Oprah, Obama, Racial Threats, Olympics, Police, Foreclosures, and the Latino Vote: A(nother) Busy Week in Race

This week, Oprah Winfrey hit the campaign trail for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, Northern Illinois University shut down and reschedule final exams because of a racially-tinged threat, Jesse Jackson plans to march on Wall Street, Rev. Al Sharpton threatens to lobby the International Olympic Committee against Chicago’s bid to host, and Univision hosted a debate for the Republican presidential candidates. There is no direct connection between these events, of course, but there is a common theme of tacit electoral implications between Oprah’s endorsement and the racial concerns at NIU, on Wall Street, in Chicago, and in the Univision debate.

Winfrey did not focus on race in her 17-minute speech in Iowa on Saturday. Her endorsement, which did refer broadly to racial and religious diversity, is much less about substance than it is about symbolism. No one can question Winfrey’s intelligence or heart, but Obama is not having her stump for him because of her perceived political expertise. In fact, the reason that this endorsement is getting so much attention is because she has famously stayed out of electoral politics throughout her career. As she moved to South Carolina and New Hampshire on Sunday, Winfrey brings to Obama’s campaign two related and crucial elements: news coverage and the attention of otherwise-uninterested voters. Her talk show audience is every bit as white as it is black, but it disproportionately female, which may help to mitigate some of Obama’s chief rival, Hillary Clinton’s, edge with female voters. Clinton firmed up support from a large number of prominent black leaders very early on in the race, ostensibly because her husband, Bill Clinton, was seen as an advocate for the black community. This past week, civil rights icon Andrew Young quipped that he thought Obama was too young to be president now, but that he does want him to be president some day. Winfrey’s presence at Obama events in the final month of campaigning before Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire may serve to position him well heading into Super Tuesday on February 5.

While Obama can enjoy this coveted endorsement, he cannot control other events that may affect his candidacy. Events with racial content have been aplenty this past year, as important stories from this past week demonstrate.

Early this morning, as students were studying for finals, Northern Illinois University issued a campus alert rescheduling this week’s exams. Cited in the memo were the icy conditions, as well as a campus threat noted in two alerts issued Saturday. From the first of the three alerts:

Written in black ink on a restroom wall in the Grant Towers D [residential] complex were two separate entries claiming that “things will change most hastily” in the final days of the current semester.

“Tell those n---ers to go home,” the first entry reads. “ME / OUT … Die Sem Burr 10th … Hmz Sdn Cr.” Officials believe the text message-style shorthand refers to “December 10” and “Holmes Student Center.” Underlined letters within the first entry spell out the word “WATCH.”

Following the initial entry is a second set of comments reading “What time? The VA tech shooters messed up w/ having only one shooter …”

As this was occurring, Rev Jesse Jackson was firming up plans to march on Wall Street today to argue for a “Marshall Plan,” for victims of predatory home loans, starting with a moratorium on foreclosures. Rev. Al Sharpton threatened city officials that he would work to derail the city’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics if Mayor Richard M. Daley didn’t start to take more seriously the allegations of abuse and brutality by the Chicago Police Department. This comes on the heels of a report from the University of Chicago researchers this past week entitled “The Chicago Police Department’s Broken System,” which noted, in part, that allegations of abuse by CPD officers were punished only one per cent of the time (compared to the national average of eight per cent).

It is unclear precisely what this climate means for the presidential elections. There are a number of possibilities. For Obama to be successful, he must secure more white votes than any other candidate of color has ever earned. He needs to collect delegates for the nomination and, if nominated, win a plurality of voters – most of whom are white – in enough states to garner 270 electoral votes. If white progressives are concerned about the seeming increase in racial issues, they may turn to someone who has first hand experience with those issues (Obama). On the other hand, if white voters see the influx of racial news coverage as mere self-victimization by blacks, they may allow that resentment to factor into their decision to vote for or against a black candidate for president.

In either case, Obama’s support in communities of color is not to be taken for granted. As noted above, many African Americans are supporting Hillary Clinton, while Latino voters are weighing the positions of candidates from both parties. The Spanish language television station Univision hosted a Republican presidential debate this past weekend, where six of the candidates appeared, including all of the frontrunners. So while much is uncertain as to how race might affect the presidential elections, what we do know is that race will most certainly be an issue. How that issue is framed and addressed will determine the effect that it will have.