Pain

"I've never been prejudiced in my life," said Sharon Fleming, 69, the wife of a retired coal miner, who spends hours at the union hall calling voters on behalf of Obama. "My niece married a black, and I don't have a problem with it. Now, I wouldn't want a mixed marriage for my daughter, but I'm voting for Obama."

Reading this article is incredibly painful. So, painful that I'm not really sure what to write. Those people are talking about me and my family. And what the hell is "a black"?

I don't think about racism a lot. If you don't like me because I'm black that is your problem. But the Obama campaign has brought bunch of issues up to the surface. There are a lot of white people who just don't like us. We make them uncomfortable. They think Obama will enslave them. (Why would Obama enslave his own family?) What the quote above shows is the total irrationality of racial prejudice. This poor woman can't even figure out what she believes.

I have always thought that you don't know people true racial prejudice until you ask them whether or not they would want their children to marry someone of another race.
When I was in 7th grade or so, a friend of mine told me that his parents would disown him if he ever married a black person. I had been to this family's house and they were perfectly nice to me but, clearly, I was not worthy solely on the basis of my skin color. Black meant "not good enough for my son."

It seems to me that white America is frightened. American means white and having a black guy with the Muslim middle name just doesn't feel right. His wife is even worse. Her blackness freaks them out even more. If you don't want your kids marrying one of those people you certainly don't want them stomping around one of the prettiest houses in the nation.