THE SEARCH FOR THE ACCEPTABLE NEGRO

(Part II: Return of The Dutchman)

So it was confirmed to me last week by a white woman sitting next to me at a bar. Introduced to her just moments before by a black male friend of mine, she asked: "So what do you think of Obama? Will you vote for him? I like him, but do you think he has enough experience? I mean I don't know where he stands on anything or what he's done," said the off-duty editor at The Economist.

"I'm not sure what he's done either," I said, "he needs to make that clearer. As for experience, he's smart. And George Bush has experience. What about Hillary?"

"Oh I like Hillary, she's great and she could win."

"So name five things she's done for New York state," I asked the Upper West Side resident.

She smiled. "You're right, I can't. But I think she'd be good on the main issues."

"She really pulled back on a women's right to choose to attract the red-staters," I said. "I used to work for Planned Parenthood, I don't see choice as a bargaining chip. And she voted for the war and Obama didn't. Are you going to vote for her?"

"Yeah."

That's why Obama won't win. The Hillary - Obama heavyweight match already being hyped in such major publications as the Washington Post, the NY Daily News and the NY Times -- and all over the network morning news shows -- will split the vote of the liberal Democratic party. White women will vote for Hillary. The 40-something soccer moms, the 30-something aspiring soccer moms, those who tolerate abortion only with tight restrictions, and the baby boomer white women who see Hillary as one of them -- a glass ceiling shatterer.

That leaves only a handful of white women who will either a) see deeply into Hillary's slithering around from popular position to popular position; b) can't forgive her for not leaving that nasty-ass Bill; c) are proud to be liberal and hip white girls.

A vanishing breed in this era where Katie Couric takes the venerable mantle of network news anchor and promptly puts on a prom dress and bleaches her hair even blonder than it was on "Today."

This morning "Good Morning America," had a group of current and former female senators, about 16 in all, who have been staying in touch over the years to share their thoughts, etc. about women in politics. Diane Sawyer (also blonde) was as thrilled to see them as they were to be seen. Bursting with pride she talked with them about all of their ground breaking accomplishments in furthering the progress of women in government.

Unless I was in the bathroom, I saw no Black woman. There was Carol Mosley Braun from Illinois, you'll recall. Nor was there any mention of the whiteness of this group. They spoke as if they were members of a downtrodden class, 'buked and scorned.

When I entered the corporate world in the mid 1970s, one would have thought (based on the rhetoric at least) that as more persons of color entered that arena, white women would at least be parallel allies with us. I thought that anyone who was not a white male would join the fray to tackle the all-boys club.

But the issues that Black people (both male and female) and white women faced were quite different. White women, after all were never socially discriminated against to the degree that Blacks were. They could date, marry and sit next to each other in the theater or the classroom. The well-to-do ones even had Blacks working for them. (Hey these things form perceptions!)

At a ceremony at a major university honoring NY state law enforcement agencies for their work in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I stood next to two white women, one the head of Government Affairs for the school, the other a uniformed Sergeant. One turned to the other and said, "It's a shame that in a room of over 100 people there are only about six other women here. Sometimes you wonder how much things have changed! " I nodded and smiled and said, "Yep, I counted only one other Black and one Latino."

But they would have never noticed -- it wasn't their concern.

It going to be tough for Obama regardless, because he is Black. But to go up against a white women diminishes his potential base considerably. Maybe he'll capture the hearts (that's literally what he'll have to do) of young white females looking for a change. New voters. As a buddy of mine put it: "The new slogan is: 'Don't tell mama -- vote for Obama!"

Maybe. Or maybe he'll just energize them, but not enough to cast a vote his way. Like the girl who drinks and flirts with you at the bar all night and leaves you and goes home at closing time.

Watch your back Obama. They have to be very delicate how they come at you because of this race thing. They won't act like real enemies. Many will act as allies. Stop and count the number of white women in the room. And then count the Black folk.

And while you're at it, go to the library and check out a copy of Amiri Baraka's, play, "The Dutchman."

Isn't that the one where the white woman pushes the brother in front of the subway train?