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Race in contest for White House

As the first African-American to become a major party’s presumptive nominee for the presidential election in the United States, Barack Obama has had to deal with the race issue during various phases of the campaign. He has responded adroitly overall — and in magisterial fashion on one occasion. The first hurdle the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansas mother had to cross was proving his credentials to sceptical African-Americans. Large sections of th is community, scarred by the brutalisation it was subjected to since colonial times, seemed to consider Mr. Obama not ‘black enough.’ They wondered whether a person who came of age after the anti-segregation struggles of the 1960s and who spent part of his childhood abroad was really attuned to the historical experiences of the community. Mr. Obama was able to authenticate his connection with the ‘black experience’ by projecting his work as a community organiser and alluding to the struggle waged by his wife’s family to live down the legacy of slavery. African-Americans began to rally solidly behind Mr. Obama especially after he won primaries in States with small coloured populations. The presumptive Democratic nominee now faces the challenge of retaining the support of this bloc as he wards off Republican attempts to portray him as a proponent of identity politics.

With the ugly language of the segregation era now taboo in U.S. politics, even the hard Right of the Republican Party is unlikely to mount blatantly racial attacks. But subliminal moves to inject colour into the contest for the White House are already discernible. Emphasising the ways in which Mr. Obama’s life experiences differ from those of ‘middle America’ is nothing but a not-so-subtle attempt to draw attention to the most visible distinction between him and white voters. Will it succeed? During the primary campaign, socially conservative white working class voters showed a clear preference for Hillary Clinton. In public opinion polls, less than 10 per cent of this bloc declared outright that they would not vote for a black candidate. However, the numbers grew significantly when those polled were asked whether they knew people who — irrespective of what they said to pollsters — would never vote for coloured candidates. In March 2008, Mr. Obama tried to address lingering prejudices through a landmark speech on racial relations and by reminding members of his own community, especially the large number of absentee black fathers, of their social responsibilities. The presumptive Democratic nominee needs to work hard to narrow the racial divide for his own and his country’s sake.

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