Jul 05, 2009 | 12:40
Share:
Dec 03, 2008
Does Obama’s victory signal new era in America’s racial saga?
A new dawn for racial politics?
But while a black family in the White House is undoubtedly a redeeming symbol of equality and political colorblindness, is it a precursor to the racial integration that the champion of African American civil rights, Martin Luther King, articulated in his 1963 “I have a dream” speech?
That was one of the key questions raised during a recent conference titled “Race and Post-Election America 2008.” Hosted by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, the event was held in Royce Hall and co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics; the Office of Faculty Diversity; and the Department of English.
Darnell Hunt
“The degrees to which America became something altogether new, as it links to race, remain open to question,” said Darnell Hunt, director of the Bunche Center, in his welcoming remarks at the conference. “Have we indeed finally achieved the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King so eloquently described from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial 45 years ago?”
Undoubtedly, an African American in the White House has greatly raised people’s expectations in the United States and beyond. “It’s the single-most
Abel Valenzuela
What Obama's victory can teach us
For researchers, Obama’s victory paves the way for a better understanding of African American politics as well as the president-elect’s social justice
Frank Gilliam
Among the public policy issues to watch for, he added, is whether – and to what extent – Obama will be under pressure to govern from the center rather than from the left, with which his campaign was largely identified.
From the start of his campaign, Obama focused on a broad narrative of America, as opposed to a black, brown or white America. Still, by all accounts, the minority vote, especially with respect to African Americans, clearly helped Obama win the election. “People argue the Latino vote was key to Obama’s victory,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, associate professor of political science at UC Riverside, one of the speakers at the conference. “But I argue Obama would have won even without the Latino vote, and that the black turnout was critical.”
Going beyond racial lines
Obama’s linking of racial demands to broader social issues has prompted some critics to ask whether “black” refers largely to his skin color and little else. “Obama’s campaign made a strategic decision to portray him as someone, if you’re not comfortable with him as a biracial candidate, with whom average whites would be comfortable,” said Gilliam, adding that while Obama didn’t deny his blackness and acknowledged the legitimacy of African American grievances, he adroitly transcended racial differences.
“I think people get confused between the social analysis of what causes inequality and disparity in the country, i.e., systemic and structural biases, and how you talk about those things,” said Gilliam. “Obama understood what it means to send a racial message implicitly – a lot of campaign politics is about telling a story which people find compelling.”
A less-noticed aspect of the presidential election and its aftermath is that “before the race the issue of race was occasional, [but] since the election,
Reynaldo Macias
One of the highlights of Obama’s campaign was the screening of a documentary film about his life during the August 2008 Democratic convention in
Caroline Streeter
Yet for all that, if Michelle Obama were white, Streeter said, “I don’t think Obama would have been elected president,” adding, “It’s a black family going to the White House – not a biracial family.”
A compelling story of exceptionalism
Obama successfully managed to change the traditional trajectory of racial politics through his skillful “marketing of a reenergized concept of
Scot Brown
At a campaign rally at UCLA, in which Michelle Obama was accompanied by talk show host Oprah Winfrey and California’s first lady Maria Shriver, Brown said he was struck by many of the American exceptionalist themes expressed.
“Obama is very shrewd and adept at the use of national mythologies and the location of the mythical status of certain people,” said Brown, alluding to Obama’s attempts to associate himself with Abraham Lincoln as something of a messianic unifier and a different kind of figure for younger voters.
“While the social networking site known as Facebook may not be the most scientific of sources, I was taken by numerous pronouncements by African Americans that they now feel comfortable displaying the American flag.” One individual "even implied that this is a time to trade in the colors red, black and green for red, white and blue,” said Brown.
One test of Obama as unifier will be whether African Americans and other racial groups will be able to redefine their needs in broader terms instead of as special interests.
“Will some of these demands for justice have to be answered in terms of things like health care and education?” asked Brown, adding: “I recall that after the [presidential] debates, when he was asked if he supported reparations [for African Americans], his answer was ‘only in that I support the need for quality education.’”
While Obama appealed to a broad range of Americans in different ways, the fact that he was perceived as electable and went on to win suggests a generational change that is likely to be regarded by historians as “the coming of age of sorts of the hip-hop generation,” said Scot. “How did Obama’s campaign let the Negro movement of the 1920s and the black power movement of the 1960s dovetail onto assertions of black – and certainly wider – generational difference?” he asked. “And how much is the hip-hop generation also linked up with what is called the millennial political agenda?”
The millennial generation that has succeeded Xers (Generation X) like himself, argued Scot, “see race differently – in their view, race and community are not inextricably linked and they are said to be socially more comfortable with coalitions across racial lines.”
In the months and years to come, as scholars debate just what led to Obama’s historic victory, the world will surely remain focused on his promise of hope and change – for all. “We may have to find a new kind of language that can capture the presence of blacks as heads of state,” said Brown. “We’re going to have to have a kind of conversation that updates itself with these kinds of contradictions and challenges.”
