Jul 21 2008
LA Times OpEd on Obama and Race
A pretty good article: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rodriguez21-2008jul21,0,1787991.column
I’ll quote this part here:
In the meantime, voters seem to be reading a whole lot of racial significance into an Obama triumph.
According to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll, about two-thirds of blacks and Latinos and just over one-half of whites agreed that an Obama victory would improve race relations. Blacks were the most optimistic, with 23% saying it would make race relations “a lot better,” compared with 13% of whites. Similarly, 85% of blacks said an Obama win would be a sign of progress toward racial equality in the U.S.
But does this mean that blacks would see a President Obama as a black leader who “speaks” for them, a leader in the mold of civil rights advocates? Asked who they would choose if they had to pick one individual to speak for them on issues of race, 29% of black respondents selected Obama. Although he got the most support as spokesman, 49% named someone else, and nearly a quarter named no one.
That’s amazingly good news to me. I’m thrilled to see stats confirming that black folks don’t think that Barack Obama is our spokesperson or savior. We like him, but we get it that he’s running for president of the United States… 
