How can racism still be a problem if so many white Americans are willing to support a black man like Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president? This rhetorical question worries some analysts, who warn that Obama’s prominence, ironically, could set back the struggle for racial equality. They argue that his transracial appeal would convince many that the country has “transcended race,”… return to article
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Reader Comments (18)Page 1 of 1 pagesThis article is so very silly in such a wide variety of ways, where to begin?
First one should note that white slavery also existed in the US. Might as well attempt to be somewhat accurate.
Second, it must be just a tad insulting to tell black folks that they are not *really* black, unless they have slavery in their past.
One might have also added in that the black folks kidnapped from Africa were largely kidnapped by other black folks. Perhaps this is not so relavant to the discussion, given that black folks here are doing so much better than those left behind. . .
Didn’t OJ prove that black folks can get away with murder, even when the evidence was crystal clear? Justice in our society is more linked to economic *class*, rather than race.
Obama is not so much black by the “one drop” “principle, but rather by the color of his skin and the fact he is fully 50% black (and 50% white). Hell, that makes him “blacker” than most US blacks!
“Because Obama’s ancestral narrative lacks slavery, his self-image likely lacks the wounds from that history.”
How insane does one have to be to actually subscribe to such obvious nonsense? Or is this just stuff one writes without believing it, due to either convenience or general laziness?
“White Americans likely sense the lack of racial grievance and respond gratefully. This gratitude helps explains why Obama mania has swept the nation.”
So Obama is not really a worthwhile candidate, he is merely some sort of salve for whity? This has to be one of the ultimate insults applied to him, and, of course, completely unfairly! (HINT - whites have NO guilt over events that happened over **140** years - SEVEN GENERATIONS- ago!! None, nada, zip.)
Blacks today have all the opportunities as everyone else in US society. Many many take advantage of these opportunities (entertainers, sports figures, political figures, really everything is wide open!). The civil rights movement has been a success; time to move on.
Race in the US is a total non-issue. Class, on the other hand, is the issue of the day.
Posted by wolf on Feb 14, 2008 at 5:29 PM I disagree with wolf that race is not an issue in America today. I do not disagree that guilt over slavery is non-existent, or at least very rare.
Slavery happened. The enslaved were Africans. The history of the African slave trade has helped motivate nations to fight current practices of human trafficking and slavery.
Racism exists in America on an individual basis, just as do many other biases. Someone could easily vote for a Black person to be president but still not want to have a neighbor on the same block who is Black. The word Black can be substituted for any other racial or ethnical category.
John McCain was born in Panama. He was a prisoner of war. Those are rare in today’s America. These set him apart from many White Americans by experience, just as Obama is set apart from many Black and White Americans by experience. Neither of them have the experience of having a relative slip across a border in order to have a better job to provide for a family back in Mexico. Hillary Clinton is from an era in which women struggled to be accepted in most professions. There are many women of voting age who did not share that experience. Similarly, the much vaunted Cuban American voters are split by generation between those who fled Castro and those who fled post-USSR Cuba. Ultimately, the question for any candidate is if voters see him or her as American enough.
Millions of Americans are trapped on the low end, regardless of skin color or of sex. Affirmative action and gender equality are not intended to help every individual. The goal is to provide opportunity in the categories so an individual in any category can have an opportunity for reaching higher. We will not achieve racial equality until Blacks and Whites and Hispanics start to see each other equally. For now, we are in a backlash. I caught a PBS special in which it was stated African American churches and other organizations were started because it allowed their members to have a place where they could be in charge. I regularly have the feeling that Blacks in America are still wanting to exclude Whites so they can run their own communities. Blacks must become as comfortable with Whites as Whites must be comfortable with Blacks for there to be racial equality.
Posted by SillyLeftist on Feb 14, 2008 at 11:28 PM If race were not a highly significant matter in the U.S. today, it would not be so important to settle on Obama’s racial identity. His skin colour defines him. If this were not the case, he could be running as a white man, given that his mother was white. Race is determinative. What it MEANS is as complex as Muwakkil’s article indicates, whether the author has it exactly “right” or not.
