AndObama isn't like the leaders who have traditionally spoken for black America. As president, he's unlikely to embrace the confrontational identity politics that have defined black activism for so long. He won't tolerate an African American brand of racism or a culture of violence. Nor is he likely to be patient with the long-standing narrative of victimhood that has defined black America to itself and to the mainstream for more than a century.
Obama is already constructing a new black political and cultural narrative -- gathering together the best of the past, including the coalition politics that characterized the early civil rights movement and an image of strong black males that doesn't involve bling-bling or hip-hop misogyny. He has decried the low-hanging pants fashion so popular with young black men, blasted rapper Ludacris for offensive song lyrics and called on fathers to take responsibility for their families.And
Are African Americans ready to accept all this and respond positively? Are they ready for a truly post-racial America?
One thing seems clear: Domestic issues such as health care, resolving the mortgage crisis and creating jobs in a recession will seem piddling compared with the treacherous task Obama faces of traversing the rickety bridge between mainstream America and the various factions of black America.Is she serious? Does Barras really believe that a dude who just won 94 percent of the black vote, whose tee-shirt they're hawking from hood to hood, will have more trouble with black people, than with resolving one of the biggest financial crisis in American history?
We could go through these item by item, but there is, I think, a big overarching problem that plagues nearly every point Barras makes. She isn't grapping with the most understated force in African-American life--organic black conservativism. Leave aside the fact that the notion that dissing Ludacris for calling a Former First Lady and sitting senator a bitch, or telling kids to pull their pants up is going to draw ire of black voters is belied by the very facts of this election. Barras is basically invoking this cliche image of black people as cabal of bacchanal, 50-Cent listening, baby's momma dissing, white-man blaming, layabouts.
But let's go to the tape, shall we?
On the popular culture front, large majorities of both blacks and whites say that rap and hip hop have a bad influence on society...
Three-quarters of blacks (76%) say that Obama is a good influence on the black community. Even greater numbers say this about Oprah Winfrey (87%) and Bill Cosby (85%), who are the most highly regarded by blacks from among 14 black newsmakers tested in this survey. By contrast, just 17% of blacks say that rap artist 50 Cent is a good influence...
A 53% majority of African Americans say that blacks who don't get ahead are mainly responsible for their situation, while just three-in-ten say discrimination is mainly to blame. As recently as the mid-1990s, black opinion on this question tilted in the opposite direction, with a majority of African Americans saying then that discrimination is the main reason for a lack of black progress...
On the issue of immigration, blacks and whites agree that most immigrants work harder than most blacks and most whites at low-wage jobs. Also, blacks are less inclined now than they were two decades ago to say that blacks would have more jobs if there were fewer immigrants...
From a TIME magazine piece a couple years ago:
Blacks do see more racism in society than whites but, contrary to stereotype, seem disinclined to blame the system for their disadvantage. In fact, they are more likely to attribute it to individual causes like a lack of hard work--77% did so, compared with 62% of whites. "We think of U.S. minorities as less engaged in American individualism," Hartmann says, "but they are maybe more so."The fact is that if black people ever lived in the "excuses zone"--and I don't think we did--we exited it a long time ago. No one knows this better than Obama who was shrewd enough to see that he could be applauded in churches for dissing deadbeat Dads, and then doubly praised as courageous by pundits who still think this is 1968.
That really is the core problem with Barras's piece. There's this tendency for writers to fit Obama into whatever hustle they've been running for most of their career. I don't understand that. How you have a black man, who could not get into the Democratic convention in 2000, win all the battleground states that his party failed to win before, win southern states that they've repeatedly lost, expand the map to western states, dominate among virtually every demographic, and then fix your pen to spit the same game you were spitting five years ago is beyond me. These folks love to talk about what Obama means for black people. But what does Obama mean for them? Is it just a chance for them to say how right they were? Is that what it's all about? I'm not interested in what they're teaching, until they tell me what they've learned...
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
And note that 'post-racial' is dragged out yet again. Because all our racial problems are going to melt away now we have a black president!
Looking in from the outside, I wonder if Barras might not be prematurely anticipating video evidence that some of the nasty, racist things that follow the "I'm not racist but..." preface have too much truth about them. Well, of course those things will be true, because every groups is going to have some members that fit the stereotypes and frustrate everyone who wants to move past them. A case of "hope for the best, condemn the worst, even if it hasn't happened (yet)." Sure, there'll be AA thorns in the side of the Obama narrative, but not because "Black people aren't ready," but because, well, it's just inevitable that some embarrassing folks will come to light.
