Looking beyond race

Regarding your Sept. 28 editorial "The race angle": Black people like me who grew up in the segregated South are not surprised that an Associated Press-Yahoo poll "shows that 40 percent of white Americans have a negative view of black people."

I would guess that among this 40 percent are people in decision-making positions as to who gets hired, fired or promoted. I would also guess that among this 40 percent are those who consider themselves good Christians, who will tell you with a straight face that there is no racism in America and that this country does not need affirmative action.

But to the 40 percent, I say that when you get tired of paying $5 for a gallon of gas, paying $10 billion a month for a war that we cannot win, seeing your neighborhoods decimated because of all of the home foreclosures and paying $700 billion in corporate welfare to greedy Wall Street bankers, maybe then you will begin to look at candidates based on politics, not on their skin color.

But my guess is that I am hoping for too much.

Gwendolyn T. Colvin, Raleigh

Many paths of racism

Your Sept. 28 editorial "The race angle" seemed to imply that the reason more white voters aren't supporting Barack Obama is because of racism. A better question would be why over 90 percent of blacks won't support John McCain.

A recent USA Today poll on personal identity was very revealing: Only 4 percent of whites thought of themselves "white first, American second" while 45 percent of blacks said they were "black first, American second." Even Hispanics identified more strongly with their (often adopted) country than with their own ethnicity and are more evenly split between the two presidential candidates.

No one can deny that racism exists or that it has tangible and tragic consequences for its victims. But it's naive to think that racism is a one-way street. An Obama win in November won't just be in spite of racism; it'll also be (in part) because of racism.

Samantha Torres, Chapel Hill

Black and white

Regarding your "race angle" editorial Sept. 28, a welcome effort to create discussion on the hidden race factor come November, there is a solution.

When people say they won't vote for a black man, hold that condemnation. Remind 'em they can have it both ways by voting for the white half.

Charles Anderson, Burgaw

Rah, rah, rah

Might I suggest that your otherwise excellent editorial Sept. 28 was somewhat compromised by the statement that a vote for Sen. John McCain because of his "support for President Bush's policies" would be "fine and dandy." This blanket generalization regarding McCain's positions is straight out of Sen. Barack Obama's playbook and might be legitimate fodder for a separate more detailed editorial but should not have been inserted into this piece. It also causes me to question your assertion that you are not intending "to open a cheerleading session for the Illinois senator."

Paul Kobrin, Chapel Hill

Beats the patch

I can't remember an election producing such polarization. I detest the way I feel myself rush to judgments when I hear someone is supporting a candidate from the other side. For those, like me, who are looking for stress relief, I suggest quitting for your favorite candidate.

This is how I discovered this cure. A friend and I realized that occasional cigarettes were becoming a habit, and we looked for a way to quit. We decided that for every cigarette we smoked, we would send $25 to John McCain (a candidate neither of us supported) and if we could hold off for three months, we would send support to our favorite candidate. I quit cold turkey!

Next page >

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.