Why Barack Obama can talk about black responsibility, and you can't...

Was just thinking some more on this. I think Barack gets leeway to speak the way he does about race because, to put it bluntly, he knows what he's talking about. I mean this in a very specific personal way. For instance, you can talk about Lil Wayne, when you have Jay-Z on your Ipod, when Nas has a song about you, and you can pull the "dirt of your shoulder" move. You can talk about black kids not obsessing over basketball, when you yourself had to balance basketball with school, and you still play. You can talk about black fathers laying down on the job, when your father laid down on the job, while your father-in-law clearly did not. You can critique black communities up one side and down the other, when you've spent a good part of your adult life organizing and working in those same communities, and when you're married to a black woman.

I'm sad that last one is true, but it is. Also, I'm willing to be that it'd be true of any other ethnic group in the same situation. My point, though, is that, Obama has a sort of credibility that, say, a guy who really had spent no time around black people (and didn't seem particularly interested in being around black people) just doesn't have. Furthermore, Obama isn't saying personal responsibility and no policy. He's talking both. There is a real lesson for black conservatives at think tanks and conservative journals. There's a difference between telling a guy he should focus more on school and less on basketball, when you can actually play one-on-one with him, or debate this years Chicago Bulls, and pushing that same message and then turning around and then, before a mostly white audience, talking about the greatness of Jesse Helms.

A lot of this would melt away if people started looking at Obama in the manner in which he sees himself--a biracial black man. To be a functioning black person, you don't have to grow up in Harlem, you don't have to be unacquainted the Queen's English, and you don't have to love Kool-Aid. You just have to not be disdainful of people BECAUSE they grew up Harlem, don't speak the Queen's English, and happen to like Kool-Aid. There really is only one absolute to being black---You must--MUST I SAY--know how to do the Electric Slide. There's no getting out of that one.

Comments

Here's what I have to say about Barack's talk about black responsibility, and the interesting fact that many media pundits are forever calling Barack "arrogant":
http://thegspot.typepad.com/blog/2008/07/by-kathy-g-i-se.html

Posted by Kathy G. | July 10, 2008 4:57 PM

Great points.
Credibility ... so hard to earn, so hard to be recognized.

About the original message, I just got off the phone with a friend who wondered what the reaction would be to the Senator going into white churches in the South and saying that most of the boys there won't grow up to be Dale Jr. or Kenny Chesney, so they should stay in school.

Or, go into Mexican American churches and tell the young boys that they aren't likely to win belts like Oscar de la Hoya or make records like DJ Kane, so they should stay in school.

How would that play in all communities?

Electric Slide?
You are a demanding one Mr Coates!

Posted by JT (Chicago) | July 10, 2008 5:42 PM

Kool-Aid? This white guy learns something new everyday from this blog.

Nice post, by the way. Keep it up.

Posted by Pliggett Darcy | July 10, 2008 6:53 PM

Although I'm not an Obama supporter, one of the benefits of him becoming president (which I think is almost a certainty at this particular point in time) is that he can talk about this kind of stuff with credibility. Culturally, I think this is very important and could potentially be the most significant thing he could contribute to our society.

Posted by Arclight | July 10, 2008 8:33 PM

I can understand Rev. Jackson's confusion in thinking Senator Obama was talking down to black Americans.

After years of talking about us, Rev. Jackson didn't recognize that Senator Obama was talking to us.

Posted by metricpeeny | July 10, 2008 10:08 PM

I've been waiting for Obama to get beat up about the rapper and NBA comments. Though completely true, and revealing an underbelly that we don't confront often enough.

Posted by rikyrah | July 10, 2008 11:13 PM

What specific policies is Barack pushing? I hear him say how government has failed but how black people need to take responsibility. Has he ever thought that maybe those black men who fail are trapped in a social phenomena spurred by governmental failure? He sounds exactly like the same people who see the correlations between poverty and crime and say I know government has failed your community but still don't commit crime. Is he talking about child support laws. Is he addressing the war on drugs and strict sentencing?

