So if you haven’t noticed that President Obama has been on a media blitz for the last couple of days… you must be living [under a rock?]
The most entertaining of these appearances was Obama’s visit to the Letterman show last night.
As I’ve mentioned before, I think Obama’s refusal to engage race is problematic. However, I did find his comment, about his own racial identity completely hilarious. But also really interesting because it is the first time in a long time that I can remember Obama referring to himself simply as a black man without qualifications.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson argues that Obama couldn’t address race even if he wanted to:
If Obama spoke out on race he’d confirm the deep suspicions of the right that he’s a closet racial panderer, ala Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. He’d also get creamed as a Democrat who tilts to minorities. Democratic presidents and candidates Clinton, Gore, and Kerry in four presidential elections avoided that tag like the plague. It was deemed a political kiss of death. Obama followed the same script to the letter during the presidential campaign. He talked race only when he was shoved to the wall forced to denounce his former pastor Jeremiah Wright. That was the price to save his campaign.
If Obama ran around and talked candidly about race or tried to spark a dialogue on race as some clamor it would turn his administration into a referendum on race. This would set the GOP counterinsurgency on fire. Obama can’t talk about race even if he wants to.
The problem with this type of argument is that Hutchinson participates in and encourages the kind of conflation around race that is all to common. Obama’s decision to completely ignore a policy agenda that would encourage the growth of the black community (and impoverished communities more generally), or to not speak out against police brutality, is not the same thing as engaging a “national conversation on race.” The reality is, former President Carter was absolutely right, a lot of the mobilizing against President Obama is very racist. But from my perspective, that’s beyond the point.
Obama’s speech on March 18, 2008 (see above link), has become the shadow the media throws up anytime anyone remarks that Obama has been ignoring race. Obama and the media have allowed “engaging race” to be defined narrowly around a campaign style speech where he calls out the hecklers and other town hallers. Honestly I could care less if Obama engages those people or not.
We have got to stop giving Obama a pass out of engaging a comprehensive and fair policy agenda. It is reckless and short sighted to argue that Obama cannot engage race whatsoever due to his limited position as a black president. Obama can and should create a policy agenda that impacts more than whoever the “middle class” is.
I’ve said it before and I said it again, black liberals, activists, etc… have got to start redefining what Obama’s engagement around race should and can look like. If we continue to allow that engagement to be defined as a useless speech without any real policy impact, this presidency will end with no “change we can believe in.”
peace.
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