angelou, the poet, novelist and Wake Forest University professor, who joined Hillary Clinton for a campaign "conversation" that drew more than 2,000 people to Wake Forest's Wait Chapel on April 18.
Another reason that race may not be as important a factor in the Democratic primary here as some observers assume is that most of the white voters who would never, ever consider voting for a black candidate left North Carolina's Democratic Party long ago.
There are voters here, notably those from the mountain counties, whose Republican roots go back to the days when their ancestors did not own slaves and, in some cases, fought for the Union in the Civil War. There are voters who are Republicans because of their views about economics and smaller government. Many people are Republicans because they believe that party better represents their values when it comes to abortion, gay rights and other social issues.
But it is true that North Carolina stopped being reliably Democratic in national elections largely because of race. When President Lyndon Johnson made the Democrats the champions of civil rights and social liberalism in the 1960s, some white Democrats found themselves mighty uncomfortable. After a few years of race riots, anti-war demonstrations and hippies, they were easy picking for the Southern Strategy of Richard Nixon. And when, in 1972, Jesse Helms, with his thinly veiled racism, became North Carolina's first Republican U.S. Senator in modern times, he took a lot of those unhappy former Democrats with him into the GOP fold.
What I've seen at work among North Carolina Democrats in the weeks and months leading up to Tuesday's vote has at least as much to do with age and gender as with race. This is a similar dynamic to what others, including Ellen Goodman, a syndicated columnist whose works appear on these pages, have observed in states that are not Southern.
Some of the most intense Democrats I've seen are women about Hillary Clinton's age and a bit older who are passionate about her candidacy. Because of their experiences on the leading edge of women who tried to make it as equals in the "real" world, they sympathize with what she faces in terms of double standards. They understand the difficulty of appearing tough but human; they've felt the pressure of having to be better simply to be judged equal.
But there are also women with that shared history who would rather that the first woman president make it completely on her own, not following in her husband's footsteps.
The other fired-up Democrats I've observed here are young people, a good many of them white, who are really excited about Obama. There are people who will be able to vote Tuesday who have lived their entire lives with a Bush or a Clinton as president. They see the mess around them and don't want another Clinton. They want somebody younger, somebody who's looking toward, and seems a part of, the future.
But there are also young people, especially young women, who are inspired by and trust Clinton.
Then there are the older black women I've talked to, some of whom are so thrilled that the Democratic race has boiled down to a black man versus a white woman that they still are having trouble making up their minds.
So, no, I don't believe that Tuesday's Democratic primary in North Carolina will be as simple as black and white. Race will be a factor, but not the only one. Democrats will vote for their presidential nominee here Tuesday for reasons of their own. And then Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the pundits will try to tell them what they did and why they did it.
• Linda Brinson is the Journal's editorial-page editor. She can be reached at lbrinson@wsjournal.com.
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
N.C. Politics
Federal Politics
See community events or add your own! Click here!
Advertisement
