Gary Kamiya speaks well on Obama and race

Kamiya has several good talking points in his article about Obama and American racial issues.

First, because of his mixed parentage, he may indeed be helping to put paid to the “one drop” idea. Related to that, Kamiya is right that, a Barack Obama with two black parents might not have gotten the nomination.

The next big thing is an honest look at the nexus of race and culture within the African-American umbrella:

A 2007 Pew Poll showed that 37 percent of blacks no longer regard black people as constituting a single race, and that 70 percent of college-educated blacks said that the “values gap” between middle-class and poor blacks had widened over the past 10 years. These remarkable findings clearly reflect a growing rejection by middle-class blacks of the crime and other pathologies so often associated, rightly or wrongly, with the black underclass.

I don’t doubt that’s true. In suburbs of major American cities, such as here in Dallas, that clearly plays out on a regular basis. For a further Kamiya take on that Pew poll, go here; that includes the fact that identity politicians are the ones who appear to most bemoan the black cultural values gap, the rise of multiethnic identity, etc.

Anyway, Kamiya ties that thread together with the first one, and comes out on the optimistic side about long-term discussion of racial issues in America, without ignoring specific downsides such as the black underclass.