Is America a racist nation after all?

HAD Republican John McCain beaten the odds and been elected the 44th US President today, the sure-fire headline would have been "America is a racist nation". But could the same headline be accurately run after this historic win by Democrat Barack Obama?

Recall the wrist-slashing over race when progressives feared that the Democrat would lose this presidential election? When Obama wasn’t ahead in the polls, Jacob Weisberg of Slate said that the reason is “the colour of his skin … If Obama loses, our children will grow up thinking of equal opportunity as a myth.” And, said Weisberg, the international community busily barracking for Barack would have to conclude that “the United States had its day, but in the end couldn’t put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race.” When polls were close, CNN’s Jack Cafferty said that it “doesn’t make sense…unless it’s race”. When some said that they could not vote for Obama, many Democrats concluded it was the unstated race beast at work. “What else could explain it?” they asked, furrowing their liberal brow. And on it went.

Then, when Obama was ahead in the polls, media pundits (including the usual suspects in Australia) obsessed about the Bradley factor – a reference to the 1982 surprise defeat of black mayor Tom Bradley despite his lead in the polls. Since then the orthodoxy has been that while people will tell pollsters they will vote for a black man, when they get to the polling booth their innate racism emerges to prevent them from doing so.

In other words, if Obama lost after leading in the polls, the only conclusion could be that America is a racist nation. Writing in the London’s left-wing Guardian, Jonathan Freedland wrote a “don’t you dare” column. He lectured the US that if they failed to vote for his preferred black Democrat candidate and the “candidate of Europe”, there would be nasty international consequences. “If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us – and make no mistake, we shall hear it.”

The emergence of Sarah Palin, decried because she has big hair, home-town values, five children with names such as Track, Willow and Bristol - and apparently no experience compared to the community organising Democrat Obama - worried the chattering classes even more. Wouldn’t this charismatic, conservative woman from small town Wasilla surely play into the racism of American voters, went the political orthodoxy.

Now, I’m sure there are many Americans who did not vote for Obama because he is black. Some may well live in Wasilla. Hockey-mom Palin may well have encouraged them to turn out to vote for McCain. But let me run this by you. If it’s racism when an American refuses to vote for Obama because he is black, surely it is also racism when an American votes for Obama because he is black. And can anyone deny that plenty of Americans did just that when they voted for him?

Back in June I met some of them in the US. They included black cab drivers and white upper-class educated professionals who admitted they didn’t care about Obama’s policies, but would vote for him because he is black. It’s about time America had a black president, they said. Is that not racism?

To be sure, plenty of Americans voted for Obama for plenty of other reasons. At an Obama rally last week, black woman Peggy Joseph became the latest YouTube celebrity by declaring that she’s voting for Obama because "I won't have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage." Add in Obama’s policy on Iraq, tax redistribution, health, the need to boot out Republicans after the financial meltdown. Sure, many people have chosen to vote for Obama for a change of policy direction.

But there is more to this “change” election than policy. This has been dubbed an historic, once in a generation, 21st century presidential election in large part because Obama is black. And so it is. It is an historic and grand shift that, after 219 years of white men ruling America, Americans have put a black man in the White House. And whatever your politics, Obama’s win to become leader of the free world is nothing short of moving.

One can understand why voter turnout at this presidential election was at record levels, with tremendous turnout among blacks. And that is a very fine thing for the firming fabric of democracy. But let’s not for a second be so deluded – or hypocritical – as to imagine that race was not a reason why many, many Americans voted for him. That too, is understandable. Indeed, for those who voted for Obama because of his skin colour, electing Obama President is the ultimate act of affirmative action.

Perhaps, for those same people, they can now move on. Perhaps a black American president can be the first step towards a post-racial America where racial preferences are a thing of the past. Indeed, in Colorado and Nebraska, ballot initiatives sought to ban racial preferences in public employment and higher education. Can Obama’s elevation to the White House symbolise a nation that can now shake free of racial favours, firm in the knowledge that a man of race can be elected president? “Yes we can” should be the retort from the Obama camp as it build upon its inspirational message of hope and change.

But in the meantime let me be the first to say – on behalf of the left-liberal media who won’t dare say it – that this election result confirms that the US is still, in part, a racist nation.

Over to you…