Nobody is a racist

[randy_byers]

Obama rubs the Hortons the wrong way because they think he's arrogant. It's the same thing you hear from voters in a lot of the parts of the country where Obama's infamous remarks about bitterness would probably also apply. But that's not his only problem in rural West Virginia. "They won't go for a black man, that's just it," R.K. Horton, a retired heating and air conditioning business owner, said of his neighbors. "I don't think it's being racist necessarily, they just don't like black people that well." For that matter, it's not just his neighbors. "The arrogance and all that bothers me more than black, but black is a close second," he said. "Our generation was back when blacks were the back of the bus, and it's hard to change that outlook. I just feel like I couldn't vote for him."

-- from Can Barack Obama win in West Virginia? in Salon

Comments

[farmgirl1146.livejournal.com]

Well explained. My late grandmother (b. 1892) was from and lived most of her life southern Missouri, although she lived a long while in Southern Kansas. Her attitude was much the same, but she never got to the point where people who were not white were people, as far as I know. Your grandmother made a very long journey that most people do not make.