Pride and Prejudice

2008-05-13
By Del Walters

This is not a story about Hillary Clinton or Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama, or John McCain. It is a simple story designed to reveal the dangers of oversimplifying exit polls and absolutes when it comes to voting groups. White men helped end slavery and marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King. White men and women went south and died in the name of civil rights. White men, and white women, black men, and black men, are anything but monolithic. 

This is one story historians often overlook.

The truth is some states with majority white populations lynched more whites than blacks.  Most of those states were out west and included, California,(Which voted for Clinton) Colorado (Obama), Indiana, (Clinton barely) Iowa, (Obama)  Kansas, (Obama)  Michigan,(Disputed) Minnesota,(Obama)  Montana, (Undecided)  Nebraska, (Obama)  New Mexico, (Clinton) North Dakota, (Undecided)  Oklahoma, (Obama)  Oregon, (undecided)  Utah, (Obama)  Washington, (Obama)  and Wyoming (Obama).  Starting to see a pattern? America is impossible to pigeonhole.

H. Rap Brown, the famed sixties radical once told me that “racism was as America as cherry pie.” It was his belief that part of the American myth, like apple pie, was all based on seeing only what we want to see. Racism was a stain on the American landscape long before Barack Obama declared his presidency. As a result it would be irresponsible to ignore the impact of race especially when America is on the brink of electing its first ever black or woman president. That is why the exit polls demand closer examination.  The ‘white male vote’ should be examined as closely as a Reverend Jeremiah Wright speech.

Those ‘ white males’ still searching for ‘The great white hope’ call into talk radio shows daily hiding behind the code words of the new racism.  They cite their opposition to ‘anti-affirmative action’ and ‘anti-civil rights.’ They want candidates who want judges who will not attempt to interpret the constitution.  They are for ‘states’ rights,’ and ‘the confederate flag.’  They like ‘Southern pride’ and so on and so forth.

Those white males who vote for Hillary, wouldn’t vote for a black man if he walked on water. They voted for her simply because she is white and voted against him because he is black. Don’t expect to see that statistic in any exit poll.

The fact that Barack Obama netted thirty-six percent of the white male vote in Indiana shows strength, not weakness. There was a time when that number wouldn’t have made it into the double digits. Weakness or bigotry lies behind the fact Hillary Clinton draws only one and ten African American votes. That too demands closer examination because not all bigots are white.

There can be no doubt some of those who vote for Barack Obama vote for him ‘only’ because he is black.  Some in the black community equate an Obama victory as divine revenge for a white racism and that, plain and simple, is racism in reverse. They cheer for the black and against the white no matter what. They threaten to riot should Obama lose.  This time it is Hillary who could walk on water and she wouldn’t get their vote. 

There are also those who vote for Obama because he is a black man making history.  And there are those who vote for Hillary because she, as a woman, could make history too. They vote out of pride and that cannot be stated strongly enough.  Her numbers among women understandably soar, as do his numbers among blacks. They are the majority of Americans. They are not bigots or sexists but race and sex matters. 

It is an inescapable consequence of a country that has divided so many for so long.   No different than when Americans cheer on other Americans at the Olympics. There is a difference between pride and prejudice.  Pride is a powerful motivator. History has shown all too well, so is prejudice.

Del Walters is an Emmy award-winning investigate reporter, filmmaker and author.