Sunday, November 2, 2008
Willie Brown
Sunday, November 2, 2008
By this time next week, Barack Obama will probably be the first African American to have won the presidency. He will be the Jackie Robinson of American politics.
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There will be many house parties and family celebrations come election night. However, just as when Jackie crossed baseball's color line, I don't think you'll see any massive national celebration.
Black people felt a great sense of pride when Jackie became the first African American to play in the majors. But, like Jackie, Barack is not the kind of guy who would drive a big demonstration or celebration on race.
That's because there's nothing about the Obama campaign that's connected to that vein of racial pride. He's in a whole different bag.
He is not like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, who would have stopped at every black church in the country during the campaign.
Obama will do none of that, and that's part of the secret of his success with the broader electorate. He wasn't raised "black."
He hardly mentioned affirmative action during the campaign. He didn't talk about all the black men in prison. In fact, he hardly brought up race at all.
Those have been core issues for an entire generation of black leaders, and Obama's decision not to make them the focus of his campaign left a lot of the traditional black leaders on the sidelines.
But remember, Jackie Robinson didn't get into the majors because he was black - he got there because he was a great ballplayer.
Barack Obama won't get elected president because he is black - he'll get elected because he is a brilliant politician.
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