The issue that makes America-the beautiful to some and Amerikkkathe hated in the eyes of many others, has finally come to the forefront. Race is America and America is (and always has been about) race.
While race (and gender) has tried to be subordinated to the politics of hope and changeûeven to the extent of this presidential campaign was (is) being called, “the age of postracial politics,” the issue surfaced in the same way race has always combusted in the public discoursecrudely and coarsely.
Former vice presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, crudely suggested that if Barack Obama were a white man or a woman, he wouldn’t be where he isûthat the only reason that he is where he is was because he is Black. The most outrageous part of the statement was that he is winning because America is “caught up” in the phenomenon of his Blackness.
You know she’s crazy as hell, right? When has America ever gotten caught up in anybody who was Black? Well, they haveûif they were entertaining whites. But caught in somebody’s Blackness? That’s a stretchà a big stretch. We understand the codification here. It’s a natural progression of America’s interjection of race coinciding with the evolution of Obama’s success.
Here’s how race plays in America. First, Blacks are dismissed as not being equal or worthy. Treatment is cordial. Once Blacks prove equal and/or worthy, their credentials are questioned. Once Blacks demonstrate their credentials, they become competitors- then race becomes an issue as entitlement is invoked. That’s where we are in this presidential campaign. Obama was first dismissed as not being able to win. Then he was framed as a nice guy without experience.
Then he was framed as eloquent but all talk. Now he’s winning and framed as the Black guy who we don’t know and need to before turning over the family jewels (this Euro-centric nation) to him. The change discourse is off the front page. Now we’re back to hope, on two different levels-Black people hoping racism doesn’t rear its ugly head, and white people hoping they can trust him.
Race is about to trump hope and change, as we get down to the reality that Obama has a chance to win. Framing Obama as “too Black” to trust is the underlying theme here. Blackness has been “the joker,” the ultimate fear card played in that race deck called America. America never embraces Blacks for who they are.
If anything, you had to be anti-Black (Clarence Thomas, Ward Connerly) or race neutral (Bill Cosby, O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey) in your politics to be embraced by white America. The moment you became implicated in criminality (Simpson, Jackson) or race conscious in your politics (Cosby, Winfrey), the media treated you like any other Black, with high bias and negativity.
Obama has avoided the issue of race like the plague because it’s a “no-win” situation for him. If he doesn’t acknowledge it, or doesn’t speak to the issues or race-he’s not Black enough. If he acknowledges race and speaks to issues of race (it’s been more than a year since his “Quite Riot” urban revitalization speech), he’s too Black.
And lately, he can’t even have friends or associations that are “too Black” (more on this in a minute). Ferraro was unabashedly crude in her post comment analysis and unapologetic, even going as far as to say that the media was only bringing her statement to light because she was white (smirk) and they (and the Obama campaign) should apologize to her.
That’s how race plays in America. There is nothing “post racial” about the race discourse last week-it’s more of the same. The coarseness of race and racism in America is such that when it is discussed, it’s going to sound exactly as it is.
Whether in delicate language or “fire and brimstone” oratory, the reality of racism, historical and contemporary, is going to be a coarse conversation.
______ Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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