Through a Glass Darkly

October 2008

Needless to say, unless Obama wins the election, almost no black person in the United States will recognise the validity of the result. But things are worse than that: even if he is elected, any opposition to any of his programmes will be considered prima facie evidence of latent or disguised racism. In either case, there is little evidence that the Obama candidacy is pointing the United States in a "post-racial" direction or anything resembling it. What the black community - and, for that matter, the white liberal community, including almost all the media, which clusters around Obama's banners - seems not to have noticed is that the United States is slowly becoming far more multiracial than in the past. Hispanics have become the largest single minority in the United States, surpassing blacks by two percentage points and still growing. Other non-white communities are also expanding, particularly the Chinese and Indians. (The Indian-American community, nearly 1m strong, is the most prosperous minority group in the United States, and its younger generation - best embodied by Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican - are starting to enter the higher end of professions and politics.) While some Hispanics and Asian-Americans are Democrats and will vote for Obama, they will do so because they are Democrats, not because he is black. And in time they will find their own political voice, perhaps not as "minorities" at all but as Americans who happen to be one colour rather than another.

In that sense the Obama candidacy, regardless of its outcome, may represent a concluding chapter in the American drama, although not in the way its black or white supporters seem to think.

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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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