By Kevin Merida
The Wa****ngton Post
updated 3:04 a.m. ET, Tues., May. 13, 2008
WA****NGTON - Danielle Ross was alone in an empty room at the Obama
campaign
headquarters in Kokomo, Ind., a cellphone in one hand, a voter call list
in
the other. She was stretched out on the carpeted floor wearing laceless
sky-blue Converses, stories from the trail on her mind. It was the day
before Indiana's primary, and she had just been chased by dogs while
canvassing in a Kokomo suburb. But that was not the worst thing to occur
since she postponed her sophomore year at Middle Tennessee State
University,
in part to hopscotch America stumping for Barack Obama.
Here's the worst: In Muncie, a factory town in the east-central part of
Indiana, Ross and her cohorts were soliciting sup****t for Obama at malls,
on
street corners and in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and they ran into "a
horrible
response," as Ross put it, a level of anti-black sentiment that none of
them
had anticipated.
"The first person I encountered was like, 'I'll never vote for a black
person,' " recalled Ross, who is white and just turned 20. "People just
weren't receptive."
For all the hope and excitement Obama's candidacy is generating, some of
his
field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are
encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed —
and unre****ted — this election season. Doors have been slammed in their
faces. They've been called racially derogatory names (including the white
volunteers). And they've endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping
from
people who can't fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the
first African American president.
The contrast between the large, adoring crowds Obama draws at public
events
and the gritty street-level work to win votes is stark. The candidate is
largely insulated from the mean-spiritedness that some of his foot
soldiers
deal with away from the media spotlight.
Meeting Cruel Reaction
Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty
one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she
could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in
Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The
responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he
couldn't
possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"
Do***entary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F.
Kennedy, said she, too, came across "a lot of racism" when campaigning for
Obama in Pennsylvania. One Pittsburgh union organizer told her he would
not
vote for Obama because he is black, and a white voter, she said, offered
this frank reason for not backing Obama: "White people look out for white
people, and black people look out for black people."
Obama campaign officials say such incidents are isolated, that the
experience of most volunteers and staffers has been overwhelmingly
positive.
The campaign released this statement in response to questions about
encounters with racism: "After campaigning for 15 months in nearly all 50
states, Barack Obama and our entire campaign have been nothing but
impressed
and encouraged by the core decency, kindness, and generosity of Americans
from all walks of life. The last year has only reinforced Senator Obama's
view that this country is not as divided as our politics suggest."
Campaign field work can be an exercise in confronting the fears, anxieties
and prejudices of voters. Veterans of the civil rights movement know what
this feels like, as do those who have been involved in battles over
busing,
immigration or abortion. But through the Obama campaign, some young people
are having their first experience joining a cause and meeting cruel
reaction.
On Election Day in Kokomo, a group of black high school students were
holding up Obama signs along U.S. 31, a major thoroughfare. As drivers
cruised by, a number of them rolled down their windows and yelled out a
common racial slur for African Americans, according to Obama campaign
staffers.
Frederick Murrell, a black Kokomo High School senior, was not there but
heard what happened. He was more disappointed than surprised. During his
own
canvassing for Obama, Murrell said, he had "a lot of doors slammed" in his
face. But taunting teenagers on a busy commercial strip in broad daylight?
"I was very shocked at first," Murrell said. "Then again, I wasn't,
because
we have a lot of racism here."
Vandalism, Bomb Threats
The bigotry has gone beyond words. In Vincennes, the Obama campaign office
was vandalized at 2 a.m. on the eve of the primary, according to police. A
large plate-glass window was smashed, an American flag stolen. Other
windows
were spray-painted with references to Obama's controversial former pastor,
the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and other political messages: "Hamas votes BHO"
and "We don't cling to guns or religion. Goddamn Wright."
Ray McCormick was notified of the incident at about 2:45 a.m. A farmer and
conservationist, McCormick had erected a giant billboard on a major
highway
on behalf of Farmers for Obama. He also was housing the Obama campaign
worker manning the office. When McCormick arrived at the office, about two
hours before he was due out of bed to plant corn, he grabbed his camera
and
wanted to alert the media. "I thought, this is a big deal." But he was
told
Obama campaign officials didn't want to make a big deal of the incident.
McCormick took photos anyway and distributed some.
"The pictures represent what we are breaking through and overcoming," he
said. As McCormick, who is white, sees it, Obama is succeeding despite
these
incidents. Later, there would be bomb threats to three Obama campaign
offices in Indiana, including the one in Vincennes, according to campaign
sources.
Obama has not spoken much about racism during this campaign. He has sought
to emphasize connections among Americans rather than divisions. He
shrugged
off safety concerns that led to early Secret Service protection and has
told
black senior citizens who worry that racists will do him harm: Don't fret.
Earlier in the campaign, a 68-year-old woman in Carson City, Nev., voiced
concern that the country was not ready to elect an African American
president.
"Will there be some folks who probably won't vote for me because I am
black?
Of course," Obama said, "just like there may be somebody who won't vote
for
Hillary because she's a woman or wouldn't vote for John Edwards because
they
don't like his accent. But the question is, 'Can we get a majority of the
American people to give us a fair hearing?' "
Sent by Kamau
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24588813
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