Fear Factor

Over the last few days, while scouring blogs and op-ed pages, I have come across a significant number of comments from people who say that if Hillary is the candidate they will vote Democratic but if Obama is the candidate they will vote for McCain.

To the extent that such commentators make an attempt to give a "principled" veneer to their position, they cite Obama's relative lack of experience when compared to Hillary and even more so when compared to McCain. In fact Obama is no less experienced in politics than Lincoln was when he first ran for President.

One of the lingering, though publicly unexpressed, fears that many people allude to in private conversations is the effect an Obama Presidency may have on race relations in the U.S. More particularly, people voice concern over the possibility that if Obama becomes President, African-American's will somehow see this as a license to give voice to racial animosities that linger just below the surface and that some African-Americans may even seek to exact vengeance against whites and other non African-Americans for the years of perceived or actual mistreatment. The concern is, of course, not uttered publicly for fear of being accused of racism, but it is real nonetheless.

This calls to mind in many ways a concern that was raised by the white minority Afrikaner community in South Africa over the effects on race relations of eliminating apartheid and instituting a "one-man, one vote" democratic system. The concern being that whites would always be in the minority, would always be disenfranchised by the majority Black population and that there would likely be violence directed at the white settler population. In fact, a segment of the white South African population so greatly feared racially based reprisals that they chose to leave South Africa, settling in any number of European countries and the U.S. Lo and behold, the fears of Afrikaners were greatly exaggerated. Granted, there was some racially based violence during the period shortly following the end of apartheid and the release of Nelson Mandela from Robbin Island and his subsequent election to the Presidency but it was not widespread. Similarly, any such actions by African-Americans, if they occur at all, will likely be few and far between.

The presumption that Blacks will go on a rampage once they have sufficient power to flex their muscles is nothing short of racism, harping back to the still lingering beliefs in African savagery and lack of civility. Nevertheless, while it may be irrational, it still may influence the decision of a segment of the U.S voting population come election time.

Sadly enough there are still people in this great nation of ours that can never see themselves voting for an African-American for President, be it Obama, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice or any other African American figure, no matter how qualified or experienced he or she may be. We can only hope that this point of view represents the smallest of minorities and that it will not have a significant effect on the electoral outcome.

For a number of reasons, the 2008 Presidential election will be a pivotal moment in the (de)evolution of the US as a Democracy. It will either show us at our best, as a nation that is able to put aside whatever lingering fears remain from our legacy of slavery and racism or it will demonstrate that we still have much healing to do and a long, long way to go in our democratic trajectory.

(c) 2008, All Rights Reserved: R. Ventura-Rosa

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