Right now the Republican senatorial candidate in Massachusetts is threatening to make the race interesting. This is largely because he's been funded by out of state teabaggers. That is to say, people who subscribe to the strange ideology of anger epitomized by the "tea party" movement, not people who put their testicles in other people's faces, though I do think the two are related.
Jimmy Carter said this about the virulent opposition to Obama: "...that racism inclination still exists. And I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the south but around the country, that African Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply."
I think he's right, sort of. I think the fact of Obama's election has overturned a fundamental belief of most Americans, which is that a black man could never be president. This isn't limited to white people: Michael Franti sang "Can you see us in the white house? No you can't!" in 1994. So Obama's election overturns what people took to be a given, and it's kind of scary to a lot of people. Because if an unquestionable truth suddenly turns out to be wrong, maybe everything is uncertain! I do think people feel right now like a lot of things are in flux, and that's scary. And people usually react to fear with anger.
Note--I'm not saying that everyone opposed to Obama's policies is necessarily racist. But I do think the fear and anger that a lot of white people are feeling are a result of their own unconscious racism. And I think Scott Brown in Massachsetts is tapping into this. He's an old school white guy who's running against a woman and who promises to thwart the black guy. White people, especially men, look at this and see an opportunity to restore what always seemed to be the natural order. Now, again, I know there are principled Republicans who will vote for Scott Brown for policy reasons, but the opposition to Coakley and Obama doesn't seem to be rational. It's all about raw emotion, this deep anger over...what, exactly? I have looked at their websites and read their tweets and facebook posts, and it really seems incoherent to me. It's not about policy. It's just fear.
The majority of white people are not rich. But they've always been able to comfort themselves in the knowledge that while they might not be rich, at least they're not black. If being black is no longer a signifier of inferiority, then suddenly white people without money have nothing to feel good about. This is another reason for the anger. (This cuts both ways--many black academics and pundits have built careers on saying that black men can't get a break in America, which is why they so gratefully jumped all over the Gates affair, which was nothing more than "rich guy being a jerk to cop doing his job.")
I'm glad that the world is not the way I grew up believing it was. I find it refreshing. But a lot of people are really scared. I hope they get over it, 'cause it's kind of ugly.
