Academic

So What If He Was?

By firstamendmentblogger

McCain's gotten quite a bit of praise following his rallies of late for handling the absurd "Obama is an Arab" who pals around with "terrorist" comments from supporters.  See video below.  I'm not sure its so deserved.   

In response to these comments, McCain simply shakes his head and defends Obama as a "decent family man, citizen" that Americans "don't have to be scared of." 

Such a limited yet telling retort.  Rather than say we have nothing to fear from our Arab brothers and sisters, McCain's only saying we have nothing to fear from Obama because he in fact is not Arab. 

So what if he was? 

Perhaps it would have been too much to expect McCain to confront the underlying racism behind these remark, but he surely didn't have to feed into the racial anxiety so patently on display.

Whether voters rightly or wrongly identify Obama as Black, mixed-race, Arab, Christian, Muslim, or whatever isn't the big issue.  The big issue is the constant reminder that whatever his heritage happens to be - its not White.

-Kathleen A. Bergin

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on October 14, 2008 (boomark / email).