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Discussing the Diaspora as seen through an internal Black lens
Obamas Campaign Has Failed to Transcend Race - No, It Failed to Make Racist Not Be Racist
October 14th, 2008
…a Magical Negro trick that no Negro can pull.
Spoiled by such Characters as Morgan Freeman’s “Hoke Colburn” in Driving Miss Daisy, Michael Clarke Ducan’s “John Coffey” in the Green Mile , and both Guy Torry and Avery Brooks’ characters in American History X; white people such as Ruth Ann Dailey are expecting some pixie dust to be sprinkled upon them by some grinning Black guy who as they would like, would proclaim racism dead and non-existent. They want some magical Black guy to coddle and excuse racism, and just have understanding for why some whites “legitimately” feel as they do. Because what people like Ruth Ann Dailey actually want, is not transcendence of race or racial harmony; but simply not to have to deal with the realities of race any more or ever have to fully confront and correct inequalities.
On Monday, in her Pittsburgh Post-Gazette piece “Viewpoint: The next step in post-racial politics”; Dailey spews terribly unoriginal blather that all attacks of any nature against Obama have been completely legitimate and sincere (without any alternative motive rather racial, nor personal); including blaming those who have responded to race arousal strategies and digs as being racist – because of course if someone does or says something that’s racist, and you call it racist as it is; then you’re the racist.
Never mind that Obama himself never attributed racism to anyone’s actions; being overly generous even when the racism of the act was blatant, and you didn’t believe that Obama even believed what he was saying when he accepted people at their word that they did not mean what was clearly said. But of course giving Obama the least bit of credit for anything is out of the question, as Ms. Daily has a clear cut agenda to paint horns on Mr. Obama.
You can see the highly partisan and probably racially undergirded framing of this person’s perspective in her ridiculously referring to Obama as “woefully inexperienced”. Older than some, and with more years of elective office than other presidential winners; this level of exaggeration about his level of experiences is born out of either woeful ignorance on the part of some, or by a simple desire to insult him on the part of most who make the claim. Ms. Daily most certainly fits in the latter category.
Buttressing my point that Ms. Daily was looking for racial pixie dust from a Black Genie, she states that “apparently, racial absolution will have to wait another decade.” Absolution? It boggles the mind that some whites think it’s the duty of the Black community to make good with them and absolve withes individually or as a whole for any racism that transpires. I don’t know if she wants all past racism absolved, all current, or all future; but I doubt she knows either as she is hardly coherent.
Martin Luther King and the SCLC’s strategy and message of the 50’s and 60’s was one of equality and reconciliation. Reconciliation, meaning that it was made known that they were looking for equality, and no retaliation for the past; and to reconcile and move forward. This reconciliatory notion was a primary and explicit tenant of their movement; yet and still it can fairly be said that a very large swath of white Americans rejected it.
Martin Luther King was called a radical and a communist until his dying day; much like Obama is called a radical and a terrorist today, even having a national newspaper call him a “demagogue” in the final year of his life.
The truth is that people like Ruth Ann Dailey couldn’t care less about race being transcended. Neither is she interested in reconciliation, unless it’s all on her terms. Meaning that Blacks reconcile to take a back seat and accept things as they are; which is what is comfortable for her.
Obama’s campaign never had any chance of subduing committed racist. Those who “just can’t vote for that Black boy”; those who proudly admitted in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and elsewhere during the primaries that though they were democrats that’d never vote him simply because of the color of his skin.
Nor could Obama’s beautifully worded call to a higher politics give morality to the partisans who were so willing to play on such sentiments. So those in opposition to Obama candidacy, maybe with their own twinges of racial disdain or even for the ones without; were all to willing to play on ginning up racist, suspicious, and derisive feelings in others in order to simply win. The social cost, they could care less; they aren’t morale.
Sure, as I said immediately after the Iowa Caucus and since, the notion that Obama can make racism disappear or come close to doing so even if he wins is ludicrous. And for me it was a no-brainer for the reason just stated. Nonetheless, his candidacies ability to be other than a “Black candidacy”; and he to be more than just a Black guy, running for only Black people (despite both white and Black people alike trying to pigeon hole him into that) has been more than just impressive. It’s also been heartening. While the race baiting and ginning up of racial derisiveness has been disturbing; it has not been the least bit surprising.
Though while it has worked on those highly susceptible to it, who needed little to no prodding; it has utterly failed with most white people including some who probably never thought they’d ever be voting for a Black guy for president; and some of those who usually won’t vote for a democrat period.
Obama leading in Virginia, Florida and North Carolina, and only being slightly behind in West Virginia with 3 weeks to go; when the last two white democrats (including a Southerner) couldn’t win one southern state with a combined 28 chance; is a testament to the penetration of transcendence that has indeed transpired with those who are open to it.
Considering that Daily calls herself a young Republican, while I barely consider myself young any more, and being that she notes that she was old enough to vote for Reagan when I was 2 and 6 the two times Reagan won; shows the depth of self-delusion of this women. If she’s young, I’m a fire hydrant.
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Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.
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Sad but true. This stuff just goes to show how far we have not come.
Yeah, S. Justice it’s a mixed bag. You look at things from one angle and its like hey things are significantly better; then from other angles it’s like the more things change, the more things stay the same.
I have to admit, again while the committed racist and the hard partisans have unsurprisngly exhibited the same ol same behavior and attitudes, I think there’s been more of an openess from white America as a whole then I would have expected.
I’m going to write a piece about it here soon, where I can hopefully articulate more particularly what I’m trying to say once I’ve thought how to describe it.
Just by the fact she calls herself a young anything shows she is quite delusional.
I just happened upon your blog and stopped to see what’s going on.
