The Democratic Race: Racial Politics

On Thursday, I'll be writing about racial dimensions of the Democratic primary campaigns. The report Tuesday night is that Barack Obama won 90%-plus of the Black vote in Mississippi. At the same time, Hillary Clinton won 72% of the White vote, while Obama got about 27%. My questions are these: (1) Why is Obama getting such an overwhelming percentage of the Black vote? (2) Why is Hillary Clinton getting approximately three-out-of-four White votes? I'll be looking into Geraldine Ferraro's comments about Obama being "lucky" that he's a Black male candidate. Ferraro's statements horrified the cable media, which is easily horrified. I believe both Clinton are using race to gain political advantage.

Both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama are using the "race card" to their advantage -- and to the disadvantage of Black people. Sadly, there's nothing unusual about the approach they're taking.