White racial guilt and the Obama vote

Long before the Democratic convention, some leftist writers were not only admitting that they were going to vote for Obama out of white racial guilt, they were encouraging others to do the same. Columns appeared at Salon.com and Slate.com, among other respectable liberal outlets. And along with that sentiment, of course, comes the flip side: the elitist snobbery that presumes sophisticated racial attitudes that trump the knuckle-dragging opinions (rather, presumed opinions) of flyover country.

British commentator Brendan O'Neil has a tremendous column on this very phenomenon in his weekly Spiked-online.com piece. As O'Neil points out:

This is what underpins much of the cultural elite’s pro-Obama, pro-black sentiment: it is less a commitment to true equality, certainly of the character-over-colour variety promoted by King and others, and more a public performance of moral sentience and goodness. It is the exercising of good etiquette, and crucially a way of distancing oneself from those parts of America – ‘old white men’, ‘rednecks’, the ‘bitter brigade’ – whose refusal to endorse Obama is re-presented as a moral failure in racial etiquette terms. It really is, as Salon put it, an ‘appeal to one’s better self’. It has very little to do with genuine racial equality. Indeed, it is striking that in the Guardian, Tomasky put himself in the camp of ‘African-Americans and white liberals’ in contrast to the other camp: ‘young black men and old white men’. This is clearly not about race, per se, but about the aloof, elite sections of society who behave correctly (middle-class ‘African-Americans and white liberals’) looking down upon those who do not (inner-city ‘young black men’ or redneck ‘old white men’).

Once "racism" got defined downward -- from overt words and acts of hostility that seek to undermine an individual's inherent worth as God's creature, to "code words," "cultural attitudes," and all the rest (as primarily defined by university human relations departments and other race hustlers) -- a lot of people became "racists" without having changed one iota. Now, I believe it's true that we all struggle with racist impulses; it's the tribalism that defined (still defines) human existence all these millions of years later. Racism is but one form of that tribalism, but to see how subtle it gets, one need only examine any of the many civil wars and tribal conflicts that afflict the African continent. All over the world, people find a reason to hate each other as a group.

I hope I'm wrong -- sincerely, I do -- but I suspect that Obama's sincere (I believe) desire to transcend race as our president will be put to a very harsh test once Democratic constituencies start banging on his door (and legislative doors) seeking payback. It's the same process that happens with every new administration; but Obama's appeal is so broad (to his credit), albeit ill-defined, that everyone's reading what they want into his nascent administration -- and into the man itself. Heck, I'm tempted to do that very thing, myself, and I am not a supporter (in the campaign, I mean -- I will support him as our president with prayer and well-wishing, for our shared future as Americans and people).

It's one more thing I need to pray for him, and really, for all of us. The upside: If Obama can really lead us even one step further down the road of real racial harmonization, it will be a great thing. I'm not sure that any of us understands how tall an order that really is, though. It also seems to me that those who are congratulating themselves for voting for Obama because of his race understand the least.