Some Numbers to Think About

A recent poll shows that 8% of whites would be uncomfortable voting for a black man. Consider:

-it's been 143 years, 4 months, and a few days since ratification of the thirteenth amendment, which prohibited slavery. Mississippi, by the way, ratified the amendment in 1995
-it's been just under 54 years since the Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which created the doctrine of "separate but equal." As late as 1963, the governor of Alabama (George Wallace) was blocking blacks from entering a state university
-whites make up 74% of the US population
-in 2004, Bush captured 62 million votes to Kerry's 59 million, winning by 2.4 percentage points
-recent polls have McCain at 45% and Obama at 46% in a hypothetical matchup

Given that it's been roughly seven generations since the end of slavery and two or three since the end of legal segregation, and given the razor thin margins likely to occur in the 2008 election, it may very well be that Obama is "unelectable" if Obama is likely to lose roughly 10% of white voters right off the bat (and that's a conservative estimate: people may be reluctant to tell a pollster their true feelings). It's sad to say, but institutionalized racism and bigotry is still too fresh in this country to have too much hope for a black presidency. Of course, I hope I'm wrong.