Posted on Fri, Apr. 25, 2008

To Barack Obama's other challenges to overcome this election year, add racism. Yes, folks, we still have a racism problem in America.

What percentage of voters are likely to vote against Barack Obama simply because he's African-American?

More than you might think.

About 8 percent of white respondents in a recent AP-Yahoo poll said they'd be "uncomfortable" voting for a black candidate for president.

Remember, those are only the people willing to admit racism to a pollster. Political analyst Roger Simon guesses the actual figure is closer to 15 percent.

Those racist voters might not provide a decisive margin, either in the primaries or general election, but they can't be ignored by the Obama campaign, either, in crucial battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.

CNN reported that 20 percent of Pennsylvania Democrats said the race of the candidate played a factor in their vote -- and Clinton won among this group by nearly 20 percentage points, 59 to 41 percent. Likewise, in Ohio's primary last month, 20 percent of Democrats said race affected their vote. Again, those voters went for Clinton by a 20-point margin, 59 to 39 percent.

Of course, Clinton is not responsible for the lingering racism of some white Americans, but she does seem to be benefiting from it.

What about gender, though -- isn't that an equally big handicap for Clinton?

Turns out, not really. In Pennsylvania, 21 percent of primary voters said the candidates' gender was important in how they voted -- and they went big for Clinton, 71 to 29 percent.

Still, what about the overwhelming number of African-Americans voting for Obama -- isn't that a form of racism, too?

Well, it's different, I think. Obama didn't have a majority of those votes starting out -- Clinton did. He won them by demonstrating he could attract white votes in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere. In effect, he won black votes by showing that he wasn't just a black candidate.

Moreover, most African-Americans are voting their aspirations in choosing Obama, not their racial fears and prejudices.

Still, it's difficult to separate factors of race from other voter considerations.

Some older white voters aren't racists but may be resistant to change and things that are "different."

Consider Barack Hussein Obama's name -- as he has noted, it doesn't exactly give him an advantage.

Obama's exotic past, including a childhood growing up in Indonesia and Hawaii, probably makes it hard for some voters to identify or feel comfortable with him, despite his white-bread Kansas roots.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright's over-the-top sermonizing also raised fears that Obama is out of the mainstream.

Clinton, by contrast, is a familiar, known quantity.

She successfully sold herself as a hometown girl, talking about her childhood visits to her grandparents' home in Scranton, Pa., and learning to shoot guns behind the shed. She's done a better job of connecting on a personal level with rural and blue-collar voters on health care and jobs.

It's a testament to Obama's rare political skills that he has overcome his handicaps and gaffes and remains on track to win the Democratic nomination.

But for Democrats to win in November, he has to do more to reach white voters, to explain who he is and allay fears that he is "not one of us."

It's a further test of his skills as a politician.

To his credit, Obama has been careful not to align his campaign with racial identity politics. He understands that the way for an African-American candidate to be accepted in the mainstream is to run on ideas and merit.

No, Obama won't be able to win the racist vote. But he has a historic opportunity to move the rest of the country forward on race.

In his eloquent Philadelphia speech on race, Obama argued that the nation's goal of a "more perfect union" could only be achieved by breaking through our self-imposed barriers of race and prejudice.

Can he do that with his own campaign?

He has proved he can win a majority of white Democratic voters in states such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Virginia and Kansas. Whether he can build on that good start remains to be seen.

But clearly Obama -- and the country -- have a lot of unfinished work to do on race.

Randy Scholfield is an Eagle editorial writer. His column appears on Fridays. Reach him at 316-268-6545 or rscholfield@wichitaeagle.com.