Before the election last fall, I talked to my friend Alex about his time at Vanderbilt. He told me about his fraternity days, back in the late 70s. This wasn't Animal House; mostly scholars and athletes. Good times for sure, until the crisis hit: a black student wanted to join. Alex, being Alex, was for it. But one night, discussions came to a head. They were torn. Deeply. Then one young man spoke up. After much apology, he said the following in a way Alex characterized as almost gentlemanly. Simply, he couldn't stand to see a black man touch a white woman.
That was it. The black student didn't get in.
Tennessee in the late 70s. Or, if you count the Harold Ford ad, Tennessee in 2006. I joke with Alex that maybe one of his frat brothers made the ad, the one with the white girl mouthing "call me." I cannot say in certainty that Ford lost because of this ad. However, the ad makers saw an easy button to push. They knew that while we smile at each other, and try to get along in civil society, fear and envy of black male sexuality still runs deep.
As Cornel West says in his book Race Matters: "White fear of black sexuality is a basic ingredient of white racism. And for whites to admit this deep fear even as they try to instill and sustain fear in blacks is to acknowledge a weakness--a weakness that goes down to the bone."
For good reason, I suppose. Despite what 300 years of active subjugation has tried to teach, black men can be the most brilliant. Black men can be the most beautiful. And for sure, black men can be the hottest. Harold Ford looks like the All-American dream. If we're picking teams, he's going to get picked way ahead of many a white man, especially a white man who grew up thinking he was supposed to be a master of the universe, and life just hasn't lived up.
As I type, I'm sure there's a woman, or a man, declaring that Barack Obama is either hot, beautiful, brilliant, or all of the above. Not only has this been said a million times in conversations all over the world, but now his desirability has been celebrated in a video made by the same folks who made the female video response to SNL's "D--- in a Box." The model lip-synching "I Got a Crush On...Obama" looks mixed--she could be part Hispanic, part Asian, part black part something, so she doesn't fit that stereotypical temptation casting of the fair blonde. The point is she's a desirable hottie wearing "bootie shorts" with "Obama" silkscreened across the ass. If an election is about who gets the most panting girls, we know who's in the lead.
In theory, this shouldn't be a big deal. Stars can't help the actions of their fans. Obama himself never comes off as someone who flaunts or revels in his sensuality. This video doesn't feed into some larger narrative of the Senator being a "player" or being reckless in any way. The video just magnifies the obvious: people are attracted to him. In many different ways.
I watched the Jeanne Moos interview of the team that made the video. They laughed and giggled, no doubt pleased with the attention their project was receiving. For them, they get fame. Maybe some projects thrown their way. But what about the Senator? I suppose he will laugh this off, be as self-effacing and level-headed as he always is. Alas, there's little more he can do.
We too should be able to forward this around and laugh and instantly forget about it. Yet, I wonder about those who will absorb the joke as fact. For those who haven't been paying close attention, I wonder if a video like this breaks ground in their minds, makes it easier to plant lies about his character. I fear that these images help to "blur the differences" between him and the stereotypes of so many black men, especially the studs, the hustlers, the hip-hop gangsters you see on the other channels, the ones that "don't give a f***" and would take your car as easily as they would take your girl and your life. Those characters that people play. On TV, and well, in the streets too....
If you think certain people are all alike no matter how well they clean up, you might be vulnerable to this kind of swaying. You might be someone who absorbed information when they blurred his name with Osama bin Laden, and made sure you heard the Hussein.
If voters bought the swift-boating, I suppose it will be easy to get chunks of the populace to believe that this big-hearted, peacemaking super-achiever is and will always be a threat. The kind of threat they don't like to talk about, especially with the pollsters.
We must be vigilant about those who try to blur him. Even the blurs that seem ridiculous can take root if there is enough prejudice there to nurture the seeds. Next thing you know we're playing defense on the wrong issues, pushed off the issues we care about, the ones that will win this for us in the end.