Racism Won't Be a Major Factor in Presidential Election - But Dirty Tricks Might: Verner

Guest Commentary


Jimmy Verner, a Board Cerified family law specialist in Dallas, Texas saw a recent article about racisim and the vote in West Virginia, which moved him to write about the topic of race in the 2008 presidential election, and specifically on how racism might impact the election:
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By Jimmy Verner

What I find naive (about the Baltimore Sun article linked above) is the idea that racism isn't much of an issue in places other than West Virginia. I'm here to tell you it is, but at the same time, I don't think it will have much of an impact on the vote for Obama.

I live in Dallas County which is one of the few blue parts of Texas.
But even here in Dallas, and especially once you get to more rural
areas, there is substantial racism. I'm not talking about the "let's
lynch 'em if they look at the white women" type of racism but instead
the sense, among some white people, that black people are different
from whites and generally inferior - the black stereotype some whites
hold that black people are not as smart as white people, that they are
lazy, that they are preoccupied with fornicating, and so forth. It's
the diffuse notion that blacks don't value the White Anglo-Saxon
Protestant virtues as much as they should.

Now how would I, as a white man, know that racism exists? I know
because I see how some whites treat blacks and the subtle differences
in treatment. For example, a black man who walks into a convenience
store seeking directions might well be treated differently by a white
clerk than a white man with the same request. The black man would be
greeted with a slightly strained smile and accorded a little less
patience if he didn't understand the directions the first time
around. Body language would say, "I've told you, now get on your way."

But mostly I know that racism exists because of the things I sometimes
hear. If you are a white man, you will hear comments from other white
men that you will not hear when persons of color or women are
present. It's rare to hear a white man use the N-word, but you do
hear things like "Joe, he just doesn't get it - what do you expect
[from one of them]?" or "Those people who take welfare ought to get a
job" or "I wish they'd their keep pants zipped and then there wouldn't
be so many of them."

This is sad, but it won't materially affect the election. Your
average otherwise goodhearted but racist white guy is a whole lot more
worried about his job, his house and his family than he is about what
color the President is in far, far away Washington, D.C. Barack Obama
won't be his neighbor and won't be wanting to be friends with his
daughter. He's not really all that black anyway, come to think of it,
not only in his color but in how he talks. If you didn't know he was
black, you couldn't tell just by listening to him. Plus he did go to
Harvard so he must be pretty smart. And God knows George Bush has
driven the country into a ditch. McCain might be white, but he's old,
he sounds a little crazy sometimes, and he really wouldn't change
things much from what they're like right now.

So I'm not worried about racism affecting the election. What I am
worried about is Republican dirty tricks. To the extent that overt
racism exists in this country, dirty-trickster Republicans embody it.
Their mantra: If you keep the black man from voting, then McCain
might just win.


(Editorial note: We thank Jimmy Verner, of DeSoto (Dallas) Texas, for granting us permission to publish this article at CowHen.Net. Mr. Verner retains the copyright to this article, but grants right to republication if published in full, without modification, and with credit to Jimmy Verner, and citation to this post at CowHen.Net.

Jimmy is a family law appellate attorney, Board Cerifed in Family Law and Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Sepcialization. He is also licensed to practice law in New Mexico.)