For Obama and Black America, Election is About More Than Politics and Experience

CLEVELAND - With a mere 11 days remaining in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, each party is employing very different tactics.

Not surprising.

Republican John McCain trails his Democratic counterpart, Barack Obama by several points and needs to virtually win each of the remaining battleground states to claim victory.

Obama simply has to keep his smooth and highly effective campaign going in the direction that it's going, and he'll be just fine.

McCain has consistently questioned and ridiculed Obama's lack of experience and plan to raise taxes for Americans making a minimum of $250,000 per year. His running mate, Alaska governor Sarah Palin has similarly disparaged the Illinois senator during rallies and interviews.

What White folks don't understand is that this election represents more than simply who will make a better leader for our nation or who has the most experience. Obama would be the first African-American president in history, which is incredible considering how much of a fight it was just for a Black person to use the same water fountain as Whites.

Indeed, within Obama's lifetime, Blacks have traveled seemingly a million miles. In 1961, Barack was born to a White woman who had been impregnated by a Black man. At that time, the Kennedy Administration was initiating legislation to improve Civil Rights for Blacks. By the time Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, Obama was but a mere toddler.

But there were still lynchings all over the South of "Negroes."

Interracial marriage wasn't even legal at the time of his birth. The Ku Klux Klan was in decline but still flexed their racist muscle with "hate crimes" against Blacks. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in the middle of a seemingly hopeless fight for racial equality, until he was murdered in 1968.

Obama was only a first-grader at the time.

My point of bringing all of this up is for Whites to understand why an Obama victory in the election would be more than just historical. It would be transformative in the minds of many folks, especially our youth who will undoubtedly become empowered more than ever after witnessing such an unprecedented occurrence.

Whites have never been at a disadvantage. Hell, even today they out number Blacks by an almost nine-to-one ratio in the U.S. Obama shows us that we finally have a "seat at the table."

But don't get it twisted.

I'm not saying this country is leaving its racist reputation behind. That will never happen. I am simply saying that us Blacks have come a long way, in spite of how long we still have yet to go. But the path of Blacks, especially in Obama's lifetime is rather stunning. It was unthinkable in the 1990's that a Black person could actually be our president. In the early 1960's, it was nearly criminal to entertain such a notion.

Look at us now.

Mr. McCain, stop acting as though you never saw the mistreatment of Blacks. You've been around since the 19th century so you're well aware. Stop the hate mongering and the William Ayers references and give Obama the respect he deserves.

Or go to hell.