US Voters Divided Over Prospect of African-American Winning White House  | Voice of America - English
[REVISED  10-13-08]Earlier this year, race became an issue in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. Several public opinion polls suggest Americans are divided by race leading up to the November election, in which Obama is the first African-American to run as a major party's nominee.  In this feature on race and U.S.
[] Democratic Senator Barack Obama could possibly become the first African-American president of the United States. It would be a milestone for a country that needed the 1965 Voting Rights Act to lift restrictions on blacks voting. Political observers saythe moment Obama launched his campaign, it was inevitable that race wouldbecome an issue. The debate over race and Obama's candidacy has exposed differencesbetween voters who live in urban and those in rural areas. In his DemocraticParty primary battle against Senator Hillary Clinton, Obama was unable to win amajority of white working class voters in rural communities in several largestates. VOA surveyed voters inLewistown, Pennsylvania, a rural community that traditionally supportsRepublican candidates. Eighteen year-old Allison Bubb saysshe is skeptical about Obama, "I don't think that America is ready foranything new. My friends that I talk to feel we don't think we are ready. Ithink we need to just skip this vote and keep going like we usually do with awhite older male." And in Franklin, West Virginia,another rural town, Edward Tallman, a newspaper editor, says people in ruralareas are not ready for Obama, "I do not believe the majority ofAppalachian blue collar (working class) white people are ready for that." Experts say racism persists acrossthe country but especially in low income, rural communities in southern andborder states like Mississippi and Arizona. Big U.S. cities have traditionallybeen Democratic strongholds. VOA surveyed voters in New York, Miami and LosAngeles. Many felt their communities are more able to elect Obama than peoplein other parts of the country. Maria, avoter from Miami, Florida says, "Especially in the middle of the countrypeople still have the background of racism and it might be more subconsciousthat they just do not vote for him but they don't think it is because ofthat." A voter from New York City says,"I have lived in New York and New Jersey, and I believe New York and NewJersey can but I do not know about any other part of America." Foo Kong, from Los Angeles, thinks hesees the situation clearly, "I think that the ideas are divided here inAmerica. Although it has taken a century to fight against racialdiscrimination, in various parts of America there is stilldiscrimination." Thomas Mann of the BrookingsInstitution is unable to predict how much support Obama will lose because ofracial prejudice,  "I do not knowwhether it is two percent, six percent, eight percent and whether it is feltmainly by people who would never vote for a Democratic candidate already orwhether it is among Democrats who won't vote Democratic because their nomineeis African-American." Political analysts say whether or notBarack Obama wins the race for the White House and becomes president, he haschanged the political landscape and has broken one of America's oldest and mostrigid lines -- the color line that separates black and white.