White Liberals

In his article Guess Whos Coming To Dinner, Frank Rich makes a witty comparison of the 1967 film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” to the candidacy of Barack Obama. Rich claims that the film is “inadvertently contemporary” (Rich, par. 3) and proceeds to convince his reader of this. He argues that although the liberals have been focusing on the racism of every “unreconstructed bigot” (Rich, par. 4) in America, they have their own preconceived notions and prejudices concerning Senator Obama. Liberals, as well as the media, have underestimated Obama numerous times, according to Rich; because they view him through the same lens audiences viewed Sydney Poitier’s character in the film more than forty years ago. Just as Poitier’s character was seen as “too perfect, and too white,” (Rich, par. 2) Obama has been looked at as “too lofty” or “too ethereal” (Rich, par. 5) to have a serious chance at winning the presidency. But despite their underestimations or subconscious prejudice against him, Obama’s candidacy, from the very beginning, has been dependent on the white liberal.
Rich investigates specific events of Obama’s journey to presidential nominee and examines how these events prove that the “take-no-prisoners political insurgency” of the Obama camp differs from white liberal conceptions concerning his candidacy. Despite the media’s initial portrayal of the senator as being too idealistic and abstract, Obama defeated Clinton first in Iowa. He then made an impressive showing on Super Tuesday, and by “surpassing her in organization, cash and black votes” (Rich, par. 7) went on to snatch the nomination from his opponent. Still distracted by what they felt to be his optimistic excesses, the media was recently shocked by leads Obama developed among women and Hispanics (Rich, par. 7). Rich’s documentation of Obama’s path from a freshman senator to a potentially historic president from the day of his inauguration is accurate, but incomplete.
Although the white liberal perhaps misunderstood the senator, or underestimated him due to his or her own stereotypes and bias; without these same individuals Obama’s victories would never have occurred. The population of Iowa is predominantly white. But Obama won there first. Blacks alone do not make up a large enough percentage of the Democratic Party to elect a candidate. But Clinton did indeed lose. Furthermore, if Obama does eventually win the presidency, he will do so with millions of white liberal votes. The lesson here; Obama’s accomplishments must be viewed in light of, rather than despite of, the white liberal. The necessity for white liberals to fully and objectively understand Obama in order to support him is debatable. The fact that Obama’s presidency, much like the marriage of Hepburn and Poitier in the film, will ultimately depend on the white liberal, is not.