If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman of any color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.
Geraldine Ferraro, Torrance Daily Breeze, March 7, 2008
It now appears that Geraldine Ferraro’s now-famous first sentence was at least partially right, albeit a week or so early. If Obama were a white man, he would not be in the position he is today: not, as Ferraro would have it, a position in which he receives the uncritical positive regard of much of the population, but one where he is being called to answer for the attitudes and actions of the entire Black community. Her fourth sentence proved prophetic as well: the whole country has been caught up in the concept.
The question before us, and before the superdelegates, is whether the third sentence was also true: is he very lucky to be who he is? Again, contrary to Ferraro, that does not mean lucky to be Black, but is he lucky enough — by virtue of both eloquent argument and personal example — to be able to defuse the effect of his being symbolically associated with those Blacks whom much of white America most hates and fears?
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