This, he was in the black community and can speak about it argument just doesn't work for me. He isn't trying to be President of black America. I want my black leaders accountable to me, he isn't. He's a centrist politician who is working his own issues out in the public eye. And yet, he never really caught flack for it. He called white working class people bitter and it was a story for how long? He can't be black when it is convenient but post racial the rest of the time. Because he can always fall back on that when he fails to help inner cities. The next time he is giving that stump speech about black responsibility I want some in depth analysis of governmental failure. Don't just cite it and keep it moving. As far as telling kids to stay in school because they won't be lil Wayne, it is condescending in the sense that they've probably already heard it. Now lets see how he improves those schools so kids want to stay there. Opinion of one's school affects how they do in said school. Lets see Barack really attack institutional racism, go at it like he goes at black fathers. Or he should keep his mouth shut.

Posted by th | July 10, 2008 11:30 PM

Does being able to do the electric slide poorly count?

Posted by Jamelle | July 10, 2008 11:40 PM

This kind of reminds me of a story about my mom and dad.

When my dad first met my mom he told her she couldn't be Jewish, because she didn't know about bagels and lox.

My mother is Israeli.

Posted by peep | July 11, 2008 2:39 PM

Peep,

I mean, your Dad was kinda right! ;-) And that's why every New Yorker, no matter what their religion, is kinda an honorary Jew!

Then again, no one here knows squat about hummus, compared to our middle eastern brethern!

Posted by Dan Goldman | July 11, 2008 4:20 PM

"Also, I'm willing to be that it'd be true of any other ethnic group in the same situation. My point, though, is that, Obama has a sort of credibility that, say, a guy who really had spent no time around black people (and didn't seem particularly interested in being around black people) just doesn't have."

absolutely, absolutely. t's just complicated how it interacts with issues of collective power/lack. I definitely identify with what you said from a Jewish perspective.

but it's a spiritual challenge to appreciate people saying things that are true, even when they say it from a place of less-knowledge, less-familiarity, or less-comfort.

and whether they "are" part of the group or not. The native informant thing is kind of universal, it's basic human stuff. It's even present in gender (see: Ann Coulter).

Posted by Lisa | July 11, 2008 4:30 PM

"Also, I'm willing to be that it'd be true of any other ethnic group in the same situation. My point, though, is that, Obama has a sort of credibility that, say, a guy who really had spent no time around black people (and didn't seem particularly interested in being around black people) just doesn't have."

absolutely, absolutely. t's just complicated how it interacts with issues of collective power/lack. I definitely identify with what you said from a Jewish perspective.

but it's a spiritual challenge to appreciate people saying things that are true, even when they say it from a place of less-knowledge, less-familiarity, or less-comfort.

and whether they "are" part of the group or not. The native informant thing is kind of universal, it's basic human stuff. It's even present in gender (see: Ann Coulter).

Posted by Lisa | July 11, 2008 4:31 PM

The electric slide? For real? In 1990 I was a bouncer at a dance club in Allentown, PA. The Slide was at the height of its popularity. The DJ played it several times a night and the mostly white crowd at Zodiac ate it up. I grew to despise it and promised myself that I would never partake. I actively worked to NOT memorize the steps. In the years since I've avoided the Slide at dozens of weddings. Things is that I always perceived it as a dance for people who can't dance, and on top of that the ultimate uncool white thing going. It's fun to hear that it's a staple of being black.

Posted by Mr. Dave | July 11, 2008 5:33 PM

Dude, it isn't a staple. It's the bare minimum. LOL. Furthermore, you need to be able to keep the beat, not just know the steps. No screwing up the people in front of you. No stepping on toes. A little individualization helps too. My partner Kenyatta, does a little hip sway on the dip part that's pretty damn cool.

Posted by Ta-Nehisi Coates | July 11, 2008 6:02 PM

I'm guessing I've never really seen it done properly. As I've observed there's always the obligatory person not really doing it right and giving it the bull in the china shop treatment. Or someone's grandmother gamely hopping and clapping in all the wrong spots. I suppose it's like Tiger Woods and I both play golf, but we're really not playing the same game.

Posted by Mr. Dave | July 11, 2008 7:24 PM

Yeah I've seen that "bull in the china shop" thing. Not cute. Check out the post above on race and the electric slide. Pretty funny.

Posted by Ta-Nehisi Coates | July 11, 2008 7:29 PM

He's just talking about blacks being more responsible now to get more white votes because he knows that this is something that whites have been saying for years. A white man running for president can't get away with saying the same things and still get the black and white votes while saying it. In fact if this was coming from Mc Cain instead he'd be called a racist.

Posted by Joe | July 15, 2008 12:44 AM