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Clinton losing black support
17/03/2008 14:20 - (SA)
Washington - African Americans liked Bill Clinton so much that he was once dubbed "the first black president", but perceptions that his wife's campaigning has been racially tinged have taken a toll on Hillary Clinton's
White House bid.
Some accuse Clinton's campaign of trying to cast her rival
Barack Obama as a candidate of limited appeal in order to
marginalise his candidacy and enhance her chances of winning
the Democratic party nomination.
Senator Obama would be the first black president if he won the
nomination and then defeated Republican John McCain in the November
4 national election. Obama is leading Senator Clinton in the fight
for delegates to the August convention.
Clinton would be the first woman president. But some black
Americans have grown mistrustful of her campaign because of
statements by her, her husband and other surrogates. African
Americans make up 13% of the US population.
Dream ticket talk
Her suggestion of a "dream" ticket with Obama as her vice-presidential running mate reminded some of the days when blacks, regarded as second-class citizens, were ordered to sit at the back of buses.
"No offence, but that is typical of a white person to offer
you second place and say they'll take first place," trucker
Jasper Clark, 53, said at a recent Obama rally in Jackson,
Mississippi.
The mere mention of Clinton's name drew boos from that
mostly black audience.
Obama discusses his life as the son of a white woman from
Kansas and a black man from Kenya to highlight his message that
the United States can move beyond racial divisions, but the
issue keeps bubbling up.
Injecting race into the campaign
The two sides have accused each other of injecting race
into the campaign. Last week they traded barbs over a flap
involving Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro, who became a
trailblazer for women when she joined the unsuccessful
Democratic ticket as a vice-presidential candidate in 1984.
In comments some viewed as racially divisive, Ferraro
attributed Obama's lead so far in this year's Democratic race
to his being black. "If Obama was a white man, he would not be
in this position," she said.
Ferraro later resigned from her role on Clinton's
fund-raising committee and Clinton said she repudiated and
"deeply" regretted her supporter's comments.
The Clinton campaign accused the Obama campaign of drawing
the race issue into the campaign by calling attention to
Ferraro's remarks.
Some analysts said the Ferraro remarks could provoke
resentment from some white Americans over "affirmative action"
policies aimed at helping minorities overcome discrimination.
Many US blacks say such resentment often causes their
accomplishments to be overlooked.
"It's the idea that a black person with a Harvard Law
degree and a distinguished legislative career only got to where
he is because of his skin colour. That's surreal," said William
Jelani Cobb, a history professor at Spelman College in
Atlanta.
"It is comparable to the same tiresome argument that
accomplished black professionals often hear: 'He or she only
got that job because of affirmative action,'" said Patricia
Gunn, a law professor at Ohio University, who supports Obama.
Black support for Clinton dropping
In polls, Clinton had been splitting black support with
Obama as recently as late last year.
But many took offence when Bill Clinton compared Obama's
victory in the South Carolina primary to success there by Jesse
Jackson, an African American who ran for president in 1984 and
1988, but attracted little support on the national stage. Some
said Bill Clinton's comments were a bid to marginalise Obama as
a candidate only of black America.
Clinton said last week she was sorry for the flap. "You
know, I was sorry if anyone was offended. It was certainly not
meant in any way to be offensive," she said.
But her popularity among blacks has continued to erode. In
South Carolina, eight in 10 black voters supported Obama. That
margin increased to more than nine in 10 in the primary last
week in Mississippi.
Obama supporters, who hope his message of transcending
racial divisions can have broad appeal, have emphasised that
his wins have come not only in states like Mississippi with
large black populations, but also in mostly white states like
Iowa, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Idaho.
Controversy for Obama too
Obama has been facing a controversy of his own over
racially charged and inflammatory rhetoric by Rev Jeremiah
Wright, the pastor at his church in Chicago. Comments such as
Wright's contention that the United States believes in "white
supremacy and black inferiority" put Obama on the defensive. He
has attended Wright's church for 20 years.
Obama said he rejected the "incendiary" comments by Wright,
who resigned from his role as "spiritual adviser" to the Obama
campaign. At a fund-raiser on Saturday, he likened the comments
of both Ferraro and Wright to the politics of the past. "We're
going to be wrestling with those demons," Obama said.
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