Can Obama Eradicate Race As a Topic in National Elections?
APOLOGIZE UP FRONT FOR HAVING THE GALL to second-guess the famed and erudite polemicist Christopher Hitchens who asked this week in Slate if “isn’t there something pathetic and embarrassing” about the nation’s obsession with Senator Barack Obama’s race. Hitchens then goes on to lampoon white America’s guilt-ridden swoon over Obama, Republican Alan Keyes for his past “are you black enough?” challenge to the Illinois Senator, and even Obama’s Chicago church for its pander to members who remain “true to our native land, the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.” And if he’s fuzzy on the nuances of what makes a man of mixed-race “black,” I highly recommend reading biracial author David Matthews’s essay in Radar on this year’s election. All this to say: Pardon my insolence, but does it not seem as though Mr. Hitchens has answered his own question? The fact that Hitchen’s column was published January 7, the day before Obama’s loss in the New Hampshire primary, may well be significant
