Yesterday I read Barack Obama's speech at Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta, the home congregation of Dr. Martin Luther King, and I wept with hope and joy that someone so compassionate, eloquent, and intelligent is running a strong campaign for the White House.
Today, I read an article in my local paper, the Seattle Times, re-published from the NYT, that examines the idea that people "worry" about the fate that Obama might face as a prominent black leader.
Almost 40 years after King's assassination, the streets that bear his name are alive with hope that Obama may fulfill King's dream, but also fraught with fear that he could suffer King's fate. Each step of the way, Obama's progress is being measured against an ingrained belief that, in the end, "America" won't let a black man become president.
It made me furious.
I've heard this theory several times now - from white friends, mostly: that they worry that the inevitable outcome of Barack Obama's success is his martyring by assassination, and so they are reluctant to vote for him.
It makes me furious, because it is my strong belief that the line of thinking "we can't elect a black man because he'll get shot" is a subtle but real racism. Maybe an artifact of true racism, but it is a falsity, an excuse, a handicap, a ceiling.
What it says to me is that we don't trust each other enough as a nation to live out MLKs dream and ideals. And I get why people think that, I surely do.
But to deny Obama a shot at the Top Job, simply because people worry about him being gunned down seems to miss the point. It feels to me--a white guy--like our white-dominant society protectively saying "Oh, don't run for President, Mr. Black Man, you'll get hurt."
It's bullshit, and it's coddling, and it's cowardly.
Barack Obama is a smart man, and regardless of his heritage, he did grow up as a black man in this country. He's seen racism firsthand, I have no doubt. He may not carry the burden of slavery in his lineage, but I'm sure he's carried it in the daily living of his life.
He knows what he's doing, this running for President. He knows the risks. He's willing to take them, and that, friends, is called courage.
For any of us to wring our hands over his safety, and use that as an excuse why we shouldn't support him, well, that's just wrong.
It dishonors Barack, and it dishonors Reverend King, and I want to shut it down.
Anyone running for President knows the risks, and accepts them. Any time in our future when we have a minority make a real run at the White House, we will be asked by the media and the status quo to worry over someone's fate.
I'm sure Hillary knows it, as the first woman. Probably Mitt, too, as the first Mormon. This worry will happen on behalf of the first Latino, and the first Musilm, the first Jew, the first Gay person, all of those first will fall, in time, to the hope and goodness of America.
And I understand the worry when it's articulated by African-American friends, who have seen their hopes dashed time and time again.
But I say it once again - to declare that Barack Obama is somehow not worthy of support, simply because you personally worry about his well being is cowardly, and it does not honor anyone, and it especially does not honor Dr. King's dream.