This week has been a strange one so far.  With all of the hoopla around Obama securing the nomination (and understandably so, given the historical significance), and the generally piqued interest of the public in this election cycle, the one post on P+P that garners the most spirited debate is one on gun control (directly below).  I happen to be in a debate with one of the commenters on his own blog regarding the topic.  Even mention stricter gun control laws in a fairly abstract sense and people come out of the woodworks.  I would be completely in favor of having “Jay” write a piece for the site espousing his position (he seems pretty reasonable) as long as I could find someone who could present a counterpoint better than I am able to.  It’s a complex issue, one that people on both sides are passionate about, and one that is receiving little to no attention so far this election cycle.

Speaking of passion (or lack thereof), I was sitting outside of a Subway eating a sandwich near Wilshire and LaBrea yesterday and couldn’t help overhearing the conversation of three teenage, African American boys.  They were doing their best to sound hard as they played with their iPhones and kept watch over their Razor scooters, generally being goofy.   Ahhh, to be a teenager.  But then, out of the blue, I hear one of them say, in a mocking tone as if quoting an adult that was lecturing, “But aren’t you excited about the chance at seeing the first black president?”

“Man, fuck Barack Obama,” was what followed.  “He’s not black.  Fool has a white daddy.”

It made me wonder…  No one in the white community would ever claim Barack Obama as their own, despite him being half white.  But the black community has latched onto to his other half, along with most of the media.  There’s a good chance I’ll be at the DNC this year and I’ve been thinking over and over again how amazing it will be to see the first black nominee officially accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.  The historical significance is overwhelming.

But overhearing those boys shifted my perspective slightly.  I think Caucasian Pride is a stretch, but thinking of Obama as the hybrid candidate, much as he presented himself in his speech on race in America in response to the first Rev. Wright dustup, gives him the unique ability to sit on both sides of the fence.  Some feel, as those boys did, that his racial makeup means exactly the opposite.  He can sit on neither.

I could never profess to know what it is like to be mixed race, but with such a constant clash between black and white cultures in this country, I imagine it is difficult to find your own identity somewhere in the middle.  And here comes Barack Obama, vying for the presidency.  Not to say he couldn’t do it as a black man, but I think it’s high time that white people view Obama as their candidate from a racial perspective as well.  I would love to see his campaign latch on to this idea more.  Unfortunately, I believe his best strategy is to continue to position himself as the black candidate because most of the left-wing whiteys that support him have no issue doing so either way, whereas he capitalizes on the extreme sense of pride in the black community that may evaporate quickly if he starts playing up his lighter side.

But then again, I’m just a 28 year old, white, grad student at USC.  What the hell do I know ?  Seriously.  Anyone else care to soundoff?