Obama Love

Not since Colin Powell has white America fawned so much over a light skinned African-American as we have witnessed with Barak Obama. They line up wherever he shows up. The News media follows his every move. There are many black folk who also love Obama, many for very obvious reasons. In trying to understand the Obama mania I came to understand what made him so palatable to so many white people: he's not "black".

No I don't mean he's not black as in of African descent. I'm not stupid. No, Obama is not black in the sense that his personal history is far outside the former black historical political realm. In other words, Obama, somewhat like Booker T. before him, plays very well to the insecurities that white people have about black people and black politicians: They will make us feel guilty and try to get back at us (play the race card). See Obama's platform was solidified at the DNC when he made his "There is one America" speech. You know, the "there is no Black America", etc., etc. " speech.

Now Obama the politician is not stupid. He knows that in order to get beyond being a congressional respresentative, where black representation has been locked into, one has to appeal to a wide range of voters. That means expanding your base to other, more numerous populations. In Illinois that means whites. In the presidential elections that will mean whites both Anglo and non-Anglo. The question has been for me, and I have been pondering this since the early 90's, is how does one address a national audience while staying true to your roots. Remember that most white candidates do not have to abandon their roots in order to reach out. Ahh but Obama has a unique characteristic that precludes this "roots" issue. His roots are not in the African-American collective history. For those of you unfamiliar with Obama, he is the product of a Kenyan father and a white American mother. The father left and the mother went on to raise Obama. PArt of that raising occured in Malasia. Some accounts of Obama's life reveals that he tried weed and hung with a "bad crowd" (supposedly black pseudo revolutionaries). He then shaped up and went on to do great things including, to his credit, marrying a black woman.

Now because of Obama's rather out of the ordinary life he can discuss unity. Remember that for much of his life, his primary allegiance was to his white mother, something most black people even today cannot have as a part of their history. Therefore I imagine that it would be difficult for Obama to have as must distrust of white persons and institutions as those who may have been victims of those same people. Thus Obama does not really have to compromise his history in order to reach out across lines, he simply can do what it is that he has always done for his life. This is in stark contrast to the black politicians of yesterday whom had to start from a black base and "keep it real". That is, many of yesterday's black politicians were motiviated to serve (we hope) by the conditions facing black people in their communities and elsewhere. They aim was supposedly to get into places of power to represent their people (and districts). Obama, from what I have heard and read, has no such motivation. Not that I'm saying he doesn't care about black folk (he really hasn't said much, or of real substance on race), but I'm not hopefull after his non-challant attitude toward the Sean Bell killing.

But what of black folk? Why are many black folk pulling for Obama? Black folk who are for Obama are for him for a single reason: He's Black. Anyone saying different is lying to your face. OK maybe not anyone, but that is the large sentiment. While whites are motivated by his bi-racial, non-confrontational attitude, black folks want to see a black face at the helm. Just about any black face will do, save perhaps Ward Connerly or Clarence Thomas. I spoke to some people in Chicago about Obama's comments on Iran. They didn't know about the commment. I don't think it would have mattered.

This is what bothers me about Obama. It appears that he is willing to take a position that will make him appear to be "moderate" and that would appeal to as many people as possible. Politically that may be good. But that is not leadership. Leadership is taking hard positions. Fact based positions and putting them out there and defending them and changing them when better information comes out. Leadership is calling Sean Bell's killing what it was. Leadership is calling Bush's war what it is. This is what would get me in the Obama camp. But Obama doesn't want to take the tough stands. The problem is, that in the long run it is going to cost him because people are going to press him on the issues and force him to take stands either way. While Obama may not suffer the Jackson reversal (the phenomenon where once the public realized that Jesse Jackson stood a chance at getting the Democratic nomination back in the 80's, his numbers started to fall off and eventually was snubbed at the convention.) He will be forced to make some uncomfortable stands.

Ultimately though, as I pointed out in my McKinney coverage, the age of black protest politics is coming to a close. It's not that America is less racist now, it simply has convinced black folks that they should stop bringing it up. Obama is the new role model for that movement.