Barry Obama in West Virginia

My friend sent over this YouTube link this morning and it gives us a peek into the West Virginia voting constituency. Most of those interviewed are Clinton supporters that say they will either not vote or vote Republican if Barack Obama is the Democratic Party nominee. Is that crazy or what? Voting Republican is probably the worst thing they could do for themselves, they are in a sense voting against their own economic interests. Why would someone do that? Apparently they don't like his name Barack and they think he's a Muslim.

It's funny because Barack (Barak) is a fairly common name straight out of the Hebrew Bible. There are a lot of Israelis named Barak. Hussein too, is a common Arabic name meaning "good" or "handsome". Unfortunately, Hussein is the name he was given at birth and unfortunately there was a dictator of Iraq with the same first name. But it goes beyond context of the name, it's the fact that it doesn't sound "American". It's not white bread, it's different, he's not Barry, it sounds foreign, it threatens the status quo. I often forget that while our country has had a lot of progress with racism, it's only been a few decades since that progress had been made. There is still a lot of mistrust of people that are of a different color skin, that attend a different church, that worship from a different book, and it would be a shame if people voted the same way an infant sees the world, in the binary of he looks like me or she doesn't look like me.

Obama is a Christian, but even if he was a Muslim why would it matter? The woman in the video can't bring herself to believe that he is not a Muslim and instead resorts to saying that she thinks that there is some sort of conspiracy going on. "I just don't believe that [that he is not a Muslim]". It's almost easier on her conscience to say that she is distrustful of a Muslim than to just say that she doesn't want a black man as President of the United States. I hope that those in the video represent a minority rather than a majority, but as they exist, it shows that we still have a ways to go in terms of loving thy neighbor.