Source: MSNBC
Racism alarms Obama's backers
Candidate's foot soldiers encounter name-calling, vandalism, bomb threats
By Kevin Merida
updated 12:04 a.m. PT, Tues., May. 13, 2008
I think it's a remarkable article as one thing I remember reading often in news stories on surveys about race in America is a disconnect between various groups in the US on whether or not racism is a problem and the article suggests a simple answer: racists hide their views until they feel it is most convenient for them.
Here's a quote from the article that I find fascinating:
For all the hope and excitement Obama's candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed -- and unreported -- this election season. Doors have been slammed in their faces. They've been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers)....
One might say, surprise, surprise, but why? If racists know that there is a position in this country against what they do, why wouldn't they carefully and as intelligently as they can, hide it?
So that what you see is different from what someone else sees until there is a door opened by a special circumstance.
And this presidential election for obvious reasons is a special circumstance.