I remember hearing that phrase over twenty years ago as I ran for student government at Illinois State University. A group of black candidates and their supporters were button-holing African-American students, handing them push cards and urging them to “vote your blood” – an appeal to cast a ballot based upon nothing more than the shared race of the candidates and the voters.

Sadly, weÂ’ve got some black Democrats explicitly voicing that same sort of appeal as we approach the 2008 presidential campaign.

Seeking to solidify African-American backing for Barack Obama's presidential bid, Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr. told black Democrats meeting here last week they don't "owe" anyone, alluding to, but not mentioning by name, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Obama, said Jones, "is our son."

In a Monday telephone interview, Jones, Obama's political godfather, told me, "How long do we have to owe before we have an opportunity to support our son?

"And I know that Barack Obama is our son and he deserves our support."
He made a similar race-based appeal to a group of black Democratic activists Friday at a closed Democratic National Committee winter meeting.

Such racism should have no place in American politics, for all that racism-based appeals have been a staple of DemocratICK politics since well before the Civil War. Just as calls to for whites to oppose Obama because of his race are unacceptable, so are the calls for blacks – or anyone else – to support him because of the color of his skin.

Let’s talk about issues, experience, and competence – not bloodlines and skin-tone.

Posted by: Greg at 11:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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