Who is being criticized for making what some people believe to be racial comments about Mr. Obama?

Instructions: Read the following New York Times Article Democrats Face Racial Issue (first link) and answer the following questions.

  1. What characteristics or qualities do you think of when you consider Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama?
  2. What role, if any, does race or gender play in the list of characteristics or qualities you just made? Explain.
  3. Who is being criticized for making what some people believe to be racial comments about Mr. Obama?
  4. How do you feel about the statement “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position”? Do you find it offensive or ridiculous? Why?
  5. Why has this statement received such a strong reaction? What are the historical, political and cultural contexts of this statement?
  6. How do the statistics presented in the article support the notion that race has been a defining issue in the Democratic primaries?
  7. Do you think that Geraldine Ferraro’s statement was taken out of context or was there more to what she said than she said? Explain with evidence from the article.
  8. How important is it to say what you mean, to communicate clearly when trying to communicate with individuals from other cultures? Explain with examples from your everyday life.
  9. List five ways that you can be clear about the way you communicate with multicultural group of individuals. Explain each of your suggestions and give examples from the article and other incidents during the election or in everyday life to support this.