Basic thought is whether Race be a factor in the upcoming elections.

Have we left Racism far enough behind us that the banjo strumming phantoms that are chasing gooners canoe arent going to come out of the woodwork in record numbers just to make sure that a black man doesnt become commander in chief?

Yes granted, the rebublican veneer is probably sufficiently tarnished by GWs antics to bring party politics into full sway in favor of a democratic candidate.

But are there still sufficient numbers of americans who may cast their vote simply on the grounds of their their 'confederate ways'.?

I have this silly Idea that come election day, should it appear that Obamas Leading , every billy bob, jimmy ray, earl and cousin will come out to the ballots in force , perhaps never having voted in their lives previously, to do their best to swing things against a black man as president.

I heard a poll indicating that a majority of blacks think Obama can make it can happen, but most whites believe it not likely.(this was an NPR poll)

I happen to know some americans ( East Bay Californians all ) , a diverse(ish) kind of collection,
, high school buddies, ex colleagues, all blue collar guys, mostly decent, ,mostly white, High school grads, not much college, a couple mexicans, a couple of phillipinos even, who call blacks niggers, and who say in private, 'hell no, no way we can let no +*ç%**%ç in the whitehouse.'

(Funnily what a lot of them, my high school buddies, had in common is that we were all Rockers and Pot heads at one point. )

It was funny once, early nineties or late eighties. i went to see a Metallica concert. Ice-T and body count opened for them . AND THEY ROCKED. They were good, very good almost upstaged the main act.
And a lot of the crowd, was Boooing and '****in Nigggersss' was being yelled out all over the place.

They didnt get much respect, despite the fact that they rocked.

thoughts?

Just to be clear, the above was not some swipe at Ghetto english,or feeble attempt at humor. It was a simple typo. I meant to say 'whether Race WILL be...'

no matter how you may want to defend this piece of cra*p, its cached, here and elsewehere.
Not sure whether you are trying to be PC with your prose or not, but basically your premise is distasteful for a European craw.

to get to the point (IMHO) a rather un-amusing post referring to rather un-amusing matter.

I saw Therapy? in '94 (count the DMs and divide by 2 to get the headcount), supported by Credit to the Nation.

Nothing racist happened. Not a sausage. No "Boooing and '****in Nigggersss'".

Are you trying to say that anyone who likes bands playing guitars and bashing the drums are racist?

To me, your post sounds like you're the racist nazi f*uckhead here.. trying to find out who else is...

Whether or not differences between america and europe are to european tastes or not. It doesnt change the reality of the FACTS I stated above. Regarding people and sentiments I know and have known in California.
(Northern California mind you , one of the most eclectic and ethinically diverse places in the USA, my experience doesnt even touch on any of the southern states which are known to be hotbeds of racist ideology.)

No, the racism in america, is not a nice thing to ponder. and perhaps as many do,the members of this board dont want to acknowledge it.

I can speak from personal experience that it does exist.
I personally have been vicitimized by the ignorant Racist mentality, and the witch hunt attitude that seems to pervade America whenever we declare our enemy of the month.

The only reason I believe I received relief from it Is because I eventually shot up and wound up being pretty big and strong, and sometimes volatile enough to make most of the dickheads think twice.

I was too busy being a pothead to do more than two years in a university, Ive worked in oil refineries;driving heavy front end loaders, forklifts, pipe fitting(assistant), welding(assistant), sand blasting, erecting scaffolding, metal painting(Journeyman), and just plain grunt work lugging stuff, then I've been on construction sites, roofing , hodding, shoveling, I've worked in garages wrenching on cars. Ive been on landscaping teams, and in warehouses driving forklifts.

It was only after I discovered I have a certain ability programming that I actually entered the (relatively) nice, politically correct, polite world of corporate work. (and Im doing well at it thank you.)

Now theres a pretty high chance that a very good number of the expats \ members here havent necessarily been exposed to blue collar America in that way.

Working on construction sites , and refineries etc is an eye opener. Perhaps none of you have really been down that road.
I mean given that you've all wound up in Switzerland, theres a high probability that most (im sure not all) of you did your studies well and got in to the corporate or 'nice' world right away.

Perhaps its simply that you havent seen things from the perspective I was priviledged to have.(no sarcasm intended)
You havent walked down those particular trails ,and you're simply not aware of the Racist mouthings and sentiment that I've heard (and sometimes felt) expressed.

Nazi ****head . No far from it China.

I speak from experience
Just bringing up what I thought could be an important factor in americas political arena.

