Even Obama: Presidential Politics Explode the Myth of Colorblindness

Guest Columnist

Even Obama: Presidential Politics Explode the Myth of Colorblindness

For decades, advocates for racial equality have been fighting the tides of the new American movement for colorblindness, the idea that if we don’t talk about race, somehow racism and the inequalities which it spawns will magically disappear. The simple and unavoidable truth is that we are always talking about race even when we’re not, and usually it’s a destructive conversation.

Case in point, Barack Obama. As much as he’s tried to avoid talking about it, Obama has been unable to duck the, shall we say commentary on his ethnic background and the color of his skin. At every turn, politicians and pundits have reminded Obama and America of his blackness.

He has been asked if he is “black enough” or if he can win Iowa. He’s been told how “clean” he is and comments abound about the fact that he isn’t “scary.” He’s been told he’s no Martin Luther King (as if any of the other candidates are). One wonders why a black candidate must be MLK to qualify but others need only be related to an ex-president? But I digress…

Pundits of the conservative persuasion seem to take pleasure in referring to Obama as Barack Hussein but make no reference to Hillary Diane or Johnny Reid. Coincidence? I think not…

Sadly, Senator Obama has refrained from engaging in the debate thus far. Suzanne Malveaux asked him if Bill Clinton was the first black President? Obama merely laughed and said he’d have to see Bill dance before making a judgment. The correct answer was no, but the real question is if Obama wasn’t black, would she have asked him that question?

Brian Williams asked Obama about the rumors that he is Muslim and that he was schooled in a madrassa. Sadly, Obama’s response sounded like a Seinfeld episode; I’m not Muslim, not that there’s anything wrong with that. He even appealed to the cause of the colorblind by referring to these false statements as “fear-mongering” instead of what it really is, racism.

So if we are already having a conversation about race anyway, why not have a constructive one? Why should we fear to be criticized for stating the obvious? When did race become a four letter word?

America is already having a discussion about race. Perhaps it’s time that the advocates for racial justice to chime in.

Posted at 1:43 PM, Jan 25, 2008 in Elections | Permalink | View Comments

Comments

Actually I think he is avoiding it on purpose because if you are a person of color and you talk about race, then white people automatically think you are whiney. He has to concentrate on winning first, and then he can talk about this stuff outright.

But the question about Bill being black was kind of ridiculous. Bill Clinton at most can only be a black person's friend and candidate, but he can't be a black man any more than I, a Korean-American woman could be a black man. Duh. And the dance stereotype was kind of playing into black=good dancer, white=not good dancer, and hey wait a sec, why are we even talking about dancing?! Isn't this um... the presidency? We can have an Usher v. Justin Timberlake danceoff later.

And most of all... I wish the media wasn't covering the stupid comments like the paparrazzi and not talking about what really really matters. People are losing out on this, POC's issues are water under the bridge and it's becoming a circus, a freak show for everybody. It's become "black man v. white woman" and it's soooo lame.

Thanks for this. I'm glad that ARC is putting out more interesting comments on race and the Presidential elections than even most progressive are, unfortunately, not to mention the mainstream media. The fact that Obama's bid is so much about race in many ways but that he refuses to address it--which also makes me wonder if he'll address it when he 'wins', as the previous commenter says--is a big 'minus' in my mind in terms of voting for him. I think he'll feel even more that he'll need to prove how 'different' he is from other 'whiney' people of color if he wins the Presidency than he does now. It frightens me how many progressives are hoping that he'll show his true colors (pun intended) if he wins, when history has shown us quite the opposite when it comes to most politicians. And if Obama's anything, he's a good politician. Maybe a different one than what we're used to, but quite a good one overall.