I’ve gotten a couple of emails over the last few days from folks asking me about Barack Obama, plus I covered him in the BD podcast last Sunday. As if on cue, Amina Luqman at The Washington Post penned a piece with the above title which hits the points that I’ve been saying and hearing others say about his candidacy.
We are all watching Obama’s tightrope walk, his attempts to appeal to the white majority while maintaining some semblance of integrity regarding the plight of black Americans. It’s a heavy burden. In contrast, Hillary Clinton is on relatively sure footing. Obama must tilt away from clarity and passion about issues disproportionately affecting blacks while Clinton is free to perform the black candidate’s role.
That’s exactly what I saw in the debate. My friend, Skeptical Brother, gives a hint to what the headlines from the debate might have been had Obama made the comment that Hillary made regarding AIDS and black women:
“OBAMA PLAYS THE RACE CARD.”
“OBAMA SHOWS HIS TRUE COLORS ON RACE”
“OBAMA SOUNDS A SEPARATIST NOTE”
“OBAMA PANDERS TO BLACK SEPARATIST VOTE”
“OBAMA GETS DOWN IN THE GUTTER”
“OBAMA-FARAKAHAN 08″
Given what the headlines were when Obama appeared at Hampton University, (Obama Warns of ‘Quiet Riot’ Among Blacks) I don’t think Skep is far off.
And this is part of the reason why I think the talk of a colorblind society is BS. At the end of the day, no white candidate is ever going to be asked to be a representative for “his people.” No white candidate is ever going to have to straddle between worlds, in a no-man’s land, in an effort to prove he is white enough or black enough.
We know that the question [“Is Obama black enough?”] has less to do with black America than with whether white America trusts that Obama is not too black for its political taste.
We laugh at the question of Obama’s blackness because we live with a version of Obama’s tightrope dance every day.
I’m not laughing.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
While I don’t think Obama is qualified — YET — it may be that before we can have a Black president we must first have an Obama — half Black and half White — to bridge the gap, to let us take that half-step first.
I’ll tell you the truth, when Sharon Pratt Dixon first announced her candidacy for Mayor of DC, I though, “There is no way they’re going to elect a White woman.” On the flip side, perhaps many people were willing to vote for Doug Wilder because he did not look so very BLACK. (I voted for him myself, and I still think he was one of the best governors we’ve had in a long time. I think he really screwed up running against Robb for the Senate nomination; he should have waited to run against John Warner two years later — no-one would have contested his nomination then.)
Vivian,
If we’re not careful, the tightrope Obama’s walking will be transformed into a noose for the rest of us when he inevitably falls off.