Obama, Race and Illinois Politics

PROMPT:
Do you see Obama’s race as an impediment to his success as the 44th President? Do you think people in the United States see him first as President or as Black or African American President? How do you think he is perceived by fellow lawmakers on the hill?

RESPONSE:
In 1999 as a Senior at Texas A&M University, I spent time as a intern working for the House Committee on Agriculture in D.C. (the Chairman was from Lubbock, TX). As you can imagine, this entailed the "so important" tasks of answering phones, greeting guests, attending hearings and taking notes for the Committee office, and helping the Press staff. Everyone was preparing for the 2000 Farm Bill. I recall one day when everyone in the office was already committed being asked to meet with the organic cotton farmers from Texas. At this time, organic was not a priority. I wonder how this has changed in the past 10 years? Working in 2006 for the Lt. Governor of Indiana who also serves as the head of the Department of Agriculture, I know that organic and nontraditional ag commodities are beginning to gain credibility and notice (especially in the most recent Farm Bill). I share this story to make the point that my experience has shown that special interest groups and issues "on the fridge" can move into places of priority or influence over time. Much like the healthcare agenda the President has catapulted into center stage. If you consider Roger's Innovation Curve, we know that 16% of the population are innovators or early adopters and 50% are late adopters or laggards. The rest being the early majority. While I would love to think that all politicians are in the early adopter category (which statistically they are not), they represent the entire bell curve of our society. This in itself presents an issue to the fast-paced, change-minded agenda of the President, irregardless of race.

As you know, I moved to Illinois in May 2008. It's interesting to me because I assumed that since President Obama hails from the state of Illinois and was a State Senator, there would be perhaps a deeper affinity or allegiance due to his tie to the state. Perhaps this is more the case in the Chicago area, but I am 3+ hours south of the Chicago and see a significant number of anti-Obama bumper stickers and hear criticism of his agenda from my Republican friends and colleagues. Do I think this has to do with race? I would to not think so but perhaps. The county in which I reside is 95% white and at one time my guess is closer to 99%. I have heard comments from community members that "times have changed" with the number of "blacks" in the community. I have not heard this referred to in regards to the President but one could make assumptions.

This Wednesday, we had a meeting of young professionals in the area to discuss the formation of a young professional organization. A few of us stayed after the meeting to eat dinner and veered into a political discussion. Illinois runs a close second to California regarding the worst state budget issues in the nation. There were three Democrats, two Republicans at the table. Our situation is SO bad that I from the comments shared, I can easily say that everyone there would be fine with taxes being raised if the business of the state was taken care of. We all seemed to be in a state of disgust for the situation...and for legislators not coming together in a bipartisan way to address the issues at hand. One of my colleagues wrote an article (http://www.goodworksconnect.org/forum/20-general-nonprofit/351-the-broken-relationship-with-the-state-of-illinois discuss politics...role of community organizing bipartisanship) comparing the relationship of the state to the nonprofit community to that of an abusive relationship. Interestingly with payments still behind and promises broken, the nonprofit community continues to uphold their missions and suck it up to wait for the state to hold up their end of the agreements. What if everyone working for and with an organizations who is owed money by the state were to not work all on the same day? We would NOTICE the impact! I have a feeling change would become more urgent...and demanded. This is race-neutral. Crisises heighten a sense of urgency for change.

My gut instinct is that, as a community organizer, President Obama knows the risks he is taking but also the importance of embracing the crisises we find ourselves in and using the momentum to implement change, in spite of his opposition AND race.