Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 features a striking scene in which members of the Congressional Black Caucus petition Congress to re-examine the 2000 election results. One by one, African Amer-icans from the House of Represen-tatives approach the dais and explain that in light of the large number of black voters who were turned away from the polls in Florida, the results were invalid.
In order to have their grievance discussed, they needed one senator to support them. The motion fell because not one of the 100 senators was prepared to back them. Not one senator was black.
PHOTO: AFP
Come November 3, that will change. For the first time in US history, both the main candidates in a Senate race are black.
In the election to replace Illinois' Republican senator Peter Fitzgerald, the Democrats are fielding Barack Obama, 43. His only gaffe during the Democratic party convention in Boston was to deliver a speech that was so well received that it threatened to overshadow presidential nominee John Kerry's. For the Republicans there is Alan Keyes, 54, an ultra-religious former ambassador to UNESCO who ran for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination.
Given that only two black senators have ever been elected by popular vote, an all-black Senate race in a state that is 73 percent white is a significant moment. The fact that it should happen in Illinois, which markets itself as the Land of Lincoln, home of the American president credited with freeing the slaves, is greeted with a mixture of pride and feigned indifference.
"Well, it's about time," said DuWayne Thompson, an African American in Joliet. "I don't know if white people have a problem with it. But they shouldn't. We have to choose between two white men for president every time and they don't complain."
Many white people insist that they have barely noticed. "I don't think it's important," says Cathy Harvey of Morris. "We've moved on from that now. So long as they can represent the state well, I don't care what color their skin is."
Winning Illinois demands a tricky political balancing act at the best of times. A candidate cannot win Illinois without appealing to the cosmopolitan, more liberal and more diverse city; but they must also engage the more rural, white, socially conservative part of the state.
When Obama, formerly a state senator from Chicago, kicked off his campaign for the Democratic nomination, only about 50 people attended a launch party. "At that stage it wasn't clear that he would even get the African-American vote," said one supporter who attended but did not wish to be named.
On top of that, he had a name that rhymed with Osama. Obama used it to connect with crowds, calling himself "the skinny kid with the funny name" and telling the young: "My name is Obama, not Yo Mama."
Obama was in a tight race to represent the Democrats against a wealthier white candidate, Blair Hull, who spent US$29 million on his campaign and was backed by one of Chicago's most prominent politicians, former Black Panther Bobby Rush.
"At the beginning, a lot of people in the black community didn't think Obama was black enough," says Salim Muwakkil, a contributing editor for the left-leaning In These Times magazine. "He was biracial, he was Ivy League and he wasn't from Chicago. White people liked him so much, they [the black community] didn't really trust him."
Hull's campaign imploded after unsealed divorce papers alleged he had struck his ex-wife and threatened to kill her. Obama received 53 percent of the vote in the first round.
By June, Obama held a double-digit lead over the Republican challenger Jack Ryan, and then Ryan's campaign also collapsed. Previously sealed divorce papers revealed that he had tried to force his ex-wife to go to sex clubs and allow others to watch them have sex. After pressure from state Republicans, Ryan dropped out.
The Republicans had difficulty finding a contender so late. Then, this month, Keyes said he had "a moral obligation" to run against Obama's record on abortion, gun control and taxes.
Critics say the Republicans' choice of Keyes was cynical and tokenistic. "They know they can't win so they are trying to bloody Obama," says Muwakkil.
Others disagree. "Some people think the Republicans were trying to be cute by picking another black guy," says Tom Roeser, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. "I think Alan wants to make it clear that Obama doesn't represent African Americans and there are more choices out there."
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