Acting White: McCain and Obama Wrestle in the Dirt

Each side denies that they are doing it, but our eyes and ears tells us something different. Obama and McCain both want the top job, and each is willing use the race card as sure as Lee Atwater and Johnny Cochran playing poker behind the gates of someplace starting with an H. And after the way Bush played the race card on McCain in 2000, he is not about to get caught sleeping.

Each knows that all of America has its race glasses on, so they barely have to try (or even not at all) and each side will see racial politicing. In the cartoon above, if you are looking for race, the first thing you see is a white woman kissing Obama. A few days a go, McCain shows Britney, Paris, and Obama and America sees Jungle Fever. Obama mentions in speeches how he doesn't look like ususal suspects, and the white-guilt-o-meter soars to new heights.

So what. Boxing has rules, fighting does not. And believe me folks, winning the presidency in this country has always been a fight. It's about winning, not healing the racial divide, or jobs, or education, or anything else, just winning. The candidates quietly tell themselves that they will get to the high road on race, after they get into the oval office. But they never do. The first thing they would have to expose is their own hypocrisy.

So let's not get our knickers too bunched up around what either side does or how people perceive it, unless we are ready to open up the full kimono on race. It needs to be opened for sure, but the reason should not be around choosing a leader, but rather reflecting the direction that we want to go as a country.

James C. Collier

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