The white working class, also known as the teabaggers, have a great fear of the future. Obama symbolizes a group they believe will replace them, edge them out, push them further down the economic pile of losers: the Black Middle Class. Although this high achieving & successful group sees little attention from the media or any other source & many of it's individual members are always praised as exceptions to their race, their existence has always been felt through programs like affirmative action & college scholarships. Through efforts of colleges & universities countrywide (govt forced or self imposed diversity plans) , Black young adults are are bringing themselves out of poverty & the working class to establish themselves solidly in the middle class by becoming professionals & business owners.
Now that access is open to everyone, the cream rises to the top. No longer are the halls of colleges filled with any white male that applied, but there are standards, tests, & tons of smart kids who want a higher education. Colleges have mounds of students who are intelligent & capable to choose from. No longer are C & D students with no friend or family strings or legacy guaranteed a spot at a college or university. For that matter, they are no longer guaranteed a spot at a company.
Black kids are doing the mythical Horatio Alger story of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. We are beginning to see black students in college whose parents are college graduates as well. Obama was right that only in America can a regular kid like himself rise to become President of the USA without any long history of wealth, power or influence. His brillance, hard work, charm, & tenacity were not Jim Crowed out of the larger system like so many before him. Segregation did not drive him to drink or to insanity because his potential was stifled by no access.
Medicore whites thrived in this system. Especially in the south were poor whites were only better off than their black counterparts by one single thing: their white skin privilege. This is slowly being stripped away. It is no doubt still a major factor in American life, but is sliping away before everyones eyes. Instead of directing anger at the Corporation who keep wages articfically low & everyone fighting for scraps of the American dream, the teabaggers choose to absurdly rail against govt & black.
Many believed the election of Obama was the ushering in of a post racial America, it didn't.. But, the effects of Obama will be felt for generations--not only for his healthcare plan or financial reform--because little Black & brown kids will realize that they to can be president, a lawyer, or a senator.