Gregory Rodriguez

For decades, critics of affirmative action on both sides of the aisle have argued that the policy calls into question the talents and qualifications of the minorities who benefit from it. They insisted that it generates a cloud of suspicion around the successful black or Latino student or professional. It makes whites wonder whether their minority colleagues really “earned” their positions.

It turns out those critics are right about the suspicion part. And evidently you don’t even have to be an actual beneficiary of affirmative action to be accused of having an unfair advantage. Geraldine Ferraro’s remark that “if [Barack] Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position” was not racist per se; it did not presume racial inferiority on the part of any person or group. But it was remarkably arrogant, ignorant and, unfortunately, reflective of an all too common and growing sentiment in the post-Civil Rights era.

…….. what’s impressive about Obama is not so much his African American identity as the way he wields it. He uses both the language of group pride and national unity. Unlike so many — often media-created — black leaders, Obama doesn’t use a parochial message of victimhood or the zero-sum logic of “us versus them.” Rather than spend a lot of time talking about racism, historical or otherwise, he preaches a form of collective can-doism. He sells himself as a symbol of reconciliation and knows that at this point in history, cries of racism are the quickest way to turn off white voters who are tired of being made to feel guilty for racial injustice.

But, of course, after Obama’s campaign rightly complained about Ferraro’s rhetoric (calling it “absurd” and “wrongheaded”), the indignant Ferraro inaccurately accused them of accusing her of being a racist. So there you go, despite all his efforts, the lucky-to-be-a-black-male presidential candidate can’t escape the stereotype. In the end, she still sought to paint him as that much-maligned “black civil rights leader” who never stops whining about racism: Barack Obama as the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Now, none of this would matter much if these had been the utterances of a small-time Clinton campaign worker. But Ferraro has a legacy in Democratic politics. Her remarks, coupled with those of former President Clinton comparing Obama’s win in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson’s victory there in 1984, reveal a reckless disregard for blacks in the higher echelons of the Democratic Party. Yes, it’ll all be forgotten if Obama wins the nomination. But it’ll fester if he doesn’t.

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