Race Matters Less in Politics of South - New York Times - The Diigo Meta page

• 21 Feb 08
  

  hannahf

  2008 clinton obama president presidential race

  • The racial breakthroughs have come gingerly in Alabama over the years: a black mayor there, an old Klansman put on trial here, a civil rights memorial there
  • It is a historic first, but the moment is full of awkwardness.
  • “Really, I never realize he’s black,” said a white woman in a restaurant, smiling.
  • Inevitably, there are questions about what this might mean for Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy in the Deep South, and the quick answer, perhaps, is not that much, at least in Cullman County at this moment. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton beat Mr. Obama here, by a margin of four to one, in the Democratic primary this month, as many here readily point out.
  • “James is comfortable around white people, and white people are comfortable around James, and you see the same thing with Obama,” Mr. Little said. (He had asked Mr. Fields not to run, he recalls, because he did not think a black candidate could win.)

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