Robert L. Terrell

As was the case with most African Americans, I was initially ambivalent regarding Barack Obama’s campaign to become President of the United States.  On the one hand, I believed he was qualified, and would probably make a good to outstanding President if he managed to get elected.  On the other hand, I understood that his candidacy would lead the nation into direct confrontation with the poisonous hatred animating the crowds currently dominating McCain-Palin rallies.

Thus, from the moment Obama announced his candidacy, I/we began to focus on the large, generally unacknowledged, contingent of white racists in the United States.  They possess, a hate-filled, bloody history.  And past tragedies have repeatedly confirmed the fact that they have few reservations about using horrific violence to maintain the broad system of white privilege that has prevailed in this nation for generations. 

Because Obama’s ascendance constitutes a perceived threat to that system, I knew that life was destined to acquire a grim, and inherently more dangerous, character for all African Americans.   And so we held back, fearful that Obama would experience the same end as Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and many other lesser-known black leaders.  Nonetheless, we fretted due to realization that progress of the desired sort could not be achieved without deadly risks.

For many of us, Iowa settled the matter.  After the good people of that overwhelmingly white state provided Obama an unexpected victory in their caucuses, we were left with little option but to support their inspiring courage and our deferred dreams and aspirations.  Thus, as the presidential campaign has evolved in state after state, African American voters have rallied at the polls in support of Obama.  

Critics frequently assert that our near unanimous support for his candidacy constitutes a form of racism.  But those who make this charge are generally unwilling to acknowledge that in typical elections African Americans routinely provide 100 percent of their support for white candidates, the vast majority of whom have little of no commitment to addressing the issues most important to people of color.

In any event, African Americans have experienced elation and dread as the campaign has moved into its final, decisive phase.  Obama’s unprecedented success up to this point is deeply inspiring.  However, I want to note that much of my elation where his success is concerned is not focused for the most part on myself, or African Americans in general.  Mostly, I have been elated because of what Obama’s success means for those white Americans who are dedicated to the goal of liberating themselves from the racist social, emotional, cultural and political prisons in which they reside. 

My elation also stems from recognition that this process of white liberation is necessary for this nation’s basic survival.  This is most apparent on the international scale.  Although it is rarely publicly acknowledged here in the United States, we live in a colored world.  And unfortunately, the racially biased perspectives of the people who currently lead this nation is thrusting us into increasingly dangerous confrontations with the world’s colored majority.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are prominent examples of the kinds of racially-oriented confrontations I am referring to.  I might also note the escalating friction between the U.S. and Latin America, or our misbegotten policies in the Middle East to make the same point. Furthermore, U.S. policies toward Africa and most of Asia are also tied too often to racist ideas, and ill-conceived traditions of dominance and submission, which are deeply rooted in colonial fantasies engendered by woefully outdated notions of the “White Man’s Burden.”

The hate spewing crowds of angry white people who have been acting out at McCain-Palin rallies in recent weeks via vile, and extremely dangerous, attacks on Barack Obama are confirming the worst initial fears of African Americans where his candidacy is concerned.  Nonetheless, it is important for people of conscience to understand that, the issues at the heart of their disgusting dissent will disproportionately determine the fate of this nation, domestically and internationally.  

And, unfortunately, my best sense is that the collapsing national economy, including its long-term negative consequences, will further agitate “lunatic fringe” elements in white America in ways that will inevitably exacerbate the perilous financial chaos dead ahead.

Given all this, I am hoping for the best, but preparing for the worse…