Senator Clinton, on the other hand, ducks, straddles, changes the subject, or remains silent. Her evasive strategy on issues of race was revealed in an early August appearance at a convention of African-American journalists. Hillary Clinton was asked whether she was “black enough” to hold the allegiance of African-American voters. Sidestepping the question, Clinton replied that she was proud of her party for having a black, a woman, and a Latino competing for its nomination.

The case I make for Obama rests primarily on the strength of his campaign proposals for black America. His platform becomes compelling when contrasted with the Clinton program that offers nothing. But there is another important reason why Obama should be the choice of African-American voters.

Think back to the great role models of the African-American past, such giants as W.E.B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, and A. Philip Randolph. In fields unrelated to civil rights, one thinks of iconic figures such as Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, E. Franklin Frazier, Percy Julian, and Carter Woodson. In recent years there have been unprecedented breakthroughs. A black man and a black woman have been named United States secretaries of state. Another black woman has been chosen president of a great Ivy League university. Today, a dozen or more African-American men and women hold the highest executive positions in America’s largest and most powerful corporations and financial institutions. Only a generation ago, their fathers, who were often college graduates, had to settle for jobs as postal workers or low-level civil servants.

Now in the upcoming election, there is a possibility of the arrival of an African-American role model whose influence and stature could far exceed that of any black person in the past. There is a chance today, a possibility never remotely considered since the founding of this country, that a black man, in a multiracial society where blacks are a minority, may be elected to the most important and powerful position in the world. When one contemplates this thrilling prospect — however distant it still may seem — one looks forward to a massive surge of black support for Barack Obama.

<<  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  >  >>

Printer Friendly Version  l  Downloadable PDF