Hollywood often gets there first when it comes to thorny issues and it do so back in 1967 with a movie called "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner". It was a pretty simple story - a young, blonde, white daughter of a successful middle-class family brings home her new husband-to-be. The guy is charming, handsome, polite, a fledgling lawyer (or doctor - I dont quite remember), comes from a solid family, etc. The only problem is that the man is black.
The movie starred Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier. The plot was a classic even by Hollywood standards. The father of the bride, Spencer Tracy, after ticking off all the things he wanted for a son-in-law came smack up against the realization that if he rejected this man he would have to do so on purely racial prejudice, and he thought he didnt have any.
A lot of Americans are going to have to face that same situation in their own life very soon. Even if you are a life-long, card carrying Republican, you're going to have to ask yourself if there isn't just a small part of your psyche that is going to vote against Barack Obama simply because he's black. Members of the Decocratic Party will find that question even more nagging.
All this Reverend Wright stuff is camoflage, pure bullshit and everybody realizes it. If I was held accountable for all the off-the-wall balogna I've heard come from the pulpit of my church I'd be burned at the stake. Obama is a liberal, to be sure. If you're opposed to liberalism you've got a pretty safe out. However, if you are opposed to the war, opposed to politics as usual, opposed to the erosion of our constitutional rights, opposed to this constant government slant towards big business and still plan to vote against him, you might just be a (fill in the blank). Out and out bigots don't have to worry. The rest of us might get a little uncomfortable with the answer that comes to the surface.
Tags: Politics Race Relations
