Did You Know Obama Is Black? Not That There's Anything Wrong with That! [VIDEO]

Posted by Adam Howard, AlterNet at 4:40 AM on March 12, 2008.

First there was Bill Clinton's obnoxious attempt to trivialize Obama's South Carolina victory by pointing out that Jesse Jackson, another black man, had managed the same feat in '84 and '88. Meaning, I guess, that if one black man accomplishes something we all can. Then there was the campaign ad where the Clinton campaign allegedly darkened Obama's skin tone. But few of their race card games have been as offensive and intellectually bankrupt as campaign fundraiser Geraldine Ferraro's claim that he wouldn't be where he is in the Democratic nomination fight if he wasn't black.

Excuse me? He's a black man, whose middle name is Hussein...the fact that he's the frontrunner of the Democratic nomination is both shocking and improbable. I think if he was a white guy, with a different, less smearable name, but with the same rhetoric he'd been having a much easier time. There is certainly a lot about Barack Obama and his campaign worth criticizing, but to their credit I have never seen them try to emphasize Hillary's gender in order to diminish her or win some sort of political points. And I'm sorry the "he'll face even worse from the GOP in general election" argument just doesn't work for me when it comes to this. I expect more from a Democrat in a primary race. I want to see distinctions drawn but not old-school racial politics. Check out the video to your right for a humorous take on this issue.

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Tagged as: gender, race, racism, ferraro, clinton, obama

Adam Howard is the editor of PEEK.