Once Again Obama Should Address Race

Let's start with this: the Republican Party is the white party. It attracts tiny percentages of black voters, and way fewer Latinos than it did even in 2004. Still got some Cuban Americans and a token conservative of color or two, maybe some Asian Americans uncomfortable with their lingering racial otherness. But basically it's a restricted scene, like some suburban golf club. Wait until the Republican convention happens in Minneapolis: it's going to be a sea of whiteness. Whatever black and brown faces you see on your screen will be working overtime and getting paid premium rates.

Meanwhile the Democratic Party convention is going to look like Dr. King's dream finally came true. While Republicans complain about illegal aliens, lots of Democrats will be named Hernandez or Gonzalez, Tasheika Williams or Tyrone Washington, Leland Wong or James Red Deer. While Republicans oppose health care reform and increased educational opportunity as government handouts to the undeserving (and you know what color they are), the Democrats will be talking about opportunity for all Americans of every race. Whites too; there will be lots and lots of whites at the Democrats' convention in Denver. They'll be the young whites, the hip and excited whites, the ones from the unions, from Planned Parenthood, from the Sierra Club.

The Democratic convention will look like a party, and the Republican convention will look like a funeral.

In this situation it's not hard to understand why the McCain campaign is defaulting to race, charging Obama with "playing the race card." When Obama says "I don't look like I came out of central casting when it comes to Presidential candidates," he is merely stating the obvious. Since his March 18, 2008 speech in Philadelphia, the most profound public statement on race in many decades, Obama has been effectively and consciously redefining racial politics. He has been moving the country beyond the exploitation of racial fear and toward the possibility of racial reconciliation. McCain campaign manager Rick Davis's charge that "Barack Obama has played the race card," is thus a terrible travesty of the truth. "And he played it from the bottom of the deck," Davis said, whatever that additional insult is supposed to mean. This attack is itself an act of race-baiting, deeply attuned to the legacy of Lee Atwater and Jesse Helms, fully committed, as Obama pointed out, "to make you scared of me."

The McCain campaign is making a desperate and dirty move here. McCain is bereft of ideas, chained to his corrupt and despotic party, unable to mount a credible campaign. He desperately needs to stoke racial fears among whites. His race-baiting is especially dirty because it is indirect. If he can charge Obama with bringing up race, maybe he can get the benefits of the baiting but avoid the blame. He needs to pry white votes away from Obama; he needs to stir up those primordial white fears. Like Nat Turner is coming back, he's seeking revenge, he's roaming the 21st-century suburbs like once he stalked the Virginia tidewater country....

The conventional wisdom is that this stuff still works, that no matter how devious and dishonest, addressing the subject of race hurts Obama and thus helps McCain. The Obama campaign seems to agree, at least for now. It is also trying to defuse the issue, to emphasize class rather than race in order to protect the candidate's real but still unconsolidated appeal to white voters. Especially whites above a certain age, and those below a certain income level, may not react favorably to Obama's appeals to what Lincoln famously called "the better angels of our nature." Even if he leads the way towards greater understanding across racial lines, even if he shows us the possibility of "a more perfect union," both the pundits and the campaign's chief strategists argue, Obama can only lose ground by entering the thickets of race.

Maybe. But it is also possible that Obama can consolidate his "brand" by addressing race openly, as he has already done in the past. Obama's own hybrid racial identity has been a source of his appeal, rooted in the idea that because he "transcends" race in some ways, he can lead the country in transcending it as well. That idea is at least comforting, even if it falls far short of Dr. King's dream that America could yet "live out the true meaning of its creed." And certainly some whites are so afraid of a black candidate that no approach to race can win their hearts; for these folk neither addressing race nor avoiding it presents any particular advantage for Obama, since they remain trapped in their own racist fears. For many voters, however, the candidate who clearly affirms his/her convictions, not the one who avoids key issues, is the one who most inspires confidence. This is especially true for the younger voters whom Obama hopes to bring to the polls in great numbers. Millions of young white voters -- whose votes Obama needs if he's going to win -- are not as uptight about race as their parents are. Along with black youth and brown youth (who have always been cultural innovators and style setters in the US) younger whites are willing to vote for a black man, but they want to be inspired. They want to believe in Obama's courage and ability to lead.

He has time and again accepted the challenge of directly addressing themes that were seen as too difficult to confront under the glare of the national spotlight. The Obama who is being advised to downplay race is also the candidate who confronted the race-baiting of his opponents after the Jeremiah Wright affair. That other Obama conveys the candidate's true brand: he is the one who told the truth about himself in all-white Union, Missouri: "You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills." This Obama rejects the fear and the racist strategies that currently dominate the Republican Party and that have made it almost exclusively white. This is the man who embodies all the Americans who will celebrate his nomination in Denver. This is the courageous and visionary leader of "A More Perfect Union."

Let's hope we continue to hear from that Obama as well.

****
Howard Winant is a professor of sociology at UC Santa Barbara. He is the author of THE NEW POLITICS OF RACE (2004); THE WORLD IS A GHETTO: RACE AND DEMOCRACY SINCE WORLD WAR II (2001), and RACIAL FORMATION IN THE UNITED STATES (co-author, Michael Omi).

Comments

[amiri1]

Obama addressed race in an historic speech- case closed.
He and we can talk about it until we are red, white and blue in the face
and it is not going to sway anyone. We are who we are.

