Below The Beltway

That seems to be the message that the Washington Post wants us to draw from an article in today’s lite news Style Section:

For all the hope and excitement Obama’s candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed — and unreported — this election season. Doors have been slammed in their faces. They’ve been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they’ve endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can’t fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president.

The contrast between the large, adoring crowds Obama draws at public events and the gritty street-level work to win votes is stark. The candidate is largely insulated from the mean-spiritedness that some of his foot soldiers deal with away from the media spotlight.

And there are tales of some incidents of vile, stupid racism directed toward Obama supporters canvassing for votes in Indiana and Pennsylvania, but then there are anecdotes like this:

Aaron Roe, 23, was mowing lawns at a local cemetery recently, lamenting his $8-an-hour job with no benefits. He had earned a community college degree as an industrial electrician, but learned there was no electrical work to be found for someone with his experience, which is to say none. Politics wasn’t on his mind; frustration was. If he were to vote, it would not be for Obama, he said. “I just got a funny feeling about him,” Roe said, a feeling he couldn’t specify, except to say race wasn’t a part of it. “Race ain’t nothing,” said Roe, who is white. “It’s how they’re going to help the country.”

Is this guy a racist ? Frankly, I don’t see it.

The candidate himself has sought to downplay the impact of race on the campaign:

“Will there be some folks who probably won’t vote for me because I am black? Of course,” Obama said, “just like there may be somebody who won’t vote for Hillary because she’s a woman or wouldn’t vote for John Edwards because they don’t like his accent. But the question is, ‘Can we get a majority of the American people to give us a fair hearing?’ “

Given the fact that he’s on the verge of becoming the Democratic nominee for President, I would say that the answer to that question is yes.

The media, on the other hand, seems to want to concentrate on the negative. Yes, there are ignorant, stupid people out there who will never vote for Barack Obama because of his race — heck, they wouldn’t even vote for the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan if he didn’t have white skin — but that doesn’t mean that everyone who doesn’t vote for Obama is motivated by the color of his skin.