The Washington Post piece about racism on the campaign trail highlights examples of anti-black sentiment experienced by Obama volunteers - incidents that have gone largely unnoticed and/or unackowledged by both the campaign and the mainstream media.
While this culture of omission doesn’t surprise me in a social climate that has chosen to downplay our nation’s racial wounds rather than heal them, it is funny that America has been lulled into believing that racism no longer exists - overt or structural (despite constant reminders like the Jena Six, the rampant rise of hate crimes, the racial unrest in the aftermath of the Sean Bell verdict, the disparity in the war on drugs and the countless examples of unabashed racism that arise is discussions of America’s broken immigration system.)
The real take-away from this story is not that campaign staff are subjected to experiences that the candidate himself may be distanced from. It's the duh-connect-the-dots point that if a rockstar presidential candidate is the object of this sort of racism, imagine what the regular people of color that live in and around these communities must experience on a daily basis.
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