He will win on merit not race. This action will speak louder than any words. America is struggling to shed its racist skin. It is an exciting works in progress. Thank God for the young generation of Americans. They are a gift to this great nation.

[wanttruth]

Great column. I definitely think Sen. Obama has been and continues to be courageous!

[notthistime]

I have an even better idea. How about we have McCain conduct a speech addressing the issue of race?

[TrixtersMom]

A lot of these "younger whites," myself included, see beyond the color of peoples skin. It's not that we are "willing to vote for a black man" because his skin does not make us (speaking for myself and most people my age that i know) hesitate. The deciding factor is that he is the superior candidate for many, many reasons, and the fact that a lot of younger people these days tend to be more liberal in their thinking. My generation, for the most part, grew up with t.v shows, music...basically pop culture.... that is interracial. Many younger people now are mingling, succeeding, etc, with others of all races. We see America as a melting pot, and realize that that is something that makes this country so great. It also helps that so many of us are educated, and understand the problems this country faces, and has faced, as well. A lot of racial tension is based on ignorance and fear. Understanding and knowledge can go a long way.

The right wingers can try their best to manipulate the masses with their lies and spin, but I have a strong feeling it is not going to work this time....

Obama '08

[notthistime]

Well said TrixtersMom.

[MariaHopeful]

I don't know why we continue to call on Obama to address issues that we are not asking anybody else to attend to. As if he doesn't have enough to deal with. Call on someone else to address race. Obama is not a superman.

[S1m0n]

I dunno about you, but I assume that the folks offering helpful advice are hoping that Barack Obama takes their valuable advice, and thereby wins the election.

[uheardme]

You should deal with your own racial scruples; Barack Obama has to address energy costs, the mortgage crisis, job loss, IRAQ, and Afghanistan.

[thetruthwillsetufree]

McCain and the republican party are the number one racist in this country. I agree, why is it that McCain is not addressing race, because he and his followers are racist?
The media is reporting on Obama because he brings excitement to this race and has a message that is interesting and important to report on. In order for McCain to get some coverage he has to try and feed off of everything that Obama says because he has nothing to say worth hearing.There has always been and more likely always be double standards when it comes to Black Americans. Until White Americans decide in their hearts and seek forgiveness that a change in racial tensions will come about. White american started it and unless they want it to stop they must reconcile the damages that have been done throughout the ages. I know white american is in denial about racism and pretend it doesn't exist, but that very comment means it does exist. The question is why do they feel as they do about a people that has not done anything to harm them. Africans were shipped into this country against our will, enslaved, raped, beat and treated in the worst of conditions. Black Americans should be so angry that we are constantly harming white americans but we are a forgiving people.
For those who continue to harbor hatred against people, no matter what you do God is still in control and black americans are still standing today.

[jrterrier]

he didn't say that the wasn't from central casting until he had to explain the statement that "he didn't look like" the other presidents on our currency. he previously had said at an appearance in FL that he was going to be attacked and they would tell people that he 'was black'

disingenous at best.

[robXdion]

You're a professor of sociology and have written 3 books on race, and yet you STILL think 0bama should address race when you've just outlined it as a largely white problem? Why do blacks or other minorities always have to rationalize their existence for white acceptance? Isn't it waaaaaay past time for whites to address race amongst THEMSELVES? Discuss their own taboos and hangups instead of being lectured to by a black person so they can grow even more resentful? The passive aggressiveness and avoidance they routinely use just doesn't cut it anymore. It's time to be adults.

[DaOne]

excellent post.

[notthistime]

bravo robxdion. very well said.

[nesta00]

He is a presidential candidate. Why should the media take a break from reporting on him? This is one of the most important presidential races in our country's history. The GOP says that he is "unknown", that we can't trust him. This is the strategy that the GOP is using but then you complain if the media covers him so that the American people can get to know him. This is ridiculous!

[CindyV]

This just in from The Milwaukee paper:

With the presidential race tightening a bit nationally, there are signs the same thing may be happening in Wisconsin.

A survey taken Tuesday by Rasmussen Reports puts Democrat Barack Obama ahead of McCain 47% to 43%. That four-point gap is down from an 11-point Obama lead measured by the same pollster a month earlier.

[MPeter]

Why is Obama always the one being asked to address Race? Why not McCain? Where is his responsibility in this? Americans who are tired of racism and race-baiting are willing to listen to any leader address this scourge. If McCain aspires to lead the United States of America with all these diverse races, why is he not being pressured to work toward a united, post-racial America. Unless of course there is this idea that old White men can race-bait and even divide this nation on racial lines to win power. I think we should asking of McCain the same things we are asking of Obama.

[nesta00]

I echo your sentiment. Why put the responsibility on the victims to address an issue ignored buy the majority. I would love to know McBush's plan to address this ball and chain that has been attached to our country's identity for 300 years. Our country is finally ready to address the issue of race evident in the fact that Obama is the Democratic Candidate. Our country as a whole can take pride in the racial progress we've made, not just whites or blacks. Collectively, we've all been a part of the change we see before us. Instead of perpetuating the race issue, let's embrace the progress we've made and make a commitment to remove this plague from our society. I'd love to hear McBush address race as eloquently as Obama.

[Charmed]

Obama wants a break from being in the news, how about helping out by not reporting for him while he is on vacation. On one hand they are saying he's over exposed and then on the other hand you guys continue to report on him.