The fact that Obama does not have slavery in his past also has some significance. This is a powerful ghost from history that plays itself out in so many complicated ways, just as the Holocaust plays out in the lives of Jews (and everyone else). To suggest that people whose recent ancestors have not suffered that experience are not constructed differently from those whose ancestors did is naive.
Posted by hesperia on Feb 15, 2008 at 6:52 AM “We inherit not ‘what really happened’ to the dead but what lives on from that happening, what is conjured from it, how past generations and events occupy the force fields of the present, how they claim us, and how they haunt, plague, and inspirit our imaginations and visions for the future.” -Wendy Brown, Politics Out of History
Posted by hesperia on Feb 15, 2008 at 8:41 AM I cannot ever agree that a man’s skin color defines him! It is the defining of men and women with that single physical attribute that has led to the long tale of suffering that is race relations in America.
However, whether or not Obama is descended from slaves, the one thing that can always be said is that a non-“white” has not only made a serious run at the presidency, but has been taken seriously as a candidate by people across racial categories and across regions. He is supported or opposed on a variety of grounds, over and above the issues traditionally linked to race.
He’s a candidate who is “black”, but he’s not really a Black candidate at all, in the sense that his race and the political agendas derived from racial issues are not the center of his candidacy.
That may cost him votes from those who want him to be a racial candidate, but as an important milestone in the history of the United States, I think it’s a measureable and striking step in the right direction.
Posted by Kuya on Feb 15, 2008 at 8:49 AM Doesn’t mean that everything is now cake and ice cream, on the racial front. Just a hopeful development.
I’ll take it!
Posted by Kuya on Feb 15, 2008 at 8:53 AM While not really germane to the discussion, it is amusing to note that we all descended from Africans. By the “one drop” rule, we are all black.
Perhaps more to the point, we are all one big family, with all the benefits and detriments of being such.
Posted by wolf on Feb 15, 2008 at 9:49 PM Ever get the feeling that folks like Salim Muwakkil really don’t want racial discord to end?
It’s their whole life seemingly. If they didn’t have it to write about, lecture about and complain about, they’d be lost.
Contrast this race-obsessed attitude (“not black enough”) with that of MLK. We all want to judge people on things other than skin color, but certain folks continue to do whatever they can to make that impossible.
I think one of the most powerful antidotes to racial prejudice relatively recently has actually been business including all races side-by-side as equals in advertisements, and also race-blind children’s programming and school curriculum that has resulted in my son not even using skin color to make distinctions between his friends, and I’m thinking that’s a really good thing. But it’s a delicate bud that needs to be protected and nourished. I just hope the Salim Muwakkil crowd doesn’t get hold of his brain too soon.
And I realize that yes, much of that inclusion may be due to prodding, probably from the likes of the author, but upon achieving progress, let’s celebrate it and encourage more of it, not write articles that nit-pick it and seem to bemoan it. Imagine an article that simply praised or even criticized Obama’s proposals and principles on their merits, and didn’t talk about race whatsoever. My how refreshing and healthy that would be, and what a great example to our young people that are making such great progress along these lines.
When Obama said: “white guilt has largely exhausted itself in America” as “even the most fair-minded of whites … tend to push back against suggestions of racial victimization and race-based claims based on the history of racial discrimination in this country,” I think he was making an attempt to move on and build on the progress that has been made, and not remain a perpetual prisoner of those who insist that racism end according to their timetable.
“Obama’s role as an exemplar of America’s promise may prompt new efforts to open that promise for the millions of African Americans trapped on the low end.”
Yes, and especially if that concept is not continually poisoned by the ever more distant past, which fewer and fewer of us had anything to do with.
Posted by Natalie on Feb 17, 2008 at 12:38 AM Obama is clearly not black when he describes himself the way he did in his books and on the Tavis Smiley show in interview a few months ago.
In fact he is everything but black, but offers numerous reasons why he is the long shot President by far - in identifying himself as he did.
Whether he has enough faith in himself or whether Americans have faith in him may have changed with results of the primaries since that show was taped - but still it offers Republicans an air-tight case of why Obama should not be elected - that they will surely offer to the American public putting Democrats at a huge disadvantage in the General Election with McCain, and none of it had to do with race.
