Black President, Double Standard: Why White Liberals Are Abandoning Obama

I agree with Professor Harris-Perry. There is such a huge double standard as it relates to this President. The problem is, when someone acknowledges it, then that person is demonized. There is no way that the obstacles this President has faced has all been about policies. No way. Unfortunately, we are doing the Democratic party a huge disservice with all of this negativity. I agree that criticism is healthy, but when it is steeped in personal attacks, it is counter-productive. This President does not even have the support of his own party on the Hill. Those so called 'blue dog' democrats are helping the republicans to defeat and tear down this President. Either you are a democrat or you are something else, make up your mind and get out of the way.

Electoral racism in its most naked, egregious and aggressive form is the unwillingness of white Americans to vote for a black candidate regardless of the candidate’s qualifications, ideology or party. This form of racism was a standard feature of American politics for much of the twentieth century. So far, Barack Obama has been involved in two elections that suggest that such racism is no longer operative. His re-election bid, however, may indicate that a more insidious form of racism has come to replace it.

The 2004 Illinois Senate race between Obama and Alan Keyes, two African-Americans, was a unique test of the persistence of old-fashioned electoral racism. For a truly committed electoral racist, neither Obama nor Keyes would have been acceptable—regardless of policy positions, biography or qualification—because both were black.

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