Our Acceptance of the Code

Unless you live under a rock, you know that Barack Obama won three primaries last night.

I watched the election results for quite a while, listened to him give another inspiring speech, and then watched all the talking heads discuss his win, and thus, Hillary Clinton's loss.

As I watched the pundits, I found myself stepping back and listening to what they were saying. Code words were flying back and forth as they discussed Obama and Clinton's election chances. Before I knew it, I developed an unease that followed me into the wee hours of a sleepless night.

Was it only a week ago that I complained about a woman assuming that I was voting for Obama? Indeed, it was fun playing a prank on her by telling her I voted for Ron Paul. But unfortunately, the assumption that people are voting according to race continues to be made on a wide scale basis.

We get so used to hearing and reading statements like, "Obama won (Pick a State) because the black vote turned out in record numbers."

This sort of thing continues to be said by reporters and Clinton spokespeople alike. It doesn't seem to matter that Obama has won in a whole host of states where there's like two black people total in residence. More than two black folks in Maine and Idaho you say? Okay, three. I'll give you three tops.

And what about the states with more than three black people in residence? Well for them, we get to hear how, "The Obama camp is celebrating last night's decisive win, a victory boosted by (Pick a State's) sizeable black population."

It doesn't matter if 60% of non-black folks voted for Barack. If a bunch of black folks voted for him, he only won because of that. Heck, if only one black person voted for him, that vote just tipped the scales!

I don't believe in voting by looking at a person's color. In my world, woting decisions should be made in a thoughtful and humble manner because we're accountable to the greater good for our decisions. If you think about it, voting is an incredibly sacred responsibility and as such, voters should take the time to independently investigate each candidates stance on issues, their voting record and their character. You should know why you want to vote for someone, and it shouldn't be because of some blogger's opinion or a politician's endorsement. It shouldn't be because Oprah and Rush Limbaugh told you to vote (or not to vote) for a candidate. And it sure shouldn't be solely because of the color of their skin.

I recently commented on another blog that there are lots of black folks I have nothing in common with and share no values with. I'm not voting for 50 Cent or P. Diddy if they run for office. Even if L'il Kim finds God and repents for subjecting our eyes to her myriad plastic surgeries, if she decides to run for Los Angeles City Council, guess what? I'm not voting for her!

Celebrities aside, there are also plenty of black politicians you couldn't pay me to support either. Remember Marion Barry smoking crack in the hotel room? Put away the CIA setup theories for a second because regardless, I wouldn't have voted for him for mayor a second time. Heck, I might not have voted for him the first time and I'm confused as to how he's in office right now!

That being said, I, and every other black person, should have the luxury everybody else does to follow a candidate for the most ridiculous reasons ever. If I tell you I'm voting for Hillary simply because I like her blue power suit, so be it. If I like McCain's comb over, so what? Who could possibly not like that comb over! If I'm voting for Obama because I really just want to see his wife in the White House as a fly First Lady, fine, I should have that right!

And once Michelle Barack gets elected, I'm going to send emails begging her to flip the script, get rid of that straight hair and get a big afro to scare America!

Just kidding. I think.

It just seems like black people have to come up with incredibly articulate, issue-focused reasons to vote for Obama and nobody else is being required to do so.

That's especially annoying since only a few months ago, Barack was supposedly struggling to be seen as black enough. Remember Tavis Smiley's "State of the Black Union" last year? If you didn't see it, count your blessings because you missed out on the whole, "All skin is not kin!" comment.
Yeah, until a few months ago, black people were supposedly standing around saying, "Barack's not really black. He's mixed and his momma's white. Vote for Clinton because her husband really is black."

In the meantime, it's OK for other groups of people to vote for Hillary Clinton precisely because she's white.

We get used to hearing coded language like, "Clinton is counting on the sizeable Latino vote to turn out in Texas and push her ahead." This translates into, "We believe Latinos are a homogeneous group of racist folks who won't vote for a black man."

That's alright according to the Clinton campaign if that gets their candidate elected and it's just fine with all the talking heads, too. How do I know this? Because I don't hear anything coming from either the Clinton campaign or from the TV and newspaper pundits unequivocably saying this sort of thing is not the way our country should be. Instead, if our nation's racial sicknesses help a campaign, that's just the way things are.

In fact, I don't hear any campaign loudly saying, "If you are only voting for me because I'm white or black, don't vote for me. Vote for me because you believe I'm a leader and you respect my stance on the issues."

Have you heard that said? Check me if I'm wrong and somehow missed that in all of the pundit and campaign spokesperson upchuck.

I also don't hear these folks talking about how the mere fact that we regularly break down candidates' votes along racial lines proves that we are not in the post-racial existence we'd like to sometimes think we are. I mean, every news show analyzes votes according to how whites, blacks, and Latinos voted.

Actually, I'm starting to wonder why we never get to hear how Asians vote. California has the largest Asian population in the United States and we didn't hear about their super Tuesday vote. What's up with that? C'mon, pundits, don't leave Asian people out of the insanity. They might feel left out!

There's that old saying that sometimes if you stand too close to the wall you can't see the whole picture. Well, when I step back from the speeches, the analysis, the blogs and the newspaper articles, I can't help but think about how the way we discuss the candidates, voting and our electoral process is inherently corrupt. And the icing on the campaign cake is how steeped we all are in the sickness of racism.

We take it in, tune it out, regurgitate it without thinking and slowly accept it as reality. We become numb to it and feel crazy if we think about it too much. It's like we're living in the Matrix.

How do we break free?