Brad Greenberg has his ear to the ground and has two posts here and here basically about the fact that there is racism toward Obama even in privilege Jewish circles. In one instance, an Orange County blogger posting a picture of Obama in Al Qaeda costume. In another a fancy private school in L.A. where kids are saying "Obama will kill the Jews."
This sort of hysteria is of course not limited to my people. Today on NPR a woman in Pennsylvania said that "McCain is for all the people"–which I thought was a very smart way of coding racist attacks against Obama. Maybe McCain will now take this refrain up– to no avail.
I'm a positive person, so What I think Greenberg's posts demonstrate is historical desperation, and that All These Attitudes Are About to Become History. America is about to move past its racist heritage in a brave new way. Next Tuesday night's really going to be one of the most exciting moments in my life. I'm thinking I should go to Nairobi, because frankly, This is the world's election. But from an American standpoint, it will reflect great subterranean recognitions: that the future is multicultural, that there's a global village, that global warming has made the Houston SUV and the Chinese coal-burning plant everyone's business, that America is trying to follow Rodney King's lesson of getting along, that national borders are slowly/inevitably losing significance, Etc. Etc.
