- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
As domini so aptly noted, there are few things racists are more threatened by than a black man in a suit. (I know this from hard experience--and the experiences of at least two white-collar/executive members of my family who do on-the-road consulting work.) When a person's entire belief system and self-esteem is built on someone being "lower" than you, there is nothing that burns you more than those lower people "getting ahead" of you. These folks _have_ to believe there is something wrong with someone non-white who is equal or has more than them. Admitting that a black person may be smarter or more talented than them--no way in hell are they ever, ever going to admit that.
>As to my own thoughts, I think the reason rural and small town working people liked George Bush is that they believed that, despite two Ivy League degrees, his education didn't *take*. They knew his education didn't really take because "Jesus Christ changed his heart" -- or something like that.<
But even then, they cut him slack because he was white-like-them. If he had been black, they would have thought he was running a con like those "Sharpton" urban-preacher types. :P
"Part of the reason that they don't like Barack Obama is that they believe his education *took*. Barack Obama talks like an elegant and intellectual man. He is everything that they find threatening."
Because he's black. End of story.
