There’s a new poll out today that shows Brother Barack gaining some steam among black voters. Let’s face it — unlike the proven product that are the Clintons, Obama is a new face for African-Americans. Black people are like other people. We actually take voting seriously (if you consider our voter registration and participation rates) and many African-Americans are discerning values voters. They listen to a candidate before deciding to vote for him or her.

Ari Melber at the Nation writes:

Then this month, The New York Times offered a front page news flash under the headline, “So Far, Obama Can’t Take Black Vote for Granted.” The article quoted Debra J. Dickerson’s claim that “Obama isn’t black” in an American racial context, and then explored why “some black voters” are “so uneasy” about Obama. One barber explained that Obama might not be right for the Presidency because he was not “born, raised, bred, [and] fed in America.” Whatever. That kind of talk has been shredded by The Nation’s Patricia Williams, among others. Now these new poll numbers should remove one crutch reporters were using to write premature stories about how black voters supposedly did not like Obama “enough.”

Couldn’t agree more. I hope we’ve all learned something from this experience.

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