Feb 26 2008
Did Obama Abuse Race?
As I read through Chang’s Audacity of Race I looked back three months and recalled Obama trailing Hillary in the black vote. How is it he now consistently wins 80 % of the Black vote no matter where he goes? What changed in just 12 weeks?
In his Audacity of Race, Chang observes how Obama relies on race in his appeal to the general public; how he uses his ostensible race to give meaning to the biographic race at the heart of his Hero rhetoric. But I want to know what happened specifically with the black vote?
What has Obama promised black voters to induce them to solidly vote in his favor? I haven’t heard of any policies or solutions he has promoted to deal with black problems. So what did he do?
The ineffable answer?
Obama made a specific, race based appeal to the Black demographic, only he could make. He relied on proxies for most of the appeal: his wife, Black Church, or black staff (not once did he use a non-black associate). Obama enticed blacks to vote for him, by conveying his promises and racialized biography through black envoys.
The media have blacked out on Obama’s racial message. Preferring to repeat the manta that he makes no reference to race, while they themselves cannot write an article without using the words “first African-American“. Never mind the intellectually indefensible lie, that the mention of race is tantamount to its political or social abuse. It is a lie the media cannot get over. What shocks me, is how the media deliberately ignore, i.e. censor, those instance of Obama’s pandering, in which he exploits his self-chosen status as African-American or minority, and deliberately play-up instances when Obama doesn’t mention race. When they do the latter, the interpretation the media offer of such instances, is as ignorant as it is mendacious.
To clarify how Obama treats race, just look at his website, in the category of African-Americans. Says it all. Look through the pages. The reliance on proxies like his wife is photographically documented. His rhetorical reliance on blackness is apparent on the first page, where front and center feature words who’s author is no doubt Axelrod:
There is no better advocate for African Americans than Barack Obama. Barack knows your story, because it is his story. The causes that you hold dear have been the causes of his life. Barack has spent his entire career fighting for justice — as a community organizer in the streets of the South Side of Chicago, as a civil rights attorney, a constitutional law professor, an Illinois state Senator and a U.S. Senator.
Imagine Clinton writing those lines. Doesn’t work.
Obama’s speeches to black constituencies say it all. Organized support for Obama in black churches, says it all.
Obama has repeatedly played the race card, and Obama’s campaign encourages black supporters to openly make their appeal for Obama based on race. Obama’s Civil Rights message and faith message overlap with his race message until the three become virtually indistinguishable, but his race, remains their foundation.
Such methods went entirely unquestioned by the media. When Bill Clinton commented about these tactics, Obama’s campaign slapped him down, and stigmatized him and Hillary as racists, the media joined in, like in William Goldings “Kill Pigy”.
Reeling from the blow, Hillary wanted to emphasize that one race can help another, and that Civil Rights would have been inconceivable without white participation. Little did she know Obama’s campaign of unity, though such historical facts divisive.
When she made a logical allusion to the role Lyndon B. Johonson played in the Civil Rights movement, in order to mollify recent Obama attacks on her critique of his abuse of race, the candidate unrelentingly claiming to represent unity and reconciliation, considered the comment ill-advised and made absolutely no efforts to pacify his staff or his campaign message.
As a matter of fact, since that event, Obama’s website proudly boasts the following message just bellow the one I quoted above. Its outdated nature and imediate juxtasposition with the above quote, should draw immediate suspicion about Obama’s abuse of race in this campaign:
In her eagerness to point out how white presidents can get things done, she in effect relegated Dr. King’s sacrifice for racial equality to nothing more than a supportive role. And that came directly out of her mouth, not her husband’s, a politico supporter’s or a celebrity hired gun designed to reach out to the African American population. If indeed the barrage of attacks are unscripted and not part of a larger strategy to undermine Senator Obama, then they are at best indicative of a much larger problem. If she is unable to control and steer her campaign clear of divisive political disparages, how can she be expected to effectively run a country amid great partisan divide on varying critical issues?
Alas, we’ve been through this one. Every time a criticism is leveled against Obama, the media somehow push it towards the edge of “Racism”.
***
Now, for the larger argument, for those who still cannot come to grasps, or cannot cognitively compute, the way Obama uses race in his appeal to voters.
