Obama
In spite of my efforts to post more, I've been largely unsuccessful. Partly -- in large part -- that's due to the volume of work I have from school, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit part of it was due to video games and the release of the WoW expansion
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The main reason that so many blacks are lower class is the history of economic discrimination against them. As you mention, this type of discrimination is less prevalent now than in the past, but the legacy of 100 years of post-slavery legally sanctioned discrimination and the slow decrease in post-civil-rights unsanctioned discrimination is extant.
So, you have the situation where blacks are socio-economically disadvantaged due to discrimination. That is then used by racists and political operatives (see Republican presidential campaigns of the 80s) to support perceptions of blacks as unintelligent, unmotivated, and wanting handouts because so many of them are lower class.
I've heard people recently, in the last year, speak of blacks as unable to enact economic mobility, as somehow flawed because they are more prevalently lower class than other groups that have "improved their own lot." That attitude is not nearly as dead as we'd like it to be. I think those of us who frequent well educated liberal circles can easily forget that these attitudes exist when we're not often exposed to them.
Thus, I think having a black-identified president is a big deal. It will help shatter the remaining idea that blacks are somehow inherently destined to be lower class, and open the door to the presidency wider for other people who are not white men, as it will no longer be reasonable to frame such candidates as "unelectable."
As a side benefit, I've heard reputable media reports (NPR) that many young black men are seeing Obama as a role model and changing their aspirations towards higher socio-economic status careers. That may be, in the end, more important than a concurrent reduction in white racism.
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