One report I read said Among black voters, who are overwhelmingly Democrats, Obama draws support from 89 percent, compared with 2 percent for McCain. Among whites, Obama has 37 percent of the vote, compared with 46 percent for McCain.
If you are going to make a case for racism on either side, it appears it is the blacks who are voting along racial lines, not the whites.
Ms. Green,
Blacks vote in every single presidential election for the democrat at about 90%, and they’ve all been white before, so you have no point.
Every Black almost that has ever voted for any national office, has voted for white people; so Blacks don’t refuse to vote for white people, so you have no point.
You are correct that blacks have never had a chance to vote for a black man in national office, and thus voted the Democratic party overwhelmingly. But when given a choice, historically on a local or state level, blacks overwhelmingly vote race rather than issues. That was my point. Statistics back me up.
My point was also that whites have a choice as well in this election - and it is not they who are voting strictly along racial lines. You falsely accuse them as doing so.
“You falsely accuse them as doing so.”
No I did not! I simply said no such thing. Matter of fact if you’d like I can give you links where I’ve argued against that lie when Pat Buchanan and other major media tried to push it to divide the electorate during the primaries. It’s not possible for a Black man to come even close to winning the Dem nomination, much less the presidency with a vote along racial lines, so I couldn’t possibly believe such an absurd and factually divergent notion.
I don’t think you really read my piece openly, but instead took a defensive posture probably from the first sentence; because you seem to miss the part where I lauded that the majority of whites have been receptive to voting for a Black candidate, and that even race baiting DIDN”T work on them; and that despite Ms. Daily’s claim, it’s not a transcendence issue where race hasn’t trancended; but a committed racist issue. All whites doesn’t = committed racist, as my piece clearly differentiates.
Some people have policy differences or other political preferences. I almost voted for John Edwards in the Primary, and only switched to Obama at the last minute because Edwards populism appeals to my political sense as well as many of Obama’s positions. I was a McCain supporter during the primaries 8 years ago, and may have been supportive of him again this time around if he hadn’t flip flopped into a double talking neo-con.
“when given a choice, historically on a local or state level, blacks overwhelmingly vote race rather than issues.”
That notion is not quite accurate. Take
Tennessee Congressmen Steve Cohen. He’s from Memphis. I’m quite familiar with him as he became politically famous here in Tennessee a few years ago for being the primary person in pushing the state lottery into existence when he was then a state legislator.
He’s White. Memphis is majority Black. Blacks voted for him repeatedly for the state assembly; and then voted to send him to congress to replace Harold Ford.
Of course Blacks will most often vote for a Black candidate because as a minority group we’d like to have representative voices in things; you know, the whole reason this country was founded in the first place. To compare the political situation of being Black in this country as if it’s the same as being white is ludicrous. It’s not nearly an attempt at honest discussion.
If Blacks didn’t vote for Black candidates there’d normally be none in congress, as Obama just getting elected 4 years ago is the only Black congressmen that is not the product of a majority Black vote. In other words, white folks will scarcely ever vote for us for national office; and you all by far control the majority of the votes, being 69% of the population. What, do you not want us to have any voice at all!
To the contrary, if a Black person is felt to not represent Black people, we don’t vote for that person just because they’re Black. That’s a myth. Witness Alan Keys and Kenneth Blackwell. We will also vote what we believe are better options even if we do like the Black candidate if we think that’s best; witness the percentage of Black votes that Sharpton and Braun got in the Democratic primaries 4 years ago. It wasn’t 90%. I voted for Wesley Clark.
Blacks, like everyone else vote their personal interest; but they don’t in any significant numbers vote against someone because of their race. You had up to 20% of white democrats who were voting for Clinton admitting they wouldn’t vote for “that Black boy” in W.V. specifically because he’s Black. And as the whites on CNN noted, if 20% of them admited it; then 40% them were feeling it. There were high numbers in PA, OH, Ky and else where who made the same admissions. They accused themselves!
Excellent post Yobachi. I too have been fascinated at the repeated attempts to paint Obama as having “played the race-card” when he is practically the “Jackie Robinson” of politics; routinely dismissing every racially tinged slight and smear as though he hadn’t noticed the obvious stains. Now as for the rest of us, we CLEARLY see what’s going on. But when any African American merely acknowledges the obvious inferences (Obama’s ‘not one of us’, ‘may have been born in Kenya’, ‘has an african half brother in poverty’, ‘pals around with terrorists who hate america’, ‘is a guy off the street’, ‘is unpatriotic’, ‘doesn’t relate to ordinary people’, doesn’t see the world the way we do’), the commentariat instantly elevates the speaker to the position of ‘campaign surrogate’, and our mention of RACE is constrewed as evidence of RACE-ism.
And poor Ms. Green… You said:
“But when given a choice, historically on a local or state level, blacks overwhelmingly vote race rather than issues. That was my point. Statistics back me up.”
…really? statistics back you up?
…silly rabbit…
Here’s a good stat for you: 54% of statistics are made up on the spot.
The OTHER 46% percent account for the landslide losses of Lynn Swann, Ken Blackwell, Alan Keyes, and every other national black republican candidate of the last 2 decades with the exception of JC Watts.
The analogy to Jackie Robison is so Apras pos.
You gave some great examples of the code language used by those who don’t want to just come out and say it; but I guess some folks just think we’re too stupid and unsophisticated to know what’s being said.
We’ve been living under this type of coded language since blacks first got political power after the civil war (before it was stripped away and brough back) and we hear the dog whistles being blown for whites who are supceptiable to that type of thing.
“Who is Barack Obama?”; get the fuck outta here. Who is Tod Palin and the seperatist, successionist Alaskan Independence Party?