What’s behind Hillary’s astounding numbers in S.C.?

Watching Clinton hit and crash through ceilings like 96% of Black voters over 65 in S.C., I wondered why she beat Barack Obama’s massive turn out of the Black vote. Then I thought of two things:
the unprecedented in the 20th and 21st centuries disrespect shown Barack Obama, beginning before he was even sworn in. No amount of “George W. is incurious” comments come close to saying the president is illegitimate, that he was born outside the U.S., that he is a Muslim and not a Christian, that he got his degrees only by affirmative action, and on and on. The first representation of the presidential couple was a cartoon of them as Black power terrorists on the cover of a major magazine.
and the capture on camera of the murders of Black people by police officers, wanna be cops, and White thugs, causing White people to finally realize what Black people have always known: Black people are at risk, not because many police officers are out to shoot them but because when a rogue cop does shoot someone, anyone, his fellow officers hide his wrong-doing. Finally everyone can see this now. Fox News can call protests against such abuse “anti-cop” all they want, Americans know better.
And along comes Hillary. Commentators comment on her ties to the Black community, which doesn’t mean much to most White people. Let me tell you what my wife and I saw in the early 90s when Bill and Hillary hit the scene: two White people immersed in a sea of Black people, at a church, an awards ceremony, a Civil Rights organization meeting, a Black college….. and THEY WERE COMFORTABLE. We always laughed at White politicians trying to act natural among a crowd of Black people – it doesn’t work. The tension is seen in the body language, the hesitancy, the confusion. Believe you me, I know this well b/c I was that way when, in the days of segregation, I found myself in an all-Black environment. All of our prejudices and stereotypes come to the fore. But Bill and Hillary clapped along with the gospel songs, slapped backs, shook hands, threw their heads back in laughter, and looked people in the eye.
It is nice to see a Black couple in the White House who can receive a 106 year old Black woman in the style Black people use. It is comforting to see a White politician who doesn’t act as if she’s afraid when surrounded by Black people.
That doesn’t prove anything. George Wallace and Lee Atwater were very comfortable around Black people and used racism to advance their careers. But at least you didn’t have that “Oo! You’ve got cooties” reaction to Black people and so you can judge people like the Clintons by their actions and acts rather than by their discomfort with Black people.

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