From Kevin Merida's article (available w/o sign-up at MSNBC):
And, keep in mind, these are DEMOCRATS that these campaign volunteers were canvassing. So much for being the party of inclusion.Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"
Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said she, too, came across "a lot of racism" when campaigning for Obama in Pennsylvania. One Pittsburgh union organizer told her he would not vote for Obama because he is black, and a white voter, she said, offered this frank reason for not backing Obama: "White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people."
Hat-tip: Ta-Nehisi Coates
2 comments:
Holy cow. I hope that is not really representative of PA. I can't believe people actually say stuff like that anymore. And especially not out loud! Who the heck knows what people say behind close doors at night, but to actually say those kinds of things to strangers and not be ashamed.
I hope Obama wins and kicks some racist butt . . .
I read that article too and it completely depressed me. I'm glad you pointed it out.
I campaigned for Obama a few weeks before the primary in Pennsylvania and encountered a similar experience.
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