Esquire asks: Can a white man still be elected president?

by Racialicious special correspondent Wendi Muse, originally published at Does Race Matter?

Have you seen this cover? What are they really trying to say?

“Can a white man still be elected president?” asks Esquire of its readers in next month’s issue featuring presidential hopeful John Edwards.

Um, I’m sorry, but did I miss a memo? I would love to read the article, but the opening remark on the cover is a big time turn off. What exactly are they trying to say here? Esquire editors might be attempting to be cute and sarcastic with their cover page line, but to me it rings of the infamous fear that one day, the world will wake up and find itself being run entirely by minorities, oh and women too.

(Cue: “Oh the horror!!!”)

Sound dystopian, doesn’t it? I think some people have an unrealistic expectation that wealthy white male political, economic, and social dominance will come to an overnight halt now that the babymakers and the coloreds have been given rights, and, God forbid, a few also happen to be gaining considerable support as they campaign in hopes of becoming the next titleholders for presidency of the United States, but anyone with half a brain could look around and see that the equality apocalypse is a loooong way off.

If you read the rest of the caption, you can see that editors really want to reel in their audience with a little more bait:

Can a white man still be elected president? If so, John Edwards will have to battle image, cancer, and the forces of history.

What? This statement comes as a bit of cruel irony considering a few truths regarding the neverending blight of stereotypes that affect the respective images of people of color and women, major challenges in access to quality healthcare for people of color and women, and well, the hand that the forces of history have dealt, you guessed it, people of color and women.

If anyone has read this article, please put in your two cents. The piece may be awesome, but I refuse to pay money for a magazine that plays up on racist and sexist fears to increase its readership.

My bad.