Barack Obama's White Appeal and the Perverse Racial Politics of the Post-Civil Rights Era

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Black Agenda Report
Barack Obama's vaunted cross-racial appeal means whites have finally found a Black politician they feel comfortable with - in contrast to their feelings about the great bulk of African Americans. Is that a good thing? Emphatically not, since it is predicated on the belief that Obama isn't really "all that Black." Obama actively encourages notions of his own "exceptionalism" through his "deep willingness to accommodate white supremacy." His declaration that Blacks have already come "90 percent of the way" to racial equality signals to many that the days of having to listen to African American complaints are almost over - when nothing could be further from the truth.

"'Now we can finally forget about race completely' is the basic white wish seeking fulfillment in the election of someone like Obama."


I once gave a talk about racism that was followed by an interesting comment from a middle-aged white man. "You can't seriously imagine that racism is still a big problem in the United States," this man said, "when millions of white Americans are ready to vote for Barack Obama, a black man, for president."

I once did an article on Obama that elicited the following response from a white Republican science professor in a Detroit suburb: "If Obama gets elected President, it would be a big - probably the biggest since the Emancipation Proclamation - step toward race equality in the U.S. If a half-black man gets elected President," the professor elaborated, "we could stop focusing so much on race in this country and focus on other things."

A different essay critical of Obama provoked an angry response from a black man who thought I was African-American. "How can you betray your race like this?" this individual asked. "Why are you undermining a brother with a shot at the most powerful job in the world?" By this writer's estimation, Obama's black identity was in itself sufficient reason for a responsible black journalist to swallow any criticisms of the junior Senator from Illinois.

The racial meaning of "the Obama phenomenon" is an interesting question that merits careful consideration. It is significantly more complicated than my three commentators grasped.

"There are at least three reasons not to get overly excited about Obama's cross-racial appeal."


Is there anything positive about the fact that droves of whites are willing to embrace a black presidential candidate? Sure. Forty years ago, as the United States entered the racially turbulent summer of 1967 and the movie "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" disturbed conventional racial norms by portraying a black doctor (played by Sidney Poitier) dating a white woman (Joanna Drayton), it would have been impossible for a black politician to become a viable presidential contender. Nothing a black candidate could have done or said would have prevented him from being excluded on the basis of the color of his or her skin.

The fact that this is no longer true is a sign of some (admittedly slow) racial progress more than fifty years after the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. But there are at least three reasons not to get overly excited about Obama's cross-racial appeal from a racial justice perspective.