The New York Times has a five stories in today's paper on racism and the presidential campaign. Adam Nagourney leads off Then another Times reporter goes spelunking for racists in the Deep South:
For Some, Uncertainty Starts at Racial Identity By ADAM NOSSITER MOBILE, Ala. - The McCain campaign's depiction of Barack Obama as a mysterious "other" with an impenetrable background may not be resonating in the national polls, but it has found a receptive audience with many white Southern voters. In interviews here in the Deep South and in Virginia, white voters made it clear that they remain deeply uneasy with Mr. Obama - with his politics, his personality and his biracial background. Being the son of a white mother and a black father has come to symbolize Mr. Obama's larger mysteries for many voters. When asked about his background, a substantial number of people interviewed said they believed his racial heritage was unclear, giving them another reason to vote against him. "He's neither-nor," said Ricky Thompson, a pipe fitter who works at a factory north of Mobile, while standing in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store just north of here. "He's other. It's in the Bible. Come as one. Don't create other breeds."... "I would think of him as I would of another of mixed race," said Glenn Reynolds, 74, a retired textile worker in Martinsdale, Va., and a former supervisor at a Goodyear plant. "God taught the children of Israel not to intermarry. You should be proud of what you are, and not intermarry."... "He's going to tear up the rose bushes and plant a watermelon patch," said James Halsey, chuckling, while standing in the Wal-Mart parking lot with fellow workers in the environmental cleanup business. "I just don't think we'll ever have a black president."
Do you think the Times has any plans to find a half dozen racists at, say, Trinity United Church, who are voting against McCain? No time for questions like that right now. But look! Over in Nevada, another racist:
Volunteers for Obama Face a Complex Issue By JENNIFER STEINHAUER ELKO, Nev. - On a recent evening here in eastern Nevada, Cathy Vance, a volunteer for the presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama, went knocking on doors of voters who had been identified as potential Obama supporters. Elko County is largely rural, with few black residents, located in a state with a dearth of black elected officials. Among the people she found that night was Veronica Mendive, who seemed cautiously warming to Mr. Obama's candidacy. But she had a thought. "I don't want to sound like I'm prejudiced," Ms. Mendive said. "I've never been around a lot of black people before. I just worry that they're nice to your face but then when they get around their own people you just have to worry about what they're going to do to you."
or the anti-Vietnam protestors in Berkley who spit on veterans. TEXT Hot Topic Is Secondary in a Part of Colorado By KIRK JOHNSON BUENA VISTA, Colo. - Black people are simply not in the picture in this part of Colorado. What that means, said many people in the nearly all-white corridor through Chaffee and Lake Counties along the spine of the Rockies, is that race is not on the table much when talk turns to Senator Barack Obama's bid for the White House. "Because there's not any sort of daily interaction to sway us either way, to make us prejudiced in either direction, it makes it more of a candidate choice," said Laurie Benson, 36, who owns the Buena Vista Roastery, a coffee supplier on Main Street, with her husband, Joel. "It's more just who is the best candidate." ... Peggy MacKay, a 63-year-old supporter of Mr. Obama and resident of Buena Vista, tried recently to imagine an alternative universe. What if she lived instead in an urban neighborhood where race, poverty and crime were the backdrop of life? Would she still vote for a black man? "If I were an inner-city person, and I was confronted with those problems every day, I would hope that I could rise above it," said Ms. MacKay, a corporate consultant and trainer. "To be honest, I don't know that I could."
In Generation Seen as Colorblind, Black Is Yet a Factor By SHAILA DEWAN LEXINGTON, Ky. - William Osborne, a sophomore political science major and member of the currently all-white University of Kentucky chapter of FarmHouse, an international fraternity, is naturally soft-spoken. But when asked if he had heard people say that they would not vote for Senator Barack Obama because he is black, his voice dropped to a barely perceptible level. "I might have heard something like that," he said. Asked if what he had heard was hard to talk about, Mr. Osborne stopped talking altogether and simply nodded, looking miserable. Throughout this campaign season, many commentators and politicians have proclaimed today's youth to be a colorblind generation in which racial prejudice has receded and diversity is embraced. But in two days of interviews here and north of the Ohio River in Cincinnati, most young people acknowledged - or even insisted - that race was still a powerful if subtle factor among their peers. At the University of Cincinnati, Anthony Galarza, a graduate student in urban planning, said he had heard off-color jokes about an Obama presidency that suggested the White House would become "more ghetto" with "barbecues on the front lawn." "I would think on a college campus we would be a little more liberal," said Mr. Galarza, 29. "To hear it so openly talked about, it's disturbing - it really is. I don't think anyone who is colorblind would make a comment like that."