The "Race Race"

In his editorial “The Obama Dilemma,” Wilfred M. McClay argues that, in the event of a McCain victory on Tuesday, the evangelical Christian community will face harsher accusations of racism than any other group. He acknowledges that some white evangelicals are quiet about their positions against Obama “because they know that their motives cannot bear scrutiny” (McClay par. 1) but also alleges that the assumption of widespread racism is unfounded and unquestionably false. He points to the fact that many white evangelicals are voting for Obama “because of the color of his skin, rather than the content of his character or his policies” (McClay par. 2). McClay finds it ludicrous that, in today’s supposedly post-racial society, white evangelicals would be accused of racism simply based on the fact that they do not agree with the Democratic presidential candidate’s platform. A group’s (or even one person’s) opposition to a platform cannot in any way be translated to mean that that group or person is opposed to an entire race. Obviously (and regrettably), there will always be some exceptions on both sides of the race issue.

But McClay seems to think that the larger issue is that many are “motivated [to vote for Obama] by a desire to demonstrate their goodwill” (McClay par. 2). He implies that this small group of people is the “evangelical left,” who have sought to emphasize economic equity, social justice, environmental stewardship, and a more irenic foreign policy” (McClay par. 4). The evangelical left, according to McClay, is the natural continuation of the original evangelical movement that professed “social reform as the necessary expression of spiritual regeneration” and used its power to propagate such movements as abolitionism. However, he also argues that the evangelical right, which has centered its political involvement on abortion (an issue of social reform if ever there was one!), is just as much a natural continuation of the movement as the leftist evangelical push.

The idea of this need to express “goodwill” to atone for the past sins of slavery, segregation, and racism actually demonstrates that we still have not bridged the gap between races. The underlying thought of the Civil Rights movement was that race did not define a person, and yet we still have people voting for Obama simply because he is black. Isn’t that just as racist as not voting for Obama because he is black, or voting for McCain because he is white, or even not voting for McCain because he is white?

I hate to think that I am being judged a racist because I happen to support more conservative ideals than those that Obama supports. I happen to think that the fact that we have a black candidate is a great thing in that it shows that equal opportunity is available to all in the United States. But in order to maintain that equality, we must consider the candidates as equals. The fact that John McCain is white does not make him any better than Barack Obama… and the fact that Barack Obama is black does not make him any better than John McCain. The most important aspects of a political candidate are their policies and their characters—which, incidentally, have nothing to do with their race.

What we all need to take into account on Election Day—whether we’re evangelicals or not—is that we can’t look at the candidates as black or white. Politics by nature has never been black and white, whether in the context of skin color or in the context of actual policies. Obama and McCain are more than their skin color, so show them both a little respect and find out where they stand on the issues. Don’t make this race about race.