I enjoin you to find the category “white” in Obama’s “People” menu. To tell me, where and how a “white” like Hillary, can place her “white” category on her campaign website, to mirror her and Obama’s inclusion of the African-American category? Find me the last time Hillary said in a speech, “as a White, my story is your story.” Tell me, why Obama can keep the quote I cite (right above) on his website, after having said he personally hadn’t authorized the attacks his campaign carried out against Hillary for her Johnson remark? I ask critical readers to tell me, how our country’s liberal media can get away saying Obama does not mention, or use race to his political advantage, when his campaign has made it all but impossible for Hillary to so much as attempt to state the obvious fact, that she and her husband have a great deal more history delivering for blacks, than Obama could ever chalk-up doing Chicago community work or playing hooky in Springfield!
With absolutely nothing to offer blacks in terms of policies, Obama charms them with vulgar identity politics. Oftentimes directly, generally by using the verbal gymnastics of religion, and civil rights. The media play not only the part of facilitator, but of prosecutor and judge. It is hardly a coincidence, that since the Johnson remark, Hillary’s commanding lead with blacks dissolved, and along with it went her general vote.
Only a pathological liar, could claim Obama’s seeming victory has nothing to do with the role of race in this presidential primary specifically, and American society in general. Nothing to do with the pathological liar who benefited from these political dirty games, and is now proclaiming himself victor with gusto and conviction?
Only a total idiot, could say that this abuse is good for America. It may be a useful political tool, but to think that it can be used to unify and reconcile our society, amounts to intellectual decadence.
16 responses so far
Thank you so much for writing this! I couldn’t agree more! I am a person of color from a background not too different from Obama’s, therefore people are surprised to learn that I do not support him. I believe he is underqualified, and is campaigning on charisma alone. Plus, I totally agree that he’s really good at playing the race card w/o being too obvious about it. And the media eats it up! When I’ve pointed this out, I generally get a pretty hostile reaction from African-Americans who generally accuse me of being a “sellout” or racist. It’s a shame more people aren’t taking a deeper look at Obama.
Excellent, thoughtful post! I’m circulating around a few sites to get it wider audience.
Thanks for your efforts….
Right on the head. It just goes to show you the double standard that media darlings and political correctness create.
[…] to wait for McCain. As a liberal, how can you ask anything if it means confessing you are either a race traitor, or a racist? You’ll sooner confess to being an idiot, or […]
This is the first time I have visited this Web site and I find it very illuminating. So forgive me for starting “off topic.” But I enjoyed reading about Mr. McCoy in his profile and wanted to make 2 comments on it.
The first: he says “In Obama phraseology, I am what is called a Brother.”
Learn something new every day. I was n’t aware that it was Obama who should be credited with expanding the meaning of the word “brother” by using it to mean “a black man, usually used by one black man when referring to another.” Did he have the audacity to make this claim - does the man have no shame? That is outrageous - he should be called out for that the way Gore was called out for claiming to invent the Internet!
The second: “Exposing how a privileged man with a white mother and a black father, can get away posturing as a Brother to the entire African-American population of the US-A, is my task at Stop Obama.”
Thank you for taking on this task and exposing the false claims Obama has made about the difficulties of his childhood. Let’s dispose of his father first, yea, he’s “black” but he is from Africa and everybody there is black so Obama’s old man had no experience of being oppressed like blacks in this country. Sure, he was raised by a single mother who gave birth to him when she was 18 but let’s remember she was white. She probably had a trust fund or something - cause it is awful suspicious that she could have afforded to send Obama to a fancy high school, a fancy college and a fancy law school. Mr. McCoy please do some diggin on this one. Another thing Obama’s people love to remind us: he could have taken a high-paying job at a big city law firm instead he chose to take job fighting poverty on the South Side of Chicago. The fact that he could afford to take this job proves just how privileged he is. Especially, since so many other law school graduates have been forced to take six-figure jobs although they might have preferred to do the kind of work Obama was doing after law school - they just couldn’t afford it. A perfect example of this is Hillary Clinton - she had to take a job at The Rose Law Firm in Little Rock to support her family, she didn’t have the luxury to go gallivanting about working on behalf of poor folk in South Side Chicago. Keep up the good work!!
