<table> </table> That both white supremacists and African-Americans are debating what the nomination of Barack Obama portends for the future of the country is telling.</p><p>You know something groundbreaking has happened when such divergent groups are head-scratching to lay meaning to the milestone of the first black man being nominated for the U.S. presidency by a major political party.</p><p>For some white supremacists, the idea of a black man as commander in chief is something they are rooting for, and not covertly. Their twisted logic is that with a man of Obama&#8217;s race in the highest office, disgruntled white people would finally be incensed enough to rise up and join the hate movement.</p><p>Not happening. It&#8217;s difficult for the racist crazies to use Obama as a rallying point. He&#8217;s just too likable to white voters, and not apt to use inflammatory language that pins the troubles of black America upon white America.</p><p>Other members of hate groups feel differently, according to experts who monitor hate-group Web sites. They see the demise of their efforts in Obama. With so many white people latching onto his campaign, who&#8217;s going to be left to join a hate group?</p><p>Interestingly enough, it is through this point that the worries of some black Americans intersect with those of some avowed racists.</p><p>If a black man reaches the nation&#8217;s highest political office, will the struggles of many black Americans be disregarded? Will people be less willing to see how race still matters if a black man occupies the Oval Office?</p><p>For black people, and to a lesser extent Latinos, surmising just what it might mean to have someone who can be labeled &#8220;a person of color&#8221; in the White House has become a bit of a dinner-party debate.</p><p>If Obama is the most prominent black figure in America, what about those who &#8212; by innate intelligence, opportunity or charisma &#8212; are unable to make it to an Ivy League university, much less the White House? Will a &#8220;why can&#8217;t you be more like him&#8221; mentality take root?</p><p>I doubt it. People now understand generational poverty and the problems of inner cities with much more nuance than in prior generations. It is the stacked weight of past racism that continues to hurt urban communities, which everyone knows are largely black and Latino.</p><p>But changing the situation, I&#8217;m convinced, will take some tweaking of that truth.</p><p>Harvard professor Lawrence Bobo put it succinctly in a July article posted on the Web site The Root: &#8220;Critically, we as a people have arrived at a point where a whole new style of intervention and treatment is likely to be needed. The politics of the perpetual outsiders demanding inclusion will finally end (read: Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will get less face time). And good riddance (perhaps). We&#8217;ve come too far over too many years for shrill protest to still be our main political posture today, no matter how necessary and relevant in the past.&#8221;</p><p>Faintly, I hear masses of people (all races) cheering that statement. I join the applause. With either Obama or John McCain in the White House, it is time for a new style of agitating for the changes that will build a stronger middle class, no matter the race of the agitator or the race of those who&#8217;d benefit from changes. We need everyone to be focused on higher-education achievement and wealth accumulation that will push national prosperity upward. But framing those needs solely in terms of helping poor minorities will not succeed. In reality, that approach stopped being effective long ago, in part because of the success of people like Obama, who was born to middle-class opportunity.</p><p>Obama&#8217;s nomination, whether he reaches the White House or not, will someday be viewed as a pivotal moment when the old ways of demanding increased equality within the U.S. will have been rendered obsolete. Not because race is no longer an issue, but because it is a different type of issue than before, less overt, and powerful often because of class barriers.</p><p>Perhaps Jamaican reggae singer Cocoa Tea does the best job of pinning down the nebulous hopes attached to Obama&#8217;s nomination.</p><p>His &#8220;Barack Obama&#8221; is among a number of songs being penned about the candidate worldwide, reflecting the fascination with Obama and his candidacy.</p><p>&#8220;This is not about class nor color, race nor creed/ Make no mistake, it&#8217;s the changes, what all the people them need.&#8221;</p><p>Well put, Cocoa Tea. Let&#8217;s see how the U.S. begins the refrain.</p><p>&#169;2008, The Kansas City Star</p><p>Distributed by Tribune Media Services