McCain's black family ties touch on the GOP's racial faultline

McCain's black family ties touch on the GOP's racial faultline | Crooks and Liars

Normally, the story of John McCain's black family -- the ones who are
planning to vote for Barack Obama -- might elicit some modest interest
in terms of what it says about the complexity of race relations in
America.

But what's been even more interesting has been how John McCain has responded to the story ever since it surfaced.

Initially, back when he first was doing the "Maverick" schtick in
the 2000 primaries, he actually denied that the aristocratic
Southerners from whom he was descended were slaveholders. But it really
became impossible for McCain to deny their existence after a 2000 report in Salon in the course of which reporters showed him photographs and birth records in person and he had to concede to their existence.

One account, In the South Florida Times, describes how McCain has handled the connection publicly and privately:

White and black members of the McCain family have met on
the plantation several times over the last 15 years, but one invited
guest has been conspicuously absent: Sen. John Sidney McCain.

“Why he hasn’t come is anybody’s guess,”
said Charles McCain Jr., 60, a distant cousin of John McCain who is
black. “I think the best I can come up with, is that he
doesn’t have time, or he has just distanced himself, or it
doesn’t mean that much to him.”

Other relatives are not as generous.

Lillie McCain, 56, another distant cousin of John McCain who is
black, said the Republican presidential nominee is trying to hide his
past, and refuses to accept the family’s history.

“After hearing him in 2000 claim his family never owned
slaves, I sent him an email,” she recalled. “I told him no
matter how much he denies it, it will not make it untrue, and he should
accept this and embrace it.”

She said the senator never responded to her email.

In her CNN interview with Kyra Phillips, Lillie McCain discusses this further:

PHILLIPS: Do you think it could make a difference with regard to
diversity issues, issues of race, if John McCain did participate?

L. MCCAIN: I think it probably could. It would give him an opportunity to know us.

I e-mailed him back in 2000 to remind him of his ties to Tiak,
Mississippi. I heard him say on I believe it was "Meet the Press," that
his ancestors owned no slaves. Well, I certainly have carried the name
McCain from the beginning of my whole life, and I've known of the ties
to John McCain and tried to get him to communicate with me about that,
but he has been unwilling, at least, to date.

PHILLIPS: Well he found out in 2000, to be fair to the senator
there, and he did come forward and gave this quote -- "How the Tiak
descendants have served their community and, by extension, to their
country, is a testament to the power of family, love, compassion, and
the human spirit." And then he added in the statement, "an example for
all citizens."

That sure is a warm, fuzzy little sentimental quote from the
senator, and the fact that it really says nothing in reality says
everything we need to know about John McCain.