Obama’s Reaction to the Race Issue Speaks Volumes About His Ability to Lead
February 26, 2008
A commenter over at Jack and Jill Politics made a (mostly) fantastic argument contrasting Clinton’s use of her gender with Obama’s use of his race on the campaign trail. The money quote:
You know, I’d love to see the press give Obama as much room to be a stereotypical black man as they give Clinton to be a stereotypical woman. I’d love to see Obama get the opportunity to go straight up gangsta and show his a*s! But we all know that would never happen. The second he shows ANY aggression whatsoever, is the moment people see him as the “angry black man.†…
Tell me, what would happen if Obama went on a tirade against Hillary, like she’s done over the weekend??? What would happen if he (gasp) raised his voice to this white woman? What would happen if he spent all of his time talking about the “white man,†the way Hillary talks about the “boys club?â€
My only objection to this statement is the idea that the Obama would go “straight up gangsta and show[s] his a*s!” if it weren’t for the requirement that he “act white.”
Barack Obama is a person of mixed racial and experiential background. To expect that he would behave in a stereotypically “black” manner were he not held to some artificial standard of whiteness is just as racist as expecting “gangsta” behavior of any individual on the basis of his heritage alone.
Update: Also — as Bill Cosby has frequently pointed out — this “acting white” malarkey has seriously got to stop. Whoever came up with the idea that being articulate, level-headed, well-rounded, hardworking and brilliant was a white thing ought to be slapped upside the head. It’s a dangerous idea that hurts all youth — and especially youth with brown skin — as they develop the skills that will carry them through life.
That said, “b-serious” has a real point: Hillary Clinton can rail against “the boy’s club” all she wants, but if Barack Obama brings up our country’s racial divides, he’s an angry black man. He has been asked to do more than any reasonable human being should to hold his tongue while the foulest and most degrading racial smear campaigns are leveled at him.
It reminds me powerfully of a statement Malcolm X made in a speech to the London School of Economics on February 11, 1965:
You are trying to make the Black man the victim of every kind of unjust condition imaginable. Then when he explodes, you want him to explode politely!
And yet Obama has managed not to explode at all. His coolness and level-headedness in the face of bigotry is a true testament to the strength of his character. Should he be elected our nation’s 44th president, that strength of character and willingness to deal coolly with emotionally charged issues will be a boon to the American people and the world.
[Due props to my roommate Arjun for helping me to articulate the ideas in this post fully.]
After the debate tonight, Tim Russert actually (really!) brought up a good point:
Obama has an incredible ability to deflect aggression, and in alot of cases, turn it into a positive for himself. I don’t know if you watched the Ohio debate, but several times Hillary said things that were very obviously meant as barbs, and a couple of times he outright agreed with her (thereby re-taking ownership of the discussion) or simply ignoring it entirely, and discussing the topic at hand.
Something that people are paying more and more attention to is that it seems absolutely impossible to get Obama to react to anything. I don’t know if this is him being consciously aware of the “Angry Black Man” accusation, or a character trait he’s developed over his life, but either way it serves him VERY well.
This is how he’s able to bring people together and how he’s able to build coalitions. His ability to deflect aggression is very disarming. Where people come to an issue expecting a fight (as Hillary openly trumps that she’d give them), Obama instead gives them a hearing and a discussion.
Obama’s debating skills were very much improved in this debate. He was more eloquent and more confident each time he spoke than he’s been in past debates. No stuttering, no hesitation, no apparent inability to think of a quick answer to a question.
As to the Angry Black Man issue.. believe or not I was completely unaware of that stereotype. Now that you bring it up though (and I went and read b-serious’s post) it certainly is compelling what you and he say - that Hillary has somehow completely avoided the misogyny one might expect to come with her outbursts over the weekend (and as b-serious notes, it actually being celebrated on SNL [to which Hillary referred in the debate, by the way]).
At any rate, to sum up a point, I am continually impressed by how Obama remains infuriatingly calm. That seems, to me, an imminent quality of a President. His brain is always working; the emotions never take over and cause him to do or say something rash.
It is really interesting to note that all not all “minority” groups are discriminated against equally, even though I believe popular culture tends to treat it all the same. The history of discrimination against women is wholly unique to other types. While woman have almost always been second class citizens to men, women of certain color were almost always superior to men of another. The topic is to large for me to even begin to cover it throughly here, but thanks for the interesting post. It is part of what I think set her apart in this race that she tried so hard to do the “girl power” thing. We certainly know from past experience that “black power” would have failed miserably. While I certainly respect the profound thing it would be to have a woman in the white house, I am glad that ( I hope) it won’t be her. There are far more gifted women out there than Hillary Clinton.