The issue of race has been brought up in this primary election over and over. Is it a factor? Of course it is. Is there racism in this country? You bet there is. As they say in the broadway 'Avenue Q', everybody's a little bit racist. But there are areas in this country where everybody's a lot racist. One way you can read this is by mapping primary results county by county across the United States. One thing you notice right away is Appalachia. As a geographic feature, it goes almost exclusively for Clinton. Obama was never going to win Pennsylvania. The governor of PA, Ed Rendell, acknowledged this at the beginning of the race, saying that he didn't think his state was ready to vote for a black man. In rural areas, where people are generally less educated, have few experiences to have extended interactions with black people, and are generally frustrated because of their finances, could there be a higher tendancy to view black people in an ignorant and fearful way? Check out the map for yourself. The green is where Obama has done well, the red is for Clinton. The greener or redder the color, the stronger they did in that county, the missing states are the states yet to come. Remember that Obama wasn't on the ballot in Michigan, so you have to mentally throw that one out.
I think admiting that we have racial issues in this country is important. I think it is also important to admit we have an enormous class divide. As Americans, we tend to sweep our problems under the rug. On the surface, our national media and our politician's are generally quiet about these issues because nobody wants to stir up any controversy. The problem with ignoring these issues is that, as with anything, they become worse. Black men continue to be incarcerated at alarming rates, and inner-city schools continue to be underfunded and undersupported. If you are poor, it is too expensive to have health insurance and you must get used to living without, meanwhile the rich are completely lost in insatiability. The longer we wait to have these discussions, the harder it becomes to have them. Talking about race can quickly become explosive. When a candidate says there is bitterness among some Americans, people don't know how to handle it. These things exist in America, but when someone brings it up on the national stage, journalists and politicians are quick to jump on it to prove their own moral superiority. Every time we do this, we lose an opportunity to actually discuss the issues and maybe, possibly, come up with some better ways of doing things. We are at our best when our journalism and our elected officials wrestle with these issues honestly and openly.
