The Wright controversy seems to be settling, and Obama’s poll numbers nationally are beginning to rebound in what seems to be the natural course of things, helped along by a solid speech and the changing of the subject in recent days. While Obama still seems to be in the driver’s seat, it would be incorrect to say that no damage was done, and in fact, the continuing bitterness in the primary seems to be affecting the eventual nominee’s overall chances against John McCain.
But with racial issues now front and center, Obama has – as was inevitable – lost some support as a result, but I suspect not just from the people you’d expect. Although it’d be impossible to track, I’ll bet there is a subset of his educated, liberal backers who have also become disenchanted.
MyDD’s Jerome Armstrong, whose passionate distaste for Obama has come to mirror the irrational zealotry of the candidate’s most extreme boosters, actually found that rarest of creatures – an African American activist who shares this particular view – to make the point:
Michael Meyers, Obama blew it, really nails it, on what Obama has missed making happen, not only in his speech, but in his campaign message about race:
I waited in vain for our hybrid presidential candidate to speak the simple truth that there is no such thing as “race,” that we all belong to the same race — the human race. I waited for him to mesmerize us with a singular and focused appeal to hold all candidates to the same standards no matter their race or their sex or their age. But instead Obama gave us a full measure of racial rhetoric about how some of us with an “untrained ear” — meaning whites and Asians and Latinos — don’t understand and can’t relate to the so-called black experience.
It’s very unusual to hear this line from an African American, but not at all uncommon to hear it from white people – especially educated ones; let’s call it the idea of post-racialism.
By post-racialism, I’m referring to the sentiment excerpted above that usually manifests itself in a liberal, educated voter who right away wants to tell you that they “don’t see race,” – or, even more often, by a repetition of the fact that race has no biological component, is therefore illegitimate, and therefore does not exist. The implication, then, is that if everybody just recognized that the concept of race was inherently phony, racism would be over. It sounds nice.
The problem is, of course, it’s completely and utterly wrong.
It takes only the tiniest bit of consideration to break down this whole idea. Consider first the notion of heritage. I, for example, am of Irish descent, and have never encountered anyone who would suggest that my Irish roots, given the lack of a biological distinction with people of, say, Burmese ancestry, are irrelevant. In fact, people are encouraged to identify themselves through such European heritages every day, and in celebratory ways.
And they (we) are right to do so. Irish ancestry may not tie me to the history and shared experience of the Irish people in any way that shows up on a genome (my pale skin notwithstanding), but as any anthropologist, historian, psychologist or even spiritualist will tell you, that hardly makes it irrelevant or illusory. Racial characteristics indicate such a shared tradition, and arbitrarily specifying that such a distinction in that case should not be acknowledged (let alone embraced), is – well, it’s anything but arbitrary.
It speaks to the continuing discomfort among many in the white majority – and perhaps the unresolved alienation felt by some in the black elite. Many educated Caucasians want badly to leave the entire concept of race behind because the concept of racism puts them at a disadvantage they don’t entirely understand. On the one hand, they’d like nothing more than to shed themselves of the cultural “original sin” of the white power structure and it’s ugly history. On the other hand, there is increased frustration – even in liberal circles – of the very concept of affirmative action, which would seem to compensate for a sort of systemic discrimination that liberal whites of means may not see in their own day to day lives (either because its not there, or because it’s inconvenient to acknowledge).
Finally, there’s the inconvenient truth that many – probably most – whites, even the affluent, educated and liberal ones, still do carry around prejudice. Even if its simply the “typical white woman” (as Obama said) inclination to tense up if a black male is walking down the street. Is this not the definition of prejudice – a “pre judgement” based on someone’s outer characteristics, even if it is so autonomic as to amount to cultural conditioning?
These are all things that make the educated liberal white person uncomfortable, because they suggest a need to turn their judgment within rather than without, and to face complexities of human nature that defy bumper sticker new age sloganeering. Much easier to define the whole concept as obsolete and irrelevant, and eagerly place themselves in the world of the post-racial where such questions are only the purview of the less enlightened.
Many people have projected many things onto Obama’s candidacy and public image, but this projection of post-racialism in particular has taken a big hit – not from the Wright controversy, but from Obama’s solution to it.
From Obama’s speech:
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own…
…For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs – to the larger aspirations of all Americans — the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny…
…In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination – and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past – are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
So, Obama has not responded at all with what the post-racialists want to hear; that race is all a big collective illusion that we should ignore. Obama has stated the truth; that race is very real, and its impact and implications need to be dealt with openly and honestly. He rightfully notes that those implications change over time and over generational experiences, but that certainly not the same thing as saying we’ve moved beyond it.
Race is real because people of different races share unique histories, experiences and perspectives. Shared histories, experiences and perspectives are what define culture, and culture is one of the things that define us as people. There may be no biological component differentiating cultures, but that doesn’t make them illusory. In fact, the very suggestion is absurd, and we should be very leery when we hear that suggestion made, as it probably masks the suggestor’s discomfort with cultures different than their own, at least at some subconscious level.
Obama takes it to this next level – the really distasteful one to the post-racial crowd – by celebrating both his white and black heritage; he says that such racial and cultural identification is not something we should move beyond. That racial and ethnic heritage and experience is something to be looked at square in the face – but in doing so honestly and openly, we have an opportunity as a society to become greater than the sum of our parts.
It’s a message well outside the comfort zone of the post-racialists, and I have little doubt that several of his supporters who have projected such visions onto his candidacy in the interest of institutionalizing their own racial comfort zones have dropped off as a result (although there’s no way to gauge how many).
But it was the right and true message to send, regardless.