3day

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and have lived there for most of my 40+ years. Your experience is not my experience. While I do not dispute that there may be people that hold these views, because the area is SO diverse, the views of a minority (IMO) of white racists could not be a large factor.

Among the people that I know, Black/white/Rich/Poor), they want Obama.

Regarding racism in America, I think there is less in the SF area than just about any other part of the country. I see it as a meritocracy...people care less about race, than education and values.

fduvall

We lived in the states for 4 years,The Big Apple, Advertised as The Capital of the World.
One major reason why we left was the Racism. When we lived there we travelled extensively, true, the more South you went the worse it got.

My experience anyway.

The elections in Canton Basel-Stadt are coming up and, if the SVP and SD have their way, then yes: race will be a factor in the upcoming election.

maybe I'm having a dumb day, but I find it really hard to read what the OP wrote and make any sense of it.

Is the question is racism rife in American and will it influence the US vote? If so isn't that a topic for a different forum?

I saw the same thing happen to Prince when he opened for the Rolling Stones at the L.A. Colliseum. Prince also rocked, but the Hell's Angels dudes didn't appreciate him too much. But you know, it didn't really help to be wearing nothing but a trenchcoat and a leather string underwear thingy, singing "I wanna be your lover". This was before he broke through.

One AP poll predicts
Obama losing approx. 6% just for being black.

Still didn't stop Ralph Nader (an Arab) running for a record 5 presidential elections

Mind you, Bobby Jindal is a second generation Punjabi Indian who was almost McCain's running mate. And he's governor of Louisiana.


Tina Fey: "Bitch is the new black!"
http://jezebel.com/360093/tina-fey-o...-the-new-black

Tracy Morgan: "Bitch may be the new black, but black is the new president, bitch!"

Whew... thanks I was getting blasted for just bringing up ,sordid as they may be , the facts.
Voila, See it does happen. (the trenchcoat and marblebags probably didnt help but )
I was surprised at the outright venemous initial responses. In my lurking I found that this EF appears to consist of quite an eclectic open minded group of people.
Denial? Is this simply a fact we'd rather pretend wasnt there?
Or Is this simply not a blue collar enough group.?(meaning not really worked in the mines)

Dunno.
I know I didnt like being called racist f22khead. and its not conducive to a reasonable open exchange of views.

Thanks for the supporting\acknowledging statements anyway.

Oh, you mean Mr. Liberal Guilt? Surely you've met his twin sister, Ms. Conservative Rage?

Liberal Guilt and Conservative rage. Believe it or not, Im not familiar with those expressions.
Apparently well known notions. I shall do some reading.

Wild guess he just said John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Now that is an interesting thought... to credit rock bands with racism, when punk bands are absolutely opposit. i think you need to rethink your post 3daystubble.

Oh, and so you know, racism works both ways. He may be overlooked becuase he is black, but i'll bet a pretty penny he will be voted for stricktly out of sympathy too(since no one wants to be a racist).

Why cant elections go back to the time of Bobby Kennedy, where instead of bashing each other, they actually give you a proposal of what they intend to do when in office. It forces us to try and vote for the lesser evil, instead of who we think would be better for the job.

At this point I wouldn't support Obama as president not because of his color but rather his voting record. What does he stand for..?? Apparently not much as he doesn't take a firm stand on anything and avoids voting at all. See for yourself on his own website:

http://obama.senate.gov/votes/

Look at the column on the right side titled "Position", take note of all the "Not Voting" he's registered..

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not so crazy about McCain either. Where does he stand as a Republican who's nearly left the Republican party twice to join the Democrats..?

Couldn't we just get rid of both of these candidates and start over...???

But we are voting for a president, not a senator. I don't think senatorial skills are the same thing as presidential skills.

I like the irony of Obama as president. Part of the irony is his race and name, but not all. I happen to like the message it sends to the rest of the world of what modern America is. But politically, I don't really buy into the democratic party's invertebrate philosophy and politics. And I also remember that the republicans are not any better.

It looks like the next 4 years will be a pretty rough ride for the whole world. I don't think either of the candidates will magically solve all our problems. If they did, I would be very wary of them. But chances are, we will still be calling, perhaps screaming, for change 4 years from now.

I heard an interesting comment (may have been on NPR, not sure). I am paraphrasing here ...

In past elections with non-white candidates, the outcome was always quite different from the polls.

Explanation: When asked in front of a microphone, people will sometimes give the "politically correct" answer (yes, I am voting for the non-white candidate), but in the privacy of the voting booth they may be less likely to actually cast that vote.

We will see, I guess. I agree 100% with "vwild1" and his statement:

"Couldn't we just get rid of both of these candidates and start over...??? "