Through a Glass Darkly

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October 2008

Just as a blind pig occasionally finds a truffle, Bill Clinton not only struck a nerve but happened upon an inconvenient truth. Obama - with all his poise, eloquence and dexterity on the campaign trail - would never have been a competitive candidate for the nomination were he not black. But the Obama the whites are voting for and the Obama the blacks are supporting represent entirely different visions of America. The whites are seeking absolution from the sins of slavery and racism as if nothing had happened in the United States since the Civil War, regardless of desegregation of the armed forces, the civil rights movement and affirmative action (racial preferences), in force now for nearly four decades. There is also a snobbish cachet to voting for Obama, particularly among young people. It is a way of proving one is not a "redneck" or "low class" but enlightened and progressive.

Black voters see Obama's candidacy in a different light. As far as most African-Americans are concerned, the narrative of American history is one long, unrelieved ordeal of slavery, racism and discrimination. There is much truth in this version, but it is not the whole truth, since it omits everything that has occurred since the passage of the civil rights law of 1964, the voting rights act and court-ordered reapportionment of congressional districts to ensure a certain number of black members of the House of Representatives. It also passes over the multiple ways in which blacks since the 1970s have been given jobs or admission to elite universities for which they were not always fully qualified. Even so, African-Americans still see themselves as a persecuted minority. The failure of the black community to replicate success from one generation to another, or to address its deficiencies in family life, education, crime or drug addiction, is instead laid entirely at the door of the white "power structure". This is what black talk radio rehearses on a daily basis across the United States. Americans got a whiff of what this ideology sounds like when the sermons of Obama's minister, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, surfaced earlier this year.

Thus, for African-Americans a black president of the United States is nothing more than a down payment that white America must make - not to prove that it is not racist but that it is not as racist as blacks tend to think it is. The notion held by many of Obama's white supporters - that his election would constitute a definitive resolution of the racial problem in the US - would be considered by American blacks to be utterly naive and laughable. It is perhaps a striking indicator of just how far apart the two races in America remain that these contradictory visions within the Obama camp have gone largely unremarked.

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Mark Frankel

October 22nd, 2008
4:10 PM

Falcoff underrates Obama's personal qualities. Colin Powell says Obama has both style and substance. Falcoff says Obama would never have been a competitive candidate for the nomination were he not black. This is speculation. If Hillary is as unpopular as he says, then any half-decent alternative candidate would have been preferable.

Richard

October 2nd, 2008
4:10 AM

Excellent article. Neatly puts together everything I've been feeling and saying about the "racial" dimension of B.O's candidacy.

Anon

September 30th, 2008
5:09 PM

"An informal but vital network for getting people to the polls." Oh dear. As someone who did poll watching in largely African-American districts, I think I've just found my lipsticked pig for this election cycle. Politely put.

Anonymous

September 29th, 2008
6:09 PM

how did you know? as a black american I can tell you every word you said is true. We want Obama to win but his victory will not make us let up one bit on condemnation of the US. Every critisicm of his presidency will be taken as racism. And if he loses, black people will become even more disgusted with the US - and believe it or not that is possible. I became what many people call a conservative in the wake of 9/11. Call me naive, but I really was astonished and dismayed to find so many black people exultant over the attack. I thought that we could be on our country's side at such a moment. I was wrong. for many of us, Obama's statements about how much he loves the US and will defend it is regarded as just so much nonsense that he must utter to convince whites to vote for him. If we thought he really meant all of that, we would despise him as we despise black conservatives. We have suffered in the US but others have suffered all over the world. We have more freedom than most people and the opportunity to do as well as asians or any other group. It is unfortunate that we do not appreciate it and that we expend so much psychic energy in resentment. It is unfortunate that so many of us cannot bear to admit that there is anything to like about the US. as this article points out, the racial makeup of the US is changing. It is not likely that the other "minorities" will feel any white guilt so there will have to be a major change in our approach to politics and everything else. I hope by that time the country is mostly "minority" we will be able to, as this article puts it, replicate success from one generation to the next. No more special considerations will be forthcoming from white people or anyone else. Of course, this is assuming that success will be possible in the new US. There is the horrible possibility that it will just become another fractured third world nation. In that case, the prospects for everyone and especially for black people will be bad.

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