McCain’s ‘that one’ jab angers some blacks

WASHINGTON—It was a moment that stood out in a presidential debate void of many pithy sound bites: “That one,” Republican John McCain said contemptuously of Barack Obama—pointing in the general direction of his Democratic rival while discussing energy policies.
Those two small words didn’t just leave many pundits cringing, but more significantly, they caused some in the African-American community to accuse McCain of racism in his dismissive treatment of the man aiming to be the first black president in U.S. history.

“It speaks to the fundamental belief of racism: despite all evidence to the contrary, you are inherently beneath me simply by virtue of the melanin content of your skin,” Ciji McBride, a 33-year-old sales professional in Los Angeles, said yesterday.
Don Hammonds of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also took offence.
“Regardless of intent, it showed Sen. McCain to be culturally ignorant, and completely unaware of the implications of what his off-the-cuff statement meant to people of colour,” he wrote.
“Whether Sen. McCain meant it that way or not, if you are a person of colour, and someone trots out the ‘that one’ remark, you instantly take it as racist. I know that I did.”
Some say race is an issue that’s been simmering beneath the surface since Obama won the Democratic nomination in August and began his run for the White House.
The Obama campaign has been careful to steer discussion away from race—knowing its potential to be a powder keg in a nation still deeply divided along colour lines in some key battleground states.
The Illinois senator reportedly is mindful about reaching out too visibly to black voters, assuming it would alienate the white voters he needs to win the Nov. 4 election.
But in recent days, with McCain as many as 10 points behind Obama in some polls and embarking upon a campaign to discredit his character, stories from across the country have begun to emerge:
•Yet another Republican official referring to Obama publicly as “Barack Hussein Obama,” apparently in an attempt to falsely suggest he’s Muslim;
•The 10-day suspension of a Grade 7 teacher in Florida for using the N-word in class to describe Obama (parents were demanding that he be fired); and
•A man allegedly shouting out “kill him” at a Palin rally in which she criticized Obama’s association with a onetime domestic terrorist (the Secret Service was investigating).
Ange-Marie Hancock, a race relations professor at the University of Southern California, said it’s not surprising McCain is now running a negative campaign of the type that could incite some of the baser elements of society.
“Any time that a candidate is losing, they are going to go negative,” she said.
“Americans say they hate it but it often works because it gets them riled up,” Hancock added. “I am not surprised that it’s gone this way but it wouldn’t have gone this way if McCain was winning.
“It’s a sad commentary.”