Obama as a cultural leader rather than a political one
By LisaB on June 11, 2009 at 3:01 PM in Current Affairs
If you have never heard of or read Shelby Steele, you really should do yourself a favor and look him up. Steele, writer of many books about race in America (The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America and White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era; are just two titles) is being interviewed here on FORA.tv – post election – about his book, A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win, published before the election.
Although Steele was wrong about Obama winning the presidency (and the paperback of the book will reflect that), I’ve never heard anyone so astutely explain what is going on with racial politics, how whites deal (or not deal) with racially charged issues and how Obama won the presidency.
I highly recommend the entire interview but have selected some time stamps for you if you don’t have 37 minutes. Just load the video and slide the time to the one I indicate for specific topics.
Obama Won his Campaign on White Guilt
6:32
Steele says that the candidacy of BO was only about race, not politics or policy, and about making whites feel good about progress in racial issues.
The Content of Obama’s Character
8:03
Steele says Obama’s charisma was all about race and Obama has never said exactly what he believes. Steele goes on to say, “We still don’t know the man,” but that eventually we will find out.
Obama was elected as a cultural symbol and not for anything he stands for.
Young Supporters Are Preoccupied with Race (A VERY INTERESTING POINT)
19:19
Quotation from Steele’s book: “There is an inherent contradiction in all this. When whites, especially today’s younger generation, proudly support Obama for his post-racialism, they unwittingly embrace race as their primary motivation.”
Steele goes on to say these voters could not tell you anything about Obama politically, only culturally. That proves politics and/or policy did not factor in their decision to vote for him.
Obama on Affirmative Action
21:46
Steele believes raced-based affirmative action will become more entrenched during the Obama administration.
GOP Is Now a Racist Party By Default (ALSO VERY INTERESTING)
30:07
Obama’s “moral authority” as a black man was irresistible to many white voters. Those voters, now feeling good about themselves having voted for a black man, feel free of racial taint. Those voters feel the “racist” stigma has been “passed” from anyone voting for Obama and is now focused “like a beam” on Republicans and conservatism, making both, by default, racist groupings. Like a game of hot potato, if you can pass it off to someone else, you’re off the hook.
Voting for Obama itself is a litmus test for racism.
————–
If Steele is right, and I’ve never heard a more likely explanation, the 2008 election split largely between voters treating Obama as a politician and those seeing him as proof of moral authority, gained or restored. If that sounds too squishy, it simply means many voters looked at Obama as a politician and voted for or against him on that basis. More voters, however, voted for Obama culturally – as a means of expiating guilt over past racial injustice (whites) or of finally gaining proof of equality (blacks).
The two positions, 1) voting on basis of political positions and 2) voting on the basis of cultural self-definition (I am NOT a racist; I AM Somebody), tend to be mutually exclusive in this instance. Indeed, those voting for Obama on a cultural/race basis often assume those voting against Obama did so on a cultural/race basis as well. So they call them racist and reject the idea that someone could possibly vote against Obama on political or other grounds.
So, we’ve got a president who makes a lot of people feel better about themselves. But we’ll have to find out the hard way if there’s anything more to the man himself. And in the meantime, we get to enjoy a new chapter in the race war. I call it the “you-didn’t-vote/support-Barack-so-you-must-be-a-racist” epoch.
Of course, there is also the “you-voted-for-Hillary-or-Sarah(bitch)-Palin-so-you-must-be-a-racist” corollary.
Great. Good times ahead.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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