Among the many striking features of Georgia-based radio talk show host Herman Cain’s presidential announcement speech in Atlanta on May 21, the most surreal was to hear an African-American in front of a heavily white audience of hard-core conservatives, at a site within shouting distance of the Martin Luther King Center, end his remarks by declaring, “When Herman Cain is president, we will finally be able to say, ‘Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, America is free at last.’” Cain’s decision to appropriate those famous words from King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is in many ways characteristic of the man himself and the kind of campaign he’s been running. But give him credit: Outperforming Tim Pawlenty in many recent polls, running tied for second in Tuesday’s latest PPP poll of Iowa, Cain is surging on the backs of the Tea Party faithful. He is nothing if not audacious, and his popularity is due in large part to the fact that he has come to embody some of the more dubious but emotionally central claims of the Tea Party Movement.
His website shows no formal endorsements from anyone as of yet. By contrast, fellow presidential contender Mitt Romney has gotten the steadfast support of Christian Public Relations figure Mark DeMoss. Tim Pawlenty has landed the support and fundraising power of Nicole Schlinger, one of The Des Moines Register's 50 most wanted people for the Iowa caucuses.
Polls reveal that Cain is still largely unrecognized among most Republican voters. However, his popularity is strong among those who do know him.
In an appearance on The CBS Early Show Morning, Cain asserted that he is closing the name-recognition gap and is drawing in the fundraising dollars to prove it.
"I assure you that we have substantially more than that (the $16,000 in his political action). We have cash on hand and we will be reporting that in July," he shared with television viewers.
Cain continued, "We don't have to raise the most amount of money; we just need to raise enough money to be competitive because there's an element that's going on in this campaign that money can't buy. The fact that our message is resonating so well [means] our ground game, our grassroots development is far exceeding a lot of the other candidates."
The "Herman Cain Train" video reveals some possible reasons why his message is resonating. The video shows Cain relating to working-class, blue-collar voters black and white through his American dream story of going from the son of share croppers and slaves to the CEO of giant companies such Coca-Cola.
Cain reminds us of the danger of simplistic racial arguments. Cain's candidacy is a cautionary tale about the simplistic racial reasoning that has dominated American discourse in the past few years. Meaningfully confronting Cain's claims of racial authenticity, and his insistence that his candidacy proves the tea party is not racist, requires a far more complex understanding.
I suggest we do away with all blacker-than-thou arguments. Engaging in such authenticity litmus tests allows us to imagine that biography determines political solidarity. Cain is a reminder that it does not.
Furthermore, we need to bury the idea that racism is primarily about saying mean or unflattering things about black people, and specifically about Obama. Discussions of American racism should be about addressing policies and practices that create or deepen racially unequal outcomes.
Racial animus might have prompted the nasty signs about the president at anti-health-care-reform rallies, but who cares? It's the continuing racial health disparities that matter. When some whites refuse to vote for Obama, it might be because of racism, but I am much more interested in the racism of voting regulations that states are imposing.
If we allow white Democrats to believe supporting Obama protects them from racial criticism, we have to extend that logic to Republican supporters of Cain. Both notions are ridiculous. One's willingness to support a black candidate is not politically relevant. Being antiracist is about embracing policies that reduce unfairness and inequality.
Herman Cain will not be the president of the United States. But that doesn't mean we should ignore him.
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