Surging Obama Campaign Suggests U.S. Racism on the Wane
Prejudice Lingers, but There's Evidence It's Becoming a Thing of the Past
Still, Gozdik says people's concerns about the economy and the unpopularity of the current Republican administration may make race less of a factor this year in particular.
"People may be more willing to vote for a minority now because the country is doing so badly," she says, noting that she also knows a number of people who she might have thought would balk at supporting a black candidate but plan to vote for Obama.
At the Georgia State Farmers' Market in Forest Park, Ga., just outside the liberal Atlanta beltline, the economy is also top on most voters' minds.
"The economy is really aggravating everybody," says Lamar Caskin, a 20-something black man, who's busy mopping the market's bathroom stalls.
He almost lost his job recently when he couldn't find gasoline to get to work during the regional shortage that struck the area after hurricanes Gustav and Ike. As a result, he supports Obama's economic plan, which relies on energy independence and tax breaks for the middle class.
"I don't think race is a big deal in this election," says Caskin. "I hope it's not an issue, but I don't see it and I don't feel it, and I honestly never thought about it."
But Josh Pincus, a Chicago architect who supports Obama, says he was recently shocked at a conversation in which several acquaintances used racial epithets while talking about the election and praised putting up McCain lawn signs as being similar to advocating the KKK.
"I was blown away," he says, while watching his young daughter at a Chicago playground. "I just had to walk away."
Experts on race say strains of overt racism still exist, but not as powerfully as just a few decades ago.
"[Those with racist views] clearly are a minority now and they're not dispositive of anything -- there was a time when they were," says David Bositis, a senior researcher at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, whose research focuses on issues of particular concern to African-Americans and other people of color. "They can rant and rave all they want, but time has passed them by."
Despite the academic studies and record numbers of Americans, white and black, who've contributed to the Obama campaign, concerns remain that racism could undermine Obama's candidacy.
Sonia Whittle is a Mexican-American married to a white Republican man. She often picks up the scuttlebutt on the streets of Forest Park, a largely black and Hispanic neighborhood in Georgia. Because of her Hispanic appearance, whites and blacks often think she doesn't speak English, so she overhears racial prejudices from all three populations. In her circles, she says, race overshadows all other issues at the moment.
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