Is It Wrong for Blacks to Vote for Obama Just Because He’s Black? (Hint: Not Really)

I was in my kitchen cooking dinner last night when a re-airing of the B.E.T. Hip-Hop awards came on T.V. I missed the first airing, and was happy to be able to finally watch the show.

Throughout the course of the program, they had several promos where artists were reminding people to vote in the Presidential election on November 4th. What I noticed, though, was that all of the promos were only encouraging people to vote for ONE candidate – Barack Obama.

Now, being as this award show was taking place on B.E.T., I figured they’d be more likely to take a stand for Obama, who is the first (half) Black candidate to be taken seriously enough to be a real consideration for the role of Commander-in-Chief.

What was funny to me, though, was that there wasn’t a single person or promo, AT ALL, that said, “on November 4th, vote for the candidate YOU feel will do the better job in the White House.” Based on what I saw, it is assumed that all Black people have already decided which candidate they will be voting for – and it’s not the old white guy named What’s-His-Face that’s running against him.

The real question is, when did all these Black people get together and make the decision that our entire race has to vote for Obama? And, more importanly, should Black people feel guilty about voting for him simply because he has a similar skin color?

In my opinion, a person can vote for whoever they want to vote for. One of my uncles, who is Black, is a Republican. He’s always sided with their party on their issues, and, come November 4th, he will probably be voting for John McCain.

Based on what I just typed, though, many people in the Black community would castrate him for doing such a thing. “How dare you vote for McCain,” they’d say, “don’t you know he’s just going to make this economy worse, and keep us in the war longer?!?”

But I can’t fault him for his vote. He watches more news stories about politics and studies the issues more than most people I know. If, after looking at how the candidates feel about issues that are important to HIM, he decides to go with the Republican choice, I can’t really fault him for it since he feels educated in his choice.

At the same time, though, I have absolutely NO problem if a Black person wants to vote for Obama simply because he’s a Black candidate.

“But wait, Aaron,” someone might say. “You just told us you don’t mind your uncle voting Republican because he studied the issues. How are you going to then turn around and say you don’t mind someone voting for Obama based on skin color alone?? What if that person didn’t study the issues so thoroughly?”

People give our species too much credit sometimes instead of viewing us for how we really are. Ideally, every single person who voted would take the time out to study what their candidates are really about, and, after careful consideration, vote for the candidate they felt would REALLY be a help to the country as a whole.

In reality, though, most people base their voting decision on emotion. They allow things such as fear, misunderstanding, family background, etc. to determine how they vote.

For example: A person might grow up in a family that supports Republicans. Obama, a democrat, comes along and brings up issues and ways to handle them that this person happens to agree with. However, this person may still vote Republican simply because every one else in his family will. Yes, it’s a private vote, but that person might still feel bad if they have to lie to their family later on about who they voted for.

Futhermore, there are plenty of White people who will be voting for McCain simply because he, too, is WHITE.

Granted, most White people these days are smart enough to NOT say this sentiment in public. Why, that would be racist! But, if you listen closely to the language some of them use when explaining why they wouldn’t vote for Obama, it’s clear they’re only saying it because they want to hide their real reason: they don’t want a Black guy running the country.

Don’t believe me? Here are just a few things people have said:

“I don’t want to vote for him because he’s a Muslim.”

Really? THAT’s their reason? What, are they afraid if a Muslim enters the White House, he’s going to create a law forcing everyone to pray towards Mecca 5 times a day?

“I’m afraid of him because he’s a terrorist/associates with terrorist.”

Oh, I get it – he’s a “secret” Muslim, therefore he’s a terrorist! Oh no, wait – he happen to be in a group at one time that just happened to have another member in it who, later, turned out to be a terrorist!  We should take that same logic and never trust another NYC cab driver again!  Besides, better to trust a Christian President, one who won’t get us into an unnecessary war and bomb countries for no reason, right? … Oh, wait…

“I just don’t trust him. Look at his name – it’s got ‘Hussein’ in it!”

Again, just because he has a name that sounds foreign does not mean he’s not worth trusting. The TRUTH of the matter is, you don’t trust him because he’s BLACK! Obama’s never been to prison, has a good record in the Senate… he went to friggin’ HARVARD Law School, people!

To be fair, I’m sure there are people out there who can think of plenty of legitimate reason why Obama should not be in office. But again, most people who are choosing to NOT vote for him are doing so because of irrational reasons.

Therefore, I have no problem with Black people using an irrational reason such as “He’s black” to vote for Obama. He NEEDS black voters who think like this, if only to counter-balance the votes he won’t get from people who will vote against him for the same reason.

Ah, if only people weren’t always run by emotions when making decisions. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a Black candidate to vote for – good think I studied first!

-Aaron P. Taylor

(Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of EMQTV.com, its network, or its affiliates. They are the sole opinions of its author, Aaron P. Taylor, who is more than happy to take credit for them…)