Posted by pbr90 on Feb 19, 2008 at 9:29 PM This campaign has highlighted the true sexism that exists in this country much more than it says anything about racism. Obama does not have the history of blacks in this country. He has rich grandparents from Kansas and he went to school in Hawaii where he wasn’t that different looking from everyone else. He has definitely played the race card. As a Hillary supporter I wish she would play the sex card because it is much more a fact of life in the United States as black women can tell you.
Posted by mayone on Feb 20, 2008 at 1:23 PM I found the approach this article took extremely annoying and potentially damaging in propagating hopelessness. History will always be there. People must stop falling back on their history and take responsibility for themselves and their families right now in the present. People may have disadvantages for MANY reasons: slavery in their ancestry, being a child of immigrants, being female vs. being male, being homosexual, divorce of their parents, history of child abuse, language barriers, physical “disabilities”, having come from poverty, losing a wife, mother, child, etc.. etc.. Race and history is just on of them, and who is to say that losing your husband, death of a child, etc.. is less or more damaging to your potential than your great-grandmother having been a slave.
I am white, and MY grandmother was a slave. She was a slave in Germany as a teenager, people in my family have been murdered, and when it was all “over”, everything my grandparents had acquired for themselves was taken away by communism, set in place by an agreement among Britain, the US, and the killer of millions, Stalin.
I can complain that my future would have been different, that Germany owes me something, that the US or Russia owe me something, that I would have been wealthy today if it wasn’t for history, that I would have been able to afford healthcare, the education of my choosing, etc… I never had an inheritance, or an allowance, my parents never were able to help me with connections in the world, etc..
What is the point to these excuses? These excuses are barriers. I have to make my own success.
If you are judging how “black” someone is by how much money they grew up with, then what does that say about your judgement? If Obama isn’t as “black” as some people because he’s not brought up in poverty, then you have a hard time relating success to being “black”, and you have the issue. Hopelessness… It’s tiresome!
I do think race is still an issue, but just as much as hundreds of other disadvantages that people are born into or acquire in their life. It’s time that people take responsibility for their situation the best they can and in this way exercise and protect their freedom. This is progress.
If the majority of white Americans vote Obama into power as president, it IS a testament to progress. If the argument is made that they trust him only because he is a wealthy man, or that he is not quite as African-American as most African-Americans. Come on! I have to roll my eyes. Will it take electing a HOMELESS African-American to convince the author that race is not a factor at least for these voters?
Posted by aaaa on Feb 20, 2008 at 2:58 PM I am so frustrated that it isn’t possible to talk about the impact of race (or gender or sexual orientation or ethnicity or past sexual history etc etc etc) without being told that it ought not to be used as an excuse. I certainly never said anything about excuses or playing the race card or anything like that. I will be happy when none of these identifiers is an issue. That’s not the case now and it would certainly be nice, especially in a forum like this, if we could have an intelligent and engaging conversation without being reduced to infantile categories and accusations. This is what’s silly. And an incredible drag if a person is looking for discusson with like minded people who aren’t into slinging darts and arrows just for the fun of it.
And, by the way, as far as I know, there’s no such thing as playing the “sex card”. That just gets you a big, long laugh. That is one difference between the issues of race and gender. Occasionally, though not here, race is taken seriously. Gender never is. Except by some women.
Bah humbug
Posted by hesperia on Feb 20, 2008 at 5:04 PM “I am so frustrated that it isn’t possible to talk about the impact of race (or gender or sexual orientation or ethnicity or past sexual history etc etc etc) without being told that it ought not to be used as an excuse.”
Race has been an issue in this country from the founding of this country. The United States chose to make an exemption from its own ideals. The Founders exerted “All men are created equal” and knowingly compromised to include slaves as three-fifths of a person with no legal rights. Race is not just “the color of a skin” it is an experience and a relationship to this society.
In the last fifty years we have seen furious and violent opposition to Black people moving into white neighborhoods (yes, in suburbs & cities of the North). The US property value system has given white families tens of thousands of dollars in equity for living in white neighborhoods. For decades, “purity” in racial make up was a factor to be evaluated in property values of a neighborhood. Just a year ago, a white friend of mines had to nearly beg a real estate agent to take her to racially-mixed neighborhoods. Today you can read about the foreclosure crisis and how Black customers (even middle class families) are disproportionately targeted for faulty loan products. From slavery to the present day, racism has boosted the property values and asset portfolio for land-owning Whites.
