Obama has a dream of becoming president, the first president "who's skin happens to be black." This statement of Obama's says something powerful but I'm not certain we all agree as to what that is.
Polls have been saying something too. Some of them have shown that more than half of white voters, unlike black voters, consider Barack Obama "multicultural" rather than "African American" or "black"...or at least they did until the Democratic National Convention. And, this may go a long way to explaining Obama's popularity with white voters.
Anecdotal evidence suggests to me that we, African Americans, knew this long before any poll was taken. Therefore, it shouldn't have raised so many hackles amongst us that Obama didn't mention Martin Luther King's name during yesterday's speech in favor of remaining as race-less as possible. At the very least, it shouldn't have been a surprise.
People speaking on Obama's behalf, such as Hilary Clinton, made references to things like The March on Washington and The Underground Railroad during their speeches. Positive race talk about someone else's race is a feel-good event for all involved. However, Obama himself let imagery and symbols do the race talking for his own race...so as not to seem exclusionary.
For example, Obama accepted the nomination for president on the date of Martin Luther Kings "I have a dream" speech and let the date itself tell blacks that he's black. And the avoiding of Martin Luther King's name, and other racial speech, tells whites that he's just as multicultural as he's always been.
It seems to me some of us are blaming Barack Obama for being a smart politician that knows that overt racism may be past (or passe) but that covert racism is covert even from those who practice it. And a smart politician knows that honesty in the face of denial must be doled out in minuscule increments.
Therefore, this potential president--who's skin happens to be black--is destined to disappoint us, over and over again. But should he become president, I hope there will be time, after Iraq and the Economy are on the mend, for major victories to be won for blacks and various other groups whose path to the American Dream continues to be littered with land-mines.
