For one of the few times in the last 400 years, the following words can be sincerely spoken:
This is a great day to be a black man in America.
Maintaining his equilibrium better than the race-obsessed journalists who are chronicling his unprecedented journey, Sen. Barack Obama, by the will of his personality, has awakened the historically dormant pride that blacks genetically are taught to mask.
Even though Americans are supposed to be too educated to consider race when voting for a candidate, many sensible blacks will have trouble suppressing their lever-pulling hand for Mr. Obama during the primary season.
I may be wrong. But I can only think of two other times genuine American black pride may have swelled to this un-ignorable size:
A century and a half ago at the Emancipation Proclamation and perhaps on the August day nearly a half-century ago during Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Justification
Let us close the circle and bring my point home.
How, you may ask, do I square this attitude with my recent strong criticism of state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Culver City) and Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks for running as black men instead of as candidates for the seat of County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke?
Mr. Obama has precociously arrived at his stunning station in the vast and starry political universe, it seems to me, because he is running as a Democratic candidate, not as the auto-ordained delegate of a minority race. Being darker than of skin than 95 percent of his audiences, and being of sound mind, he and his advisors see no reason to underscore the obvious, a time-encrusted liberal tradition.
Plain Enough for a Child
Even a child could see that Mr. Obama is black. A still younger child could gauge, with reasonable assurance that his first name is Mister not Missus.
No need to use up the audience’s valuable, finite time clarifying non-existent doubts about whether you belong to a gender and to a race.
Using the most religious members of my synagogue as a barometer, even when people purportedly are avid about both the message and the messenger, attention-span is a dangerous toy’s nose to tweak. Don’t stay on too long.
Tell your crowds about what they cannot see.
About Girl Athletes
By running as a person of admirable honesty and sterling character, Mr. Obama has leaped far enough ahead of his principal opponent that she may never catch him. After all, she is a girl. You know how weak girl athletes are.
It may be true, as his enemies charge, that Mr. Obama is more of an open page than an open book. If so, digest for a moment how far he has come by just revealing one page. His main rival claims she is an open encylopaedia. But because of her perceived character flaws, she has been unable to advance beyond the first sentence in her book.
Lest They Forget
Sadly, in the past month, I have not read one story about Mr. Obama, online or on paper, where the author has resisted the temptation to identify Mr. Obama as a black man, not just a candidate, in a cymbals-clanging manner.
This traces to one of the proud liberal traditions in America, to patronizingly remind black people — and whites, if you must — what a generous, colorblind friend you are of the most oppressed race in the history of the earth.
Different Approaches
While both Mr. Obama and his main rival are making Presidential history, he does not insult his audiences with the obvious. She does. He casts himself as a normal person. A loyal liberal, she proudly labels herself a victim.
With Mr. Obama setting the pace, Mr. Ridley-Thomas and Mr. Parks are likely to advance closer to their dream seat downtown for the rest of their natural lives if they shift and start imitating a winner instead of the losers they presently are modeling.
