Race in Presidential Campaigns

Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio are great obstacles standing in the way of Senator Obama who is a Democrat candidate which has been the choice of these people since 1964. This region is home to strong labor unions and Democratic political machines. Throughout America there are still people who say that Obama’s race and uncommon background make them uneasy but in these regions even the Democrats think the same.

To overcome this problem Obama supporters found no other way than directly talking to these people about the issue of race.

On the other hand there are some people like the president of the coal miners union who try to persuade voter on the fact that Obama might be black but he’s a friend to them and McCain who’s white is an enemy.

This problem has changed the presidential campaign in most southwestern parts of Virginia to race discussions.

There are lots of doubters in this region who cannot let go of their old skepticism and somehow come to terms with themselves not to vote at all not even for a Democrat who they voted for, for many years.

Some others challenge the notion that a believing Christian could base his voting decision on ethnicity issues, like religion or race. Obama is even accused of being a Muslim which his supporters try very hard to disapprove.

A newspaper columnist tries to bold his black origins by saying that he would color the white house black or even change the stars on the U.S. flag to star and a crescent which resemble Islamic symbols. So it seems as though he believes that the color of one’s skin can determine his inner color and be a sign of his evilness, since one has to be very un-American to change the white house which the representative of America to black , or in other words to color their whole history and all his precedents black.

The McCain campaign refuses to explicitly tackle with racial issues on behalf of the Republican party but they try to convince miners that Obama’s policies would do them no good.

So one comes to think that the American dream has still a long way to go to reach that desired utopia. After about 150 years after the first talks on black emancipation, the system is so rigid that many people simply claim that the only problem with Obama is that “he just doesn’t seem that he’s from America”!

Hajar Amidian