As the author alludes to, racial issues is about more than just feelings. If you don’t care about emotional trauma, then perhaps my comments will show some of the tangible, material (financial) aspects of living in this racialized nation.
As to the article itself, I have both been amazed at how far we have come and fearful that Obama’s candidacy (much less a victory) will be labeled a premature death knell to racism. I am not saying racism is the same as 100 or even 50 years ago, but we should be able to discuss how it has taken shape and how it has affected people. My hope comes in conversations like this where people are encouraged to share their opinions, observations, and most importantly their experiences.
Posted by detroitsun on Feb 21, 2008 at 12:55 AM Point taken, but not only are the founding fathers not ME, they are not my fathers. I understand tangible and financial barriers, because I grew up in them. I also understand discrimination, because I have experienced it in my line of work as a woman. I’m sure my family and yours has boosted the asset portfolios of many greedy wealthy men. Why not relate, instead of explaining differences down to black “type a”. and black “type b”. We all have barriers, hopelessness is just another to add, if you so choose.
Race IS an issue, but where it is not, such as in Obama’s support among whites, people should not force it in and dismiss real progress and their genuine colorblind choice. Someone said people can easily vote for a black president but still not want a black neighbor. I think that any of those voters would love Obama as their neighbor. Maybe it’s not the race, but it IS his character??
How black is Obama? Let Obama decide. That is his personal identity, and not one for the writer to challenge or nitpick. I think it is ridiculous and insulting, because such picking apart of details (black as in enslaved ancestors vs black as in non-enslaved ancestors? hmmm..) only keeps separating people from people in categories and widens the gap not only between races, but even within races.
I think that racism and prejudice is encouraged by people not relating to each other, distancing themselves from others by finding all the differences. I feel that the author is doing just that down to those drops of blood (noted : kansan and kenyan, non-enslaved). To be honest, I had no idea Obama’s mother was a white American, and that his father was from Africa. Should I now view him as some exception to most black men? Is this healthy for the author to make a point of this distinction? Some young black man may have been inspired and you just pointed out to him how different Obama is from him, perhaps he should relate a little less.
Posted by aaaa on Feb 21, 2008 at 4:28 AM I think whites don’t know much about racism at all, and are conditioned to think every black person is the same, with the same background.
That is as much nonsense as if every white person was looked at in that manner.
It is an unreasonable fantasy.
Obama’s use of racial struggles to hype his candidacy is deceptive given his background and will set back racial progress rather than move it forward in America because he is using it only to get elected.
He is an opportunist of the first magnitude.
Posted by pbr90 on Feb 21, 2008 at 7:50 PM Why do you say that Obama’s use of racial struggles will set back racial progress—please elaborate. (pbr90)
Do you feel like sharing what you have learned from your white grandmother who was a slave in Germany—and I will share what I learned from my Black grandmother who was a sharecropper in the USA. I have never met a white person who publicly claimed decent from a slave.(aaaa)
Lastly, I too think that most of the “Black enough” discussion is silly. (wolf) Why is Obama being held to a standard that the other candidates aren’t? If he is not “Black enough” then Clinton, McCain, and Huckabee DAMN SURE are not. They aren’t running to the press to claim descent from slaves.
However, a discussion about the current state of Black communities in the US is not silly. A discussion about the effects of slavery/ slaveries is relevant.
I made my comments to continue addressing race in this capitalist nation TODAY, not to make a demand about Obama’s slave or not-slave heritage.
Posted by detroitsun on Feb 21, 2008 at 8:21 PM Aggregate Primary Vote Totals (To Date):
> 600,000: Obama
> 400,000: Clinton
< 300,000: McCain
< 200,000: HuckleberryWhile the two leading Democratic candidates have more than a million votes between them, the two leading Republican candidates have less than half as many votes between them. What this implies is that the Republicans, whose crossover votes contribute to the popularity of Democratic candidates, would prefer to run either of their candidates against Obama., for obvious reasons. Think about it.
McCain and Huckabee…
...Wrapped in the Flag and Dragging a Cross.
Posted by Major Major on Feb 22, 2008 at 1:42 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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