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My colleague Adam Serwer has written the most thoughtful analysis I've read of the complex, subtle, but central role race is playing in this campaign:
The rapturous coverage of the Obama campaign during the primary was less about Obama himself than it was America congratulating itself for being willing to consider a black man for president, with the subtext being that the United States had finally liberated itself from its racist past. It established an unspoken contract that Obama's success was proof that racism is no longer a serious problem, thus preempting any further discussion on the subject. But even as the mainstream media all but trumpeted his nomination as the end of racism in the United States, Obama continues to face a series of arbitrary and shifting public tests merely because he is black. His dilemma remains that the only way to succeed is to pretend that this double standard does not exist. He has to extricate himself from an ongoing racial competition between blacks and whites, where the prosperity of one is seen as detrimental to the other.[...]In a dispute about race, the McCain campaign knows it will end up with the larger half. For the most part, most white people's experience with race isn't one of racial discrimination. They can only relate to racial discrimination in the abstract. What white people can relate to is the fear of being unjustly accused of racism. This is the larger half. This is why allegations of racism often provoke more outrage than actual racism, because most of the country can relate to one (the accusation of racism) easier than the other (actual racism). For this reason, in a political conflict over race, the McCain campaign has the advantage, because saying the race card has been played is actually the ultimate race card. This is another reason why Barack Obama's unsolicited remarks about how Republicans might use race against him were so ill-advised and a troubling departure from his standard approach to race. Perhaps the endless stereotypes and double standards he faces as a black candidate -- accusations of being a Muslim, of being a black separatist, of being arrogant -- have taken their toll. Directly acknowledging these stereotypes and double standards would be even more dangerous for Obama, because many white people see his campaign as proof that these types of racism no longer exist, which is unfortunately part of his emotional appeal as a candidate. This is why the campaign needs to avoid dealing with race in the context of his rivalry with McCain whenever possible.This is one of those "read the whole thing" sort of articles.
