But media apart, hundreds and then thousands and thousands of white and black Americans found themselves standing in front of this indisputably charismatic orator. From his own mouth they understood that, regardless of ethnic or regional or age identity, they would have to surrender nothing in order to gain a great deal: alliance need not produce merger or submergence. Even racist habits of mind became beside the point-you could vote for the nigger not because you wanted a Black man in your family but because you thought he might save your family farm. Counted multitudes of white Americans eschewed stupidities of racist reflex for the sake of their own self-interest. More and more listening Americans realized that you don't have to be Black to become an outsider in your own native land: our democracy.