Joy-Ann Reid

Joy-Ann Reid talks about her book, Fracture

By Abari Sankofa (aka Renarda A. Williams)

What's in stake for the presidential election of 2016, especially with the Democratic Party divided between Secretary of State/former U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders? It appears that there's a wide rift between Clinton and Sanders themselves, just as it was between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
In her book Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide (William Morrow, September 8, 2015, 27.99, hardback), Joy-Ann Reid eloquently address the aforementioned, from the standpoint of what happened between Clinton and Obama, once the issue of race became a mayor role in the 2008 presidential campaign.

Reid, a national correspondent for MSNBC and a veteran reporter, goes in-depth about the state of race relations in America's politics as well as the complex relationship that exists between Obama and the Clintons — Hillary and her husband, former Pres. Bill Clinton. Reid will show readers how difficult it has been for President Obama to lead the country due to racial injustice, as well as how America can tackle the issue of race.

In a telephone interview with The Empowerment Initiative Online Newsletter, Reid said it was pretty clear that there was a rift between the Clintons and Barak Obama because he ran for president in a year when Hillary was expecting to have an open lane to the nomination as a heavy favorite. "I think that they were generally surprised that he ran, and they were even more surprised that he did well," Reid said. "And I think that the better he did, the angrier they got, because the Clintons did not know how to handle the Obama moment." So, Reid continues, the Clintons reacted negatively.

Recalling one comment the Clintons made about being received poorly in the African American community, Reid said the Clintons were not prepared when they suddenly found themselves running against Black voters. "This was something that [Bill and Hillary Clinton] were not accustomed to," she said. "I think [some] people in the Clinton campaign blamed the Obama campaign for what they saw as race-baiting against Hillary. And a lot of it became personal, [centering on] the subject of race."

Reid said she doesn't think Blacks had unrealistic expectations that President Obama, as the nation's first Black president, would solve racial problems. She believes they were more realistic than that, knowing that he had to address the economy along with other problems.

"They wanted the [president] to think about race more," she said. But, "I don't think African Americans thought he would put the race issue to rest."