The Washington Post recently featured an article about young campaign supporters of the Democratic candidate who encountered racist attitudes and anti-black sentiment while working in small, rural, white towns across Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio – all states won by Sen. Hillary Clinton in the primaries.
In the factory town of Muncie, Ind., Danielle Ross and her cohorts were soliciting support for Barack Obama at malls, on street corners and in a Wal-Mart parking lot. "The first person I encountered was like, 'I'll never vote for a black person,'" recalled Ross, a onetime university student who is white and just turned 20. "People just weren't receptive."
The Post article continues:
...Doors have been slammed in their faces. They've been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they've endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can't fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president. The contrast between the large, adoring crowds Obama draws at public events and the gritty street-level work to win votes is stark. The candidate is largely insulated from the mean-spiritedness that some of his foot soldiers deal with away from the media spotlight.
Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"
ENTIRE ARTICLE....
