I work the night shift at a Post Office in the Bible belt. One of my co-workers is a white, hardcore-conservative, religious-Christian guy, who would never admit that he's a racist but seems to be one anyway. The racists have all learned at this point that they don't want to be labeled a racist. (Actually, several of my co-workers fit that description, but this guy in particular is loud about his views.)
This guy voted for W twice, proudly, and believed the Swift Boat Veterans raised good points about Kerry. So that's who I work with.
We were talking about the election a couple of days ago. He said he would never vote for Obama, because he's against "militant blacks." Also, he said he's against anyone who calls himself "African-American" because "why can't they just call themselves Americans like the rest of us? Do I call myself English-French-German-American? No!"
So he's an idiot. But I argued with him anyway...
I asked him why he couldn't vote for Obama. At first, he wouldn't answer directly. He said he's always voted Republican.
I pointed out to him that Republicans advocate privatizing the Postal Service, so if they have their way, we would lose our good Union jobs. (We both make about $23 an hour with good health insurance, for pushing boxes around.) He laughed that off, as if it could never happen. It could happen, and it will, if conservatives have their way.
I pressed him some more on why he couldn't vote for Obama. He said, "I could vote for Condaleeza Rice or Bill Cosby, but I couldn't vote for Obama." I pointed out they're not running. He said Obama reminds him of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and the NAACP "and all those guys always whining and asking for something for nothing, instead of talking about working hard to make a success of yourself."
By now my eyes were rolling. But I kept going. I asked him if he didn't think Obama's personal history was inspiring, raised by a single mom, going to college on loans, making himself a success. He grudgingly said yeah, that was good, but look at Obama's pastor.
I pointed out the pastor isn't running, either, and that Obama is not an "angry black man," his personality is famously calm and even-tempered. I said he was going to have a hard time finding a more reasonable black guy who is qualified to be president, and this is our first real chance to do it and get it over with. I said once we have a black president, that will resolve a lot of your issues with Jackson and Sharpton and the NAACP, because from that point on, no one will be able to say that America keeps black people from positions of authority.
Suddenly he seemed intrigued. He said, "That's right, no one will be able to whine about racism any more, because we'll be able to point at Obama and say, 'Oh really? Check out our president.'"
Then he said, "But isn't he just going to put in a lot of affirmative action laws to help other black people have preferential treatment over whites who are more qualified?"
I said no, he hasn't ever advocated that, and even if he tried, Congress and Bush's conservative Supreme Court wouldn't let him do it anyway.
He said, "That's right, every president fails at stuff that his supporters want. Look at Bush -- we thought he was going to outlaw abortions, and he hasn't done anything about it, really."
He started to get excited about Obama. He said, "Whoever the next president is, the economy is screwed up, so he's going to have to deal with that and probably fail. If Obama is president, everyone will see he's just like every other president. He'll let his supporters down in some ways, and screw up, and change and negotiate with Republicans who his supporters all hate. And all the blacks who said they wanted a black president will see what it's like to have 'your' president let you down."
I said right, in the end Obama will be just another president, who gets some things right and other things wrong. But, I said, afterwards we'll be living in a post-President-Obama world, and no one will ever be able to say that America is so racist we won't let minorities rise to the top.
He said, "Yeah, and the NAACP will have to close up!"
I said they probably won't close, but they will change. I said everything will change, because it has to.
He said that he was really thinking about voting for Obama now, for the first time. He said he had never heard a reason to vote for him before that made sense, but "making the NAACP go away is a real thing that could happen. How can they justify their existence when the president is black? And how can Al Sharpton pretend he's a black leader, when the black leader will be the president?"
He added, "McCain's not a real conservative anyway, so it's not like there's a good option."
So, what do you DailyKos people think? Is it worth it to try to reach racists like this guy? Do we not want their votes? Isn't it true that everything will change automatically once we have a black president, and is there anything wrong with pointing that fact out to a racist?
Also, how sorry do you feel for me that I work with people like this guy? He's one of the smarter ones, by the way. A lot of these guys at my work wouldn't have even argued about it with me, and would have left it with a statement like, "I ain't never voting for a brother."