A lesson from Cindy McCain

Dawn Turner Trice

September 1, 2008

I'm still amazed at the number of people who brand Michelle Obama as an angry black woman who's un-American. But those who don't like her, or her husband, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, won't no matter what. I suppose that's OK.

But this isn't so much about Michelle Obama as it is about the other woman who may be our first lady: Cindy McCain.

At some point this week during the Republican National Convention, as Sen. John McCain gets ready to accept his party's nomination for president, the McCain clan will take the stage. For those who don't already know, one child looks a wee bit different from the others.

She has dark hair and deep caramel-colored skin. Bridget McCain is 17 and was born in Bangladesh. She was the subject of a nasty smear campaign by Republicans during the 2000 primary. They said Bridget was McCain's love child, the product of an affair.

Dawn Turner Trice

As the true story goes, Cindy McCain was traveling in Bangladesh when she came upon two children who needed medical help. McCain decided to bring both back home. She and her husband adopted Bridget. Another couple, at Cindy McCain's urging, adopted the other child.

I know we've heard a lot of other things about McCain, but that she adopted a child in need speaks volumes about her. That she adopted a brown child (long before Angelina and Madonna made it trendy and hip), and didn't let that child's skin color obscure her need, rounds McCain out even more.

Everybody knows Cindy McCain is loaded. But this isn't about money. Such an adoption asks your family, including your children, to extend themselves in a way that lends more than lip service to the idea of colorblindness.

It's one thing to believe one way when it comes to race. But when you get your children involved, that's quite another.

I remember during President George W. Bush's first term when he wanted to nominate Judge Charles Pickering, a conservative Republican, to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. This time it was the Democrats launching a smear campaign that accused Pickering of being a racist who had made some racially insensitive rulings.

During a profile on CBS' "60 Minutes," some of those complicated rulings were explained. But what spoke volumes about Pickering and race was that when his Mississippi school district began to integrate, he and his wife decided not to send their children to private schools as their friends were doing. Their children attended the public school, which soon became mostly black.

I consider myself open-minded when it comes to race. But I've always believed that I will be tested when (years and years and years from now) my daughter brings home a man of a different race and introduces him to her parents as the man she hopes to marry.

Will I say: "Oh . . . him? Really?"

Or will I say to her, as my mother said to me: "Honey, if he treats you well, you have my blessings."

To be clear, I'm not saying that McCain or Pickering is totally free of prejudice. We do live in a country where it's impossible to avoid the taint.

The point is that people are complicated. And if we sit in our little partisan echo chambers, we don't get enough information to see any of these people with more clarity. Conservative Republicans, liberal Democrats, wealthy heiresses and black women with Ivy League educations don't fit into neat boxes.

But neither do civil rights leaders often accused of race-baiting and chasing television cameras. Last week, during the Democratic National Convention in Denver, I spent some time with the controversial Rev. Al Sharpton.

Check out my essay, "An hour with 'Uncle Al' " at Exploring Race at chicagotribune.com/race.

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