Race and the Base

If there's one thing I've learned since I've begun to host "Politics Plus" on WLIB, it's that the audience is different from both the audience at Air America, where I previously worked, and even from that of the "old" WLIB, where I worked for 30 years. Nothing bought this home faster than Thursday's discussion of Rev. Jesse Jackson's backhanded slam against Barack Obama.

Both on the phone and in text messages (now there's a new wrinkle), many in the audience thought Rev. Jackson was simply "player hating" on Obama. Some people brought up his fathering of an out of wedlock child as proof of his fall from grace. Still others slammed him for not doing much lately to advance the cause of black America. Suffice to say this would have been unheard of just a few years ago.  

Black folks were supposed to be circumspect in criticizing other black folks. And maybe that's the line Jesse Jackson himself crossed. Yet look a little deeper, and you find other forces at work here. Put simply, black people believe in Barack Obama. Many believe in him to the extent that they understand his need to position himself more to the center of the American political spectrum. There seems to be a forbearance in Obama's case that certainly wasn't there 20 years ago when Jesse Jackson last ran for president. The belief that Obama can actually win has pushed some in black America re-examine what should be expected from a politician, regardless of color.

Maybe Jesse Jackson just wishes it was like that for him.