I think this happened and continues to happen to feminists, who are frequently frustrated in a similar way, especially because the media just loves to find individuals and "experts" who are happy to testify that once women just stopped trying to compete and stayed home with their baby, they could be ever so much happier.
ta-nehisi - you are the man! You have spoken my mind on everything regarding Barras. I have made no secret regarding my sympathy for confrontational activism ala Malcolm X. But as Persia has pointed out - many things have changed. Brack is honest and direct. Even back in the days of civil rights - nobody attacked blacks more than Malcolm or stressed the need for self-refection. He advocated self-defense by any means necessary - but only because he demanded self-respect and self-responsibility first and not victimhood. Nobody can ask for more, in this day and age, than what Obama personifies.
Again - I am really happy. Whites and blacks and everybody can feel proud about themselves and others.
I used to listen to Johnetta Rose Barras on the Kojo Nnamdi Friday DC Politics New Round-up. I don't think she is on there anymore (they've gotten rid of the "Virginia Politics Hour" and "Maryland Politics Hour" and do all that during their "DC" one, so now it's just the "Politics Hour"). Not sure why she's not on anymore. Often I heard her and rolled my eyes.
She is a bit thick with the cliches and other low hanging fruits! Too many calories from yesterday!
Luda himself wadnt even mad. He was on the radio in ATL on Saturday, basically saying he wasnt mad at all, that he was trying to help by reaching his audience, and that he'd be at the inaug...
Hmm. Has it escaped her that he ran to be president of the United States, not leader of Black America? or bridge to Black America? This just seems an incredibly teensy and parochial peephole through which to view his achievement and ambitions. I somehow think he would not have brought up the pants issue had the reporter not opted to go that way.
Listening to a report on NPR that Jackson would be coming up to discuss what the win meant for black America and thought "Damn, no wonder Ta-Nehisi wanted to shake up the spokesman thing."
This is proof that their fear that Barack will become the tool of Black resentment is really their desire for him to become the tool of white resentment against Black people. I am very tired of writers (white) who write as if they KNOW the AF Am community. Where were they when C. Delores Tucker and Calvin Butts (sic) went after Tupac and Biggie? I didn't agree with them but there has always been a critique of hop hop in the Black community. Have they spoken to any Black people above the age of 30-35 years old regarding US youth culture? Some aspects of white ignorance and presumption are so overwhelming that I am still amazed that they run anything outside of Europe, New Zealand and Australia. Good posts Coates, you keep them coming.
Sansouci,
Jonetta Rose Barras is black. Try again.
Right on, TNC. I think it's sheer laziness on the part of Barras to invoke the "will Barack be able to alter the victimhood pathology of teh black folks?"
I have high hopes, albeit realistic ones, for an Obama administration. And I damn sure hope that he's more interested in the hard work of fixing our economic crisis, ending our wars, shutting down Guantanamo, making healthcare affordable, dealing with our prison-industrial complex, etc., than preaching to black folks about self-improvement. I think - I know - he's better and smarter than that.
Barras comes off as silly and as rooted to the past as the black America that she think still exists (and some might argue rather convincingly that it never did exist). She could have saved that one. Really.
I wonder if what she may have been trying (not very successfully IMHO) to say is: now there is an unarguable example for the fact that someone who is focused on what he is trying to accomplish can do it. Without running away from who and what he is, but without putting a lot of energy into making who and what he is the primary focus -- keep the focus on the goal.
The problem will not, I suspect, be for all the blacks who have been doing just that in their daily lives already. The problem will be for the self-styled "leaders of the black community" for whom the means (being black) are far more important than the ends. They will have to either make drastic changes or find themselves increasingly irrelevant.
"He needs to talk more about the race question and the relationship between blacks and whites, especially racism," says Francis. Ronald Walters, director of the African American Leadership Center at the University of Maryland, argues that Obama must address the gap in health care between African Americans and whites. Poverty, support for small businesses, economic development, the three-strikes law and the "incarceration crisis" that has staggering rates of black males inhabiting the nation's prisons are other pressing issues. The Community Reinvestment Act has to be rewritten, and Obama must reconsider the usefulness of enterprise zones as a tool for redeveloping inner-city neighborhoods. "There's a complex of things," says Walters. - JRB
We're are not victims, but plaintiffs. We have a good case and we're not going to drop it because we get a token of change in the White House. Not saying Barack is a token, but many want to make him that. They want to talk about him as the first black president but want to deemphasize the black part in the same sentence.
The American economy does not work for Black people. That is a problem. 2x more in poverty, 5x more incarcerated, 2x more unemployed. The last time I checked the whole point of a democracy is to allow people to vote for someone to represent their interests. So, are blacks supposed to be the only Americans to vote for someone and then expect him to represent "everyone's interest"?
I'm not saying that all the problems in the black community are due to discrimination. But current and compounded is certainly a factor and its not a small one. Its irresponsible to talk about "black responsiblity" without fighting against discrimination. Its counterproductive to tell blacks to compete with all their hearts when at most there is only one token slot for them in many Fortune 500 corporations and none in many small businesses. Its even more irresponsible to complain about blacks whining because you are tired of hearing about discrimination, whether it exists or not.
