White Votes Count; Black Issues Don't

Nightline Insists Black Issues Unimportant

By David Sirota, Alternet

Sometimes racial denigration is easy to see - think white police officers in the segregation era using hoses to stop peaceful protests. Other times it is more subtle - like a few days ago on ABC's Nightline.

I don't usually watch the show, but I happened to be flipping through the channels on Tuesday, when I caught the program's predictable piece on Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Here was how correspondent David Wright (no relation to Jeremiah) concluded his piece:

DAVID WRIGHT: Many black leaders had no comment on today's developments. Obama could yet pay a price in the black community.

REVEREND AL SHARPTON: Some are going to agree. I think some are going to disagree vehemently.

DAVID WRIGHT: But the real question now is what do white voters think, especially the white voters of Indiana. They weigh in on Tuesday, and Obama's hoping there's enough time to convince them that he and his controversial pastor have gone their separate ways for good. (emphasis added)

So according to Nightline, there are questions about the painful and deep fissures the Obama-Wright issue is causing in the black community, but those aren't "real." No, "the real question is what do white voters think" - and, according to ABC, they - and only they - "weigh in on Tuesday" (apparently, Indiana's black population doesn't get to weigh in...did someone suspend the Voting Rights Act in Indiana?).