North Carolina's New Blues

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Grappling With Transformation

Voters in North Carolina, long a staunch red state, may be changing course.

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In the presidential race, the traditional divides -- blue and red, black and white, rich and poor -- live alongside struggles over faith and doubt. It is the faith that Warren Kent Vaughn has in an Obama-led future vs. the doubt that brought Pam Demarest to an outlying county Republican office in heavy rain to pick up a McCain-Palin yard sign. It was something she had never done before, done now because she was tired of passing so many Obama yard signs. It was visceral.

Demarest works full time as a nurse and teaches part time at a community college, while putting a son through college. "We're barely keeping afloat," she said. Her husband lost his job as a printer two years ago and was out of work for five months, and that "put us behind and we've never been able to keep up," she said. Her eyes filled with tears. "He says he's archaic." A husband who believes his worth has been drained from the marketplace? How does a wife deal with that? It was not that Obama was to blame. But her feelings were raw, and she didn't know quite where to take them.

"I don't like Obama," she said. "When you look at him, when you see him speaking, some of the looks he gives are condescending. He doesn't come off as somebody I would trust. He just doesn't. Sometimes you can't give a reason for that."

The state of Vaughn's and Demarest's struggles is one of the fastest-growing in America, set to be No. 7 in population by 2030, according to Census projections. Once reliant on tobacco, textiles and furniture, the economy fueling growth today is built on high-tech research, pharmaceuticals and a banking industry now reeling. Charlotte is the No. 2 banking center in the nation, but watching one of its financial pillars -- homegrown Wachovia -- crumble and get eaten up by outsider Wells Fargo was a karate chop to the psyche.

"There ain't nothing you can do about it," said a resigned but angry James Woods, who has worked for Duke Energy, another local pillar, for 36 years. He had been on the verge of retirement, "but it keeps getting further and further away." He's unsatisfied with his choices for president. He has linked the economic crisis to government failure, and government failure to the politicians running government, and that is bad news for both Obama and McCain. "I don't think either one of them can do anything."

The change they talk about inside North Carolina can be seen in the demographics, diversifying the state's culture and stirring up its politics. Blacks, who had been leaving the South, are returning in big numbers and finding comfort in the metropolitan areas. Affluent, well-educated whites have flocked to the Research Triangle Park of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. And good job opportunities have made North Carolina a new destination for Latino and Asian immigrants. Ten percent of residents 5 years and older now speak a language other than English at home, according to Guillory.

It was this kind of environment that persuaded Jeffrey Watson, 33, to open a business he called the first of its kind here: a black barbershop combined with a Vietnamese nail salon called So Sharp. Lien My Thi Le grew up in Vietnam and has been in Charlotte for six years. Her English is not great, but one word rolls off her tongue effortlessly: "Obama!" She is a manicuring wizard, carefully painting nails in colors and stripes. Howard Sanders is a haircutting wizard, sculpting and lining and giving hard-luck parents breaks on their kids' cuts. Now 42, he has been cutting hair since he was 13 and is wondering if his dream to own a chain of mainstream salons can be realized.

"To tell you the truth, I live in my segregated box," Sanders said. "I have a fear of going outside the box and being rejected. By no means do I want to be segregated. I want to be integrated. I have had many chances that I just don't know how to embrace." Sanders has the swagger inside the barbershop. You can tell by the way he wields the clippers, cool in baggy jean shorts and an orange Nike shirt, an earring in his left lobe. But outside the shop, his confidence often wanes. He doesn't follow up on contacts he meets, or pursue financing that might get him where he wants to be. "It's me not knowing how to ask the right questions," he surmised. "Most importantly, it's my lack of self-esteem."

Watching Obama navigate political minefields this year has made Sanders rethink what he could become. If only he could push past his trepidations. He is almost there with his confidence, but not quite. "I would like to see Barack Obama win, but I don't think this society is ready for it."

King Carter is ready. He and his recording team from YoungSouth Entertainment pulled up in front of So Sharp one evening in a van emblazoned with his name, music blaring from the speakers, his music. He had just released his first rap CD at age 24, with a marketing approach tied to Obama's campaign. On one of his tracks, he calls himself "the young Obama," and his promotional material included several hundred red-white-and-blue yard signs with his name and "No Choice '08," which he quickly spread around town. No other choice for the White House, and no other choice for your iPod. It just made sense to him. "Seems like all the young people are involved in this election," said Carter, and those are his listeners. "I see a lot more people of color taking pride in what they do. I think Obama inspired that."

Faith and doubt.

Vaughn's good fortune at the Queen City Motel lasted but a month. He was kicked out, his minister said, and he and Brenda Williams were back on the streets without a home. "I told him that sometimes you have to go through what you have to go through, to get where you need to go," said Derrick Moore, who presides at his grandfather's Pentecostal church, Bread of Life Deliverance. "If you glorify God, He'll provide for you."