Gwen Ifill’s new book “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama” is good, and it mentions a couple of South Carolina stories: (1) the successful beginning of the political career of SC State Rep. Bakari Sellers and (2) the SC Democratic Primary victory of Barack Obama. Here’s Gwen Ifill’s description of the famous “Race doesn’t matter!” chant at the victory party:
“On the night Barack Obama won the South Carolina Primary, his supporters could barely contain themselves. Bouncing back from a surprise defeat two weeks before in New Hampshire, the double-digit victory thrilled the multiracial crowd gathered that night in the heart of the South. When their candidate appeared, they took up a chant.
‘Race doesn’t matter! Race doesn’t matter!’ they shouted in a chant that built and spread throughout the room. Standing at the foot of the stage in a ballroom just blocks from the state capitol, Obama’s pollster, Cornell Belcher, watched in astonishment.
‘Here you are in South Carolina, three blocks from where the Confederate flag is still flying in front of the state capitol and all the history that has held in that state,’ Belcher, who is black, told me [Gwen Ifill] later.”
This “Race doesn’t matter!” chant describes a hunger that young people have for a breakthrough on race in this country. Young people these days are so interested and involved in international events, activites, and cultures.
But our leaders in South Carolina are stuck in the past. Bud Ferillo said it best at a showing of his Corridor of Shame movie in Georgetown, SC: “What South Carolina invests the most in is the past.”
SC State Sen. Glenn F. McConnell, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Secession Camp #4, spent $30,000 of his own money to buy … new technology, new communication, new something, new anything … a new civil war cannon. And he’s spending millions of our state’s money on the Hunley, a Confederate submarine – I don’t know what his plans are, perhaps he’s interested in retrofitting the Hunley for active service!
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is continuing to make breakthroughs with regard to race and politics, and he should be applauded for his Memorial Day gesture:
“…Mr. Obama continued the Confederate monument wreath tradition. But he also started another, the White House said, by sending a second wreath across the Potomac River to the historically black neighborhood in Washington where the African American Civil War Memorial commemorates more than 200,000 blacks who fought for the North in the Civil War.”
Unfortunately, Dr. Randolph, President of the SC State Conference of the NAACP, instead is “drafting a letter on behalf of the state chapter of the NAACP to criticize the president’s action,” as reported by the excellent Yvonne Wenger of the Charleston Post and Courier.
Look, the Confederate soldiers, in President Obama’s words, “answered a call.” The state leaders of South Carolina caused the Civil War by seceding, and these leaders called up soldiers to fight for South Carolina. It’s quite similar to the starting of any other war, for example the Vietnam War or the War in Iraq. Criticizing the reasons for the wars and the motivations of the political leaders involves a political discussion. We should criticize the political leaders, not the soldiers.
We all want to get past this issue, and I want to get past it in the way that President Barack Obama wants to get past it, which is to break through it.
7 Comments
June 5, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Great read. Thanks for doing this. Gwen’s book is very informative and you picked just the parts I was going to blog about. Good work, friend.
June 5, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Jamie,
I’ve only scratched the surface; there’s plenty more to write about. Also, Rep. Bakari Sellers is one of the sponsors of H-3588. And that Georgetown screening of Corridor of Shame is the one you invited me to.
Cheers,
Michael
June 6, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I may be one of the few people to publicly say so ’round the poliblogs, but the Hunley project is totally worthwhile, for a number of significant historical reasons (state, national, maritime, &c.).
June 6, 2009 at 6:14 pm
I’ve said this before: The Hunley is interesting and SC should spend some public funds on the Hunley. The questions are how much money and how should the project be organized. I don’t like Sen. McConnell’s involvement — he’ll make the project all about “heritage” instead of history. Heritage is a rose-colored view of history that takes ownership and separates people. History is inclusive and fact-focused.
Here on this post are the links about Sen. McConnell.
Links: The $30K cannon.
Eight million dollars of public funds for the Hunley.
Some correspondence of E. Lee Spence.
One of several posts on the topic over at Fitsnews.
June 8, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Keep up the great work, friend. You are more than welcome to do a guest blog for me.
June 11, 2009 at 9:28 pm
By the way, Dr. Lonnie Randolph is usually quite supportive of Barack Obama. He has criticized Barack Obama once before, and the criticism was correct. Here’s a brief article about it. Barack Obama, when he was asked in the Myrtle Beach debate about Toni Morrison’s calling Bill Clinton the first black president, made a joke about having to see Bill Clinton dance. Dr. Randolph said that Obama shouldn’t have perpetuated stereotypes. I agree. Obama should have quipped, “Well, Dick Cheney is my cousin, so we’ve probably already had a black president.” Something like that anyway, something different from a stereotype.
June 11, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Here’s a link to an informative article by James Loewen about the wreath tradition and the monuments. Hat tip to Edward Sebesta.