Tuesday is politics/money day on invisibleblog.com

by Clyde Hughes

The United States is facing a big one-question test: Can America look past skin color and elect a black president?

No one of color has ever come as close as Barack Obama to becoming president, but at the same time it seems so far away. The polls are neck-and-neck in a year where the Democrats should be winning by a landslide. That’s not an accident.

In a June ABC News poll, 23 percent of voters said that the race of the candidate was an important factor in their choice. That’s nearly a quarter of the electorate. Despite the fact that many of Obama’s positions are closely in line to that of the National Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton, 22 percent of Clinton supporters said in June that they will vote for Republican presumptive nominee, John McCain.

It will be a very difficult race. But then, truthfully, some of us are surprised that Obama made it this far, even with intelligence, appeal and a life story that is uniquely American. These qualities have drawn comparison to President John Kennedy.

Every politician can recite from memory one sentence in President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration speech, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

I’ve always thought the paragraph before this famous sentence was even more profound. Kennedy, in 1961, was talking about the nuclear threat from Soviet Union, but today, it could very well be used to talk about the challenge this country faces when viewing race.

Kennedy said, “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shank from this responsibility. I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.”

For many of us, this is our “Civil Rights moment.” How can we expect people of other races to look past race when we are not prepared to confront it in an upfront, honest and unflinching way? This opportunity, which actually goes beyond Obama himself, is indeed rare and because of that, we must embrace it.

Politics and race are tied together in this election and if anyone tells you differently, they are lying to you. Talking about race with others can be uncomfortable, but it’s a conversation we must have.

You may need to take baby steps in talking about the racial aspects of this election with the people around you. If we want this political season to mean more than just a footnote in history, talk to any and everyone about how race and politics are being discussed and how it should challenge and change us for the better.

The energy, faith and devotion in which we have these difficult discussions, will light our country and the world.