The Editor, Sir:

It was bound to happen sometime: the emergence of race in the presidential elections of the United States of America.

Race and gender have been antagonists since the 19th century. It was the anti-slavery movement and then the Women's Suffragette Movement. The age of Pride and Prejudice was also the age of the African slave trade and its remedy. That race surfaced was a no-brainer, but how it came about could never have been predicted; but it is a mixed blessing for the Obama campaign.

Incendiary sermons

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whose incendiary sermons lit the fuse, is a native son of Philadelphia. His father was one of the longest-serving pastors in the suburb of Germantown. Indeed, his father only recently passed away and is an iconic figure among the black clergy, and some of that status has been bequeathed to his son, with its plaudits and criticisms. While no one can say for sure that the release of these excerpts carefully chosen and enhanced was a part of a 'dirty tricks' campaign, it is strange that these excerpts appeared at this time, when the Pennsylvania primary is crucial to the Clinton campaign as well as to the repair of a fractured Pennsylvanian Republican Party.

There is a saying that all politics is local and this dimension would escape all but Philadelphians. There was much riding on Obama's response to these excerpts, which he has so skilfully addressed. This will not be the last time that we hear of race in this campaign as this is also a class issue. It was the black vote which carried Kennedy over the top when his Roman Catho-licism became an issue.

Denial of black votes

It was also the denial of the black vote, among other things, which lost Florida for Gore in 2000.

Unfortunately, the exclusion of the black vote, and that includes Caribbean peoples and Latinos, goes on apace. It has been reported that there are discussions now under way to mandate photo-identity registration cards before an individual is permitted to vote. This puts an increased burden on the old, the poor and the infirm, who would find it difficult to go to places of registration. Then, there are the states in which felons lose their voting rights. That is, if a person is convicted and goes to jail, his or her vote is taken away. Last count, if my memory serves me right, there were some 180,000 felons in Florida alone, most of them black and poor, and I think Texas is not too far behind.

I am, etc.,

HORACE O. RUSSELL

horussell@aol.com

Saints Memorial Baptist Church,

47 South Warner Avenue

Bryn Mawr, PA