What Obama means is that we have enough sociologists, priests, and public relations specialists on the team. We need more technocrats - professionals who understand how the system works; who have not been brainwashed to think that just because they've "made it" that the problem is no longer exists; who are not afraid to discuss the incarceration problem; who understand that the problem is so much bigger than hip hop; who realize that running The Cosby Show - a symbol of black positivity - on every channel for the next year is not going to change the stereotypes.
The only thing that's going do that is a society that works for black people, a society where they can receive a good education, get a good job, build strong families and communities, and retire with dignity. Once we have that, I guarantee you we'll see fewer Farrakhans, 50s, Sharptons.
What is frustrating me now that Obama won is that many on the right,left,gossip, political,liberal, conservative blogs are trying to take away Obama's "blackness" by now stating he is not "really black" because he has a white mother and has "lighter" skin.I mean some are actually offended when African Americans have the nerve to claim him as one of their own! I personally feel that they are trying to separate Obama from the African American people by trying strip away the very thing that Obama consider himself.. An African American man.
Have you read Shelby Steele's piece (in the LA Times i think)? If you can't find it check out P6.
As an aside conservative comedian Ben Stein was on Larry King talking about Obama's first press conference. He was (among other things) criticizing Obama for being late. Rep. Barney Frank was on the show as well, and put Stein in his place.
But for the first time ever in my life I had a visceral reaction. "You'd better fall off the President."
I don't think I ever expected to even think that sentence much less say it aloud.
I'm fairly sure that JRB got the boot from WAMU when she asked for more than they were willing to pay for her appearances on the Kojo Nnamdi Show/DC Politics Hour*. It's a shame, as I'd finally come to appreciate her role/perspective on the show (the closest thing we have to a conservative gadfly in DC, I'd say).
the long-standing narrative of victimhood that has defined black America
‘Victimhood’ is OK if the perp is a child abuser, an anti-Semite, a ‘reverse’ discriminator, a terrorist, an illegal immigrant, or ‘big government’; but not if the perp is a racist.
Penny,
Obama is biracial. How is it that mentioning that fact is removing him from the African-American people? That reads to be a very territorial and insecure view. Being bi and multi racial demands complexity and multiple understanding of identity. We shouldn't force people to have to choice one identity or the other-why not embrace all of one' background? Obama can pick whatever identity he finds fits him-that's not the issue.
There is a village in Ireland (can't remember the name-sorry) that is also claiming Obama as their own because a good chunk of his ancestors came from there. African-Americans can be proud of Obama and, frankly, so can others. It's all good.
Oh, come on folks, it's not a racial thing. Obama runs a party that is built on a spoils system of a division of the swag to various ethnic and lobbying groups. To think that's going to change just because you folks were gullible enough to believe what Obama told you in the campaign is entertainment enough.
Two years, max, before the resentment in the Black Community makes itself felt at the people around Obama as opposed to Obama himself. Black voters will never blame the First (Real) Black President for anything.
White and Latino Democratic voters will, however. They don't have any skin in the game. They get no swag, Barack's out on his butt in four years and we'll be looking at Miss Wassilla doing the Pageant Walk in the Rose Garden.
FDR understood that the central function of the management of political economy is the proper dispensation of patronage. Let's see if Barack is a quick study. I think he is.
I totally agree with your point here, but I sometimes wonder how you come to your conclusions. I think we would do well to stop conflating the political with the societal and cultural. What Obama did politically is different from what he can or cannot do socially and culturally. I think there is some overlap, but I just don't know that we know where that overlap is. Yet.
Well I do fear that there will be a backlash among the lower black community. They may go the same way that the lower black community does, think that work doesn't apply to them.
I think Aaron McGruder has the best analogy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYggWJZZSw8
A black Attorney General is a good start. Black people have thought there was a problem with the Justice Department long before the OJ verdict.
I also like the Office of Urban Policy. I hope its not just symbolism. Bringing black people into the fold in a real way - allowing them to compete fully without the threat of violence or the suffocation of discrimination - is not just good for blacks its good for America. Michael Porter has a good piece in Businessweek about a lack of overall economic strategy. Part of that strategy should be equipping the underutilized portions of our economy through education and training with the tools to be globally competitive.
@rutherfrd
Moneygall, Ireland.
I miss Jonetta Rose Baras on WAMU, tho' I rarely agreed with her.
Rutherfurd--That's not what Penny is saying. She's commenting on the fact that NOW that Obama has won, some people find it necessary to point out his whiteness when before it was irrelevant. And trust, there have been people saying that. But I think that, for the most part, we all acknowledge the fact that Obama is a biracial man who identifies HIMSELF as a black man. And if he says he's black, he's black.