The Great Black-White Hope

One reason for the power of the myth is that, for many, it represents an understandable inference from the fact that America remains racially stratified, with disproportionate numbers of blacks at the bottom in terms of education, wealth, and income. The inference is mistaken. Even if all traces of white racism were to vanish, racial stratification would persist until more poor African-American children get enlightened parenting and good educations.

The other reason for the power of the myth is the drumbeat of publicity wildly exaggerating the persistence and pervasiveness of white racism that is churned out on a daily basis by onetime civil-rights groups such as the NAACP, by too many black politicians, by academia, and by the media.

All of this has contributed to a crippling loss of hope among underprivileged (and even some more-affluent) black people. This despondency has not been dispelled by 30 years of racial preferences. It will not be dispelled by another 30 years of the same. And more racial preferences, forever, are just about the only remedies that the academics, the NAACP, and many in the media have to prescribe.

The ascent of Obama is the best hope for focusing the attention of black Americans on the opportunities that await them instead of on the oppression of their ancestors.

"America, while still flawed in its race relations, ... is now the least racist white-majority society in the world; has a better record of legal protection of minorities than any other society, white or black; [and] offers more opportunities to a greater number of black persons than any other society, including all those of Africa." So said Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson, an African-American of liberal-leaning political views, in 1991.

That's why the number (more than 700,000) of Africans since 1990 who have voted with their feet for America as the land of opportunity, by immigrating, exceeds the number (500,000) who arrived in chains during centuries of slavery. That's why the CEOs of AOL-Time Warner, American Express, and Merrill Lynch are black, as are the current and immediate past secretaries of State.

And that's why a half-black, half-white, all-American achiever named Barack Obama could be the next president. "In no other country on earth is my story even possible," as Obama said at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

What of Obama's limited political experience at the national level? He has more than did another presidential candidate from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. And he has shown a remarkable capacity to appreciate the legitimate arguments for all sides on every issue, a capacity that transcends his down-the-line liberal voting record. He was elected president of the Harvard Law Review because the conservative minority who tipped the balance thought that the liberal Obama would be fair to their views. They were not disappointed.

Obama has also demonstrated deep understanding of the roots of the racial and political polarization that he seeks to transcend with his consensus-building style. Consider his remarks at a town meeting in Rockford, Ill., last fall. Reported Time magazine's Joe Klein: "He moves through some fairly arcane turf, talking about how political gerrymandering has led to a generation of politicians who come from safe districts where they don't have to consider the other side of the debate, which has made compromise—and therefore legislative progress—more difficult."

Obama did not mention the victimologist leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus. But as he well knows, the racial gerrymandering that guarantees most of these members safe seats in black-dominated, Democratic districts, while ensuring conservative Republican dominance of neighboring districts, is a big part of the polarization problem.

Obama also understands the spirit that must infuse any solution to racial and political polarization. "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America," Obama said in his 2004 convention speech. "There's not a black America, and white America, and Latino America, and Asian America; there's the United States of America."