COMMENTARY | As a black woman, I'm watching with fascination the current GOP situation. Many liberals, me included, believe if you're a conservative, you might, and I say might, be a racist.
But then along comes Herman Cain, who has been rising in the Republican polls. A CBS/New York Times poll places him as the front-runner with 25 percent support. Mitt Romney gets 21 percent.
The black businessman's numbers rose from just 5 percent in September. Rick Perry, who everyone thought would surge full speed ahead, dropped from 23 percent to 6 percent.
When I first saw Cain on the political scene, I assumed he was just a candidate who had no hope of beating Romney or even Michele Bachmann. My thinking was based on one fact: Cain is black. It's as if I forgot all about the fact Barack Obama is not white.
Obama won the election, but he's backed by liberals. I expect liberals to be more accepting of a person of color. Why do I hold this view?
I think about the Republican National Convention and marvel at the fact I can count the number of dark faces. I think about Southern conservative voters and their history of racism. I think about Jim Crow laws and George Wallace and Martin Luther King Jr.'s eloquent speech at the 1963 March on Washington.
Is it the modern conservative movement of today? No, but when I listen to Newt Gingrich or see a member of the tea party holding a sign that compares Barack Obama to a monkey, those images come back.
It's a myth to say every black voter will vote for a black candidate. Although I believe Cain's 9-9-9 plan is an intriguing approach that may just work once everyone got used to it, I'm opposed to any candidate who calls homosexuality a "sin" and a "choice."
But it would be a lie if I didn't say I'm pleased to see a black man as the current front-runner for the GOP. Although Gingrich places third in the current poll with 10 percent, racial progress is happening. If not, Obama would not be president and Cain would not be leading in the Republican polls.
After all, it's 2011, not 1963.
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