After the Monday night Democratic debate on CNN, Barack Obama placed blame on the media for perpetuating the issue on race in regards to the United States presidential election.
Obama said: “I think the media, you know, has really been focused a lot on race as we move down to South Carolina. And I have to say that, as I travel around South Carolina, I am absolutely convinced that white, black, Latino, Asian, people want to move beyond our divisions.”
Still, voters in South Carolina continued to question Obama on that issue. One African-American voter said that her 77-year old father believed that a black man would not be able to do anything in Washington to help us. As a result, she wanted to know what to tell her father.
In response, Obama said that he is convinced that the American people do not care about the race of the presidential candidate.
Obama said: “If I came to you and I had polka dots but you were convinced that I was going to put more money in your pockets and help you pay for college and help keep America safe, you’d say ‘ok I wish he didn’t have polka dots but I would still vote for him.’”
He also touched ground that leaders have the responsibility to break through barriers such as mental barriers.
In the case of barriers, Obama said: “We tell ourselves that we can’t do something and part of our motto is to say ‘yes we can’ and I want to send that message to our children. I don’t want to perpetuate this notion in our kids that there is a limit to their dreams.”
Edith Childs, who is best known for her chant of “Fire it up, Ready to Go” said that race is still an issue of voters. She had questioned Obama’s candidacy due to race.
“To be honest when I first heard about him, that he filed for the candidacy, I though the United States is not ready for a black president and they sure aren’t ready for a woman,” she said.
However, she did add that Obama’s mannerisms and speech that day convinced her that he could bring change. Now, Edith Childs supports Obama.
Obama remained on the realistic side about prejudice still existing. He said: “But I hope that as a consequence of me being president people will start looking at each other in a different way and they say we all have something in common as Americans and what we share is much more important than what divides us.”