Why Obama can’t be the national spokesperson on race

in Politics by griffn — July 23, 2009 at 2:08 am | 6 comments

obama_speech_600

Earlier this week, tigger500 wrote a post titled “What’s wrong with Obama’s speeches on race.“ Read it. And allow me to extend that discussion.

The problem with Obama’s speeches on race is that his job as a politician– more specifically, a politician with tenuous support and job security– necessitates that he makes people feel good. He needs to make people feel good or else he gets nothing done and he’s not the president. That position is fundamentally incompatible with having any kind of honest discussion on race, because an honest discussion isn’t going to make anyone feel good. If you don’t walk away from a serious discussion on race with your head in your hands, something got sugarcoated.

Obama lectures black audiences on personal responsibility despite the fact that he’s smart enough to know that personal responsibility and accountability aren’t even in the top ten problems facing the black community. He does it because he knows black audiences will feel good about themselves and motivated to do better, and white observers will feel good that someone is finally giving those irresponsible Negroes a good talking to. Everyone feels good, Obama wins, and black fathers continue to get incarcerated, undereducated, and unemployed at double and triple the rates of white fathers.

He doesn’t lecture white audiences on personal responsibility and accountability, despite knowing that they need the pep talk as much as we do, because the politics of doing that aren’t nearly as good. Likewise, he lectures black audiences in metropolitan Atlanta on homophobia because he knows they’re 90% behind him regardless, and he knows white folks will feel good that it’s the Negroes’ fault, not theirs. Lecturing white audiences in Utah or Alabama on the subject would have far greater impact, but again, the politics of doing that suck.

To Obama’s credit though, he’s a brilliant politician, and the game ain’t easy. Especially for– and you really cannot say this enough– a black man named Barack Hussein Obama. The line he has walked thus far on race has been flawed, but flawed in the way the Apollo 11 mission was flawed. Yeah, some things went wrong, but they put a man on the moon. On the moon, son.

Fact is, the best thing Obama can do regarding race in America is to work towards fixing the institutional inequities. Black fathers don’t abandon their families because they don’t feel like being dads, they do it because they get thrown in jail more often, lose their jobs more often, and don’t have generations of wealth built up to fall back on as a cushion. The playing field is badly tilted. It’s at a 45-degree angle or worse in some cases. You can lecture the players about working harder to get up that hill, or you can pressure the league to flatten the field. Both approaches are worthwhile, but which is more likely to turn your squad around?

Tags: black community Obama president race speeches

Author:

I'm a young black man with a 401(k) plan.

6 Comments

negrostotle
2009-07-23
10:08:44
So the question is...do we ever have a chance at fixing race relations in America? If will still can't address the issue after America took the time to elect a black president, then we can it be addressed? We need to be on like the 5th black president in a row before someone isn't afraid to tell it like it is...

Not going to happen.

oh...and before someone mentions other black leaders that aren't the president (i.e. Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton) let me laugh directly in your face and call you stupid.
tigger500
2009-07-23
10:28:34
precisely. part of me writes with the knowledge that what I would like to see won't happen.

That said, to let a flawed racial narrative continue to metastasize into the dominant narrative would be irresponsible. The one point in my piece that I didn't flesh out nearly as much as I should have was that the reason his speeches are dangerous is because he's, for better or worse, the worldwide spokesperson on Black Americans. There are people who point to him and say "racism. over." Think about the Voting Rights Act challenge...their argument was essentially "we elected Barack Obama". Irony of ironies, Obama didn't win Texas, which is where the case originated.

I know that he'll never say what we need to hear as America. But we can't just sort of concede the dominant narrative to (essentially) what works politically.
griffn
2009-07-23
21:16:31
Race relations will never be fixed in America. Ever. We can and must work to make it better, but we can't fix it. In fact, step one is acknowledging that we can't fix it and going from there. But that's another post.

As far as Obama perpetuating flawed racial narratives, I agree, that's irresponsible. But it's more irresponsible for him to do what he did in yesterday's press conference and drop some real talk on the Professor Gates arrest. The result being that the two minutes he spoke on that topic overshadowed the previous 58 minutes on policy. The top headline on Google News this morning was "Black scholar arrest angers Obama." That's unacceptable, and he knows better.

But he's in a no-win situation. If he addresses race issues properly, it whips up controversy-- manufactured and otherwise-- and it's all people talk about and nothing gets done. If he does his job as a politician-- making everyone feel good-- he's perpetuating flawed narratives. He can either be the president or he can be the national spokersperson on race. There's no way he can be both.

It's up to intelligent folks everywhere to understand the position Obama is in and do the work he can't.
tigger500
2009-07-23
21:29:59
I wouldn't say more irresponsible. The most dangerous thing you can do in a racist coutnry is perpetuate it. I'm not sure mucking up your shot to explain health care ranks as high. But I see your point. As a politician he completely destroyed his moment on health care reform.

That said, I actually love that he said what he said, but yup, it was bad timing. I also think its worth noting that he finally dropped truth on race when it was one of his boys at the center of the controversy. I think he stepped outside himself for a minute (hence, the really funny joke about being shot tryna break into the White House).
griffn
2009-07-24
10:01:35
For Obama, getting health care passed would help black folks in America infinitely more than speaking out on Skip Gates' arrest. For another black man in another position, speaking out on Gates might have been the move. Obama's choice in that scenario wasn't really between perpetuating racism or stomping on it. The choice was between commenting and no commenting. That's what I meant by more irresponsible.

I, like you, slow-clapped at his answer though-- what other reaction can you have to a 60-year-old man with a cane being arrested in his own home other than that the Cambridge PD acted stupidly? But you're right, Obama definitely stepped outside himself there. I think the fact that he was a Harvard alum who lived in Cambridge, the first black president of the Harvard Law Review (and all the racial nonsense from both blacks and whites that no doubt came with that), was also a contributing factor. He probably had a little flashback there, thought he was speaking on the steps of Widener.
Obama’s conclusion on Gates arrest: Can’t we all just have a beer? | Forbes Avenue
2009-07-25
03:29:19
[...] few days ago, I wrote that if you have a serious conversation about race and you walk away feeling good about it, [...]