[…] of you may think all of this is just a joke. A post ago, I said that Iraq Hussein Ossama stole the black vote with his skin. Ossama offers no programs, no […]
[…] That Obama, as Jamal noted towards the end of his uncompromising post, offers nothing to the people whose story he calls his own (i.e. his brothas?), is never questioned by this race-obsessed […]
I was in Little Rock when she was there and here is only SOME of what I know she did pro bono work for abused children, got the education system completely turned around against ALL odds, helped set up Head Start and a program to help poor families so that inner city school kids would get some help outside of school to give them an advantage. That program gave kids free tutors, and free supervision and help for other problems they might encounter.
When she got there she went into the poorest inner city schools first, set up free food programs, set up prgrams that would make sure each kid had the support they needed *some of these kids didn’t even have winter coats!* she did a fantastic job. And yes, when she first went to Rose Law firm she brought home a bigger salary than Bill did. She was the one who was considered to have been more able to have a stellar political career at that time. She did not take Bill’s last name because she didn’t want people to think she wasn’t doing this all on her won. The local press gave her hell on earth for that while she was trying to get them to focus on issues more important to people….she finally gave in and took Bill’s last name so they WOULD focus on issues of really HELPING people instead of her name. Now? They get mad because they say she rode in on his name. No matter what she would do they would say she did it wrong.
Obama counts HIS community service but, says HER only experience is as first lady. Oh? Her first community service was while she was still in high school. She organized a large group of students to provide free day care for inner city immigrant workers..where? IN Chicago right in Obama’s back yard!!! She has a long, long, long record of standing up for those who have no voice. I’d say that alone would speak volumes to me about what kind of president she will be.
Obama? what have YOU done for those with less that can even come close to her record on that score!!
People, please get real! I love to see what the other side is up to, but can anyone really believe this crap! The beauty of it all is that this website and supporters of this divisive thinking is what’s going to help change America. I love it! The more ignorance that each of you promote, justifies the great need for change America needs. Please keep it up. Your article and supporting comments support our cause. “Yes We Can”
You must be Clinton supporters here. I have already said my piece about “Jamal” the Goebbels of the web. About Hillary… If only you knew what went on at the Rose law firm!! But, not to worry… She will be appointed Ambassador to Uruguay.
John Paul….what did go on at that Rose law firm? Were you working there when Hillary was there?
Please fill us in with the facts.
[…] folks. I’ve written about this. The victimology. The race-baiting chronology. The party segregation. The permission to speak. So how come I still get the “he […]
[…] Jamal spoke of this, Sean Wilentz spoke of it. If Obama didn’t want to be compared to Jesse Jackson, maybe he shouldn’t have put R&B in his SC advertisements, shouldn’t have sent black-only emissaries to the Black SC community, and should have put Wright, who was doing the rounds, on pause. The message in South Carolina put out by Obama’s campaign, whether the media wanted to ignore it or not, was “Vote for me I am Black.” To then come back and smash Bill Clinton for mentioning Jesse Jackson, that’s audacity; Axelrod made this clear through his surrogates, while he had Obama say that what the Clintons’ said was “unfortunate.” […]
thank you for this. race has been his only strategy. his only attack has been on Hillary’s veracity and “old politics”.
the early voting results proved that whites were behind him. it was the black community who wasn’t with him until Bill’s comments were stirred up as racism. suddenly the “first black president” was a racist and president only because he “climbed there on the back of blacks”. ludicrous.
jesse jackson was not offended by Bill’s statements, “I don’t read anything negative into Clinton’s observation,” read more
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/jackson-not-upset-by-clinton-remarks/index.html?ex=1359262800&en=de25afa9188d7cde&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Obama’s main accomplishment as a community organizer in Chicago was to register the most voters ever. and who were they for? BILL CLINTON.
Obama is a fraud. He will be found out and the Republicans will win and they will blame it on Hillary. This election has been a sham by a civil rights leader who cares only about himself. Of the three there is only one truly qualified and she is a woman. Never gonna let that happen. Amen.
Thanks Jamal. I hope you’ve finished the book and seen how much f it is pure crap.
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I didn’t agree with you first, but last paragraph makes sense for me…