Racism in the voting booth

There’s an interesting story out about the responses Sen. Obama’s campaign workers are facing:

For all the hope and excitement Obama’s candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed — and unreported — this election season.

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One caller, [campaign worker Victoria] Switzer remembers, said he couldn’t possibly vote for Obama and concluded: “Hang that darky from a tree!”

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One Pittsburgh union organizer told [Rory Kennedy] he would not vote for Obama because he is black, and a white voter, she said, offered this frank reason for not backing Obama: “White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people.”

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On Election Day in Kokomo, a group of black high school students were holding up Obama signs along U.S. 31, a major thoroughfare. As drivers cruised by, a number of them rolled down their windows and yelled out a common racial slur for African Americans, according to Obama campaign staffers. [Full story]

Kind of puts Geraldine Ferrero’s comments in perspective, huh?

Not that there are any doubts in my mind that there are people refusing to vote for Sen. Clinton because she’s a woman.