Clinton and "Racially Sensitive" Voters in Pennsylvania

Walt Uhler has an interesting piece at his site, Walter-C-Uhler.com, analyzing "Hillary's wink and a nod to 'racially sensitive' voters" in Pennsylvania. Uhler quotes the Philadelphia Inquirer's report that "eighteen percent of white Ohio voters said race was an important factor in their decision, and of that group, three in four voted for Clinton," according to exit polls. "Let's dispense with the political correctness," Uhler writes, "and call these people what they really are - racists.... The Clinton campaign knows this, which explains why they have employed the wink and a nod that pigeonholes Obama as merely a black candidate in marginally pro-Democratic Pennsylvania. If she can't prevail on the issues, perhaps a bit of subtle racial innuendo can put her over the top."

Uhler notes that "controlling lower class whites by pandering to their "racial sensitivities" is a technique long practiced by upper class whites in America and dates at least as far back as Bacon's rebellion in 1676."

Bacon's rebellion was an uprising in 1676 in which poor whites and poor blacks defied the established government and attacked Native Americans indiscriminately.

Uhler quotes author Matt Wray, who wrote in a social analysis of race in the US:

After the rebellion, historians agree, the colonial elite took steps to divide blacks from whites, discouraging solidarity by introducing racially based legal and economic privileges that were intended to benefit even the poorest whites.

Says Uhler, "Although this tactic might gain the Clinton campaign a few more anti-Obama working-class votes in Pennsylvania, one might ask whether it will cost her in the long run; especially if Philadelphia's black population refuses to support her...."