Essay about race and politics

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Race and Politics Most people might not recognize it yet but one of our major problems is racism. The United States of America is a strong nation, which so many people from other nations immigrate into, yet some races feel superior to others and this also is reflected in America’s political system today. Yet, the once unthinkable has already manifested itself in the country. A black man being the president of the U.S could not be considered as a possible alternative in the past. Nevertheless, Martin Luther King Jr. once proclaimed; “I have a dream, that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed” (Rose 241). There is a deep meaning to this quote in relation to our beloved country America. This nation is the land of diverse ethnicities and there should be room for everyone as a citizen to take part in social and economic issues, most especially in politics. The major question is; “Does skin color influence presidential elections?” Basically, it will because America is a country made up of different races and in most cases, favoritism of race tends to overshadow the importance of leadership and democracy. Exactly forty five years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s proclamation, a black man, Senator Barack Obama was scheduled to accept the Democratic Party nomination for president. A freshman U.S senator who hailed from Illinois and had served eight years in the Illinois legislature and three years community organizing. He ran against the Republican candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a white 71 year-old war hero. Obama’s supporters and the candidate himself were predicting what the Republicans might possibly say or think, based on the fact that Obama was young, inexperienced and he’s also black. This was the first time a black candidate was running for the seat of president so it was taken as a really big deal. (Bohan) On the other hand, Republicans predicted that Obama would treat legitimate political challenges as racial attacks. Still considering the fact that he was black, both parties were contradicting each other’s opinions about race. In 2008, a national poll in early July found that Americans disagree on some but not all race related issues. Twenty-nine percent of blacks thought race relations in the U.S. were generally good compared to 55 percent of whites and vice versa (Nagourney and Thee A1). It kept on interchanging figures as the polling results came in. Most people voted in favor of their race either black or white. Fact has proven that there are more racist individuals than racist states in the U.S. This is categorized in such a way that the amount of racist people is equated with racist states in general. Obama himself also argues that the country is indeed ready to rise above America’s centuries-old racial divide. (Williams A23). This statement also confirms to the statement made by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial. As the elections in 2008 progressed, more polls were coming in to determine the states won or lost by each candidate. Obama was said to have lost Pennsylvania. But a Washington Post reporter travelling through this small town found voters who agreed with Obama’s basic assessment and political ideology. “People are sort of bitter but they’re not carrying around guns causing crimes like he specified” (MacGillis A6). Though people are not happy about the economic state of the country, they don’t see the situation as an avenue to commit crimes. Rather, they make use of opportunities in life to succeed. These are people of the middle class, who are striving hard to make a living, but the economy wasn’t in their favor and Obama’s plan had the features of fixing this issue of the economy. White and black Democrats have diverged politically in the past, though not consistently. Since the
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