This is a fantastic article. I agree with this. The baby boomer generation was born into a very different America. Not only was it more segregated between white and black, but whites were a greater proportion of the populous. Boomers were born into a white country, that had minorities. They are now forced to engage different people, of different colors, speaking different languages. From what I see, they either eagerly embrace it, try to ignore it, or quietly resent it. But, IMHO they don't seem to be able to be unconscious of it. As evidence, the Census still tries to make sense of the country through their eyes. There is definitely truth to this. However, I think the author under-appreciates Obama's whiteness. Not in terms of his mother being white, but in terms of the culture that he was exposed to, and raised in. I guarantee that Barack has sat among white people, and one of them forgot that he was black and said something negative about blacks, and then he/she qualified it by trying to make a distinction that he/she didn't quite understand himself/herself. IMO I think that there is a real possibility that one component of Barack's reticence to engage race is that he might not have the desire to do so. Barack has been white and black. He knows that although they can be distinguished from each other, they are the same cloth and have the same qualities of interactions. Race is a language, it is not communication. To defend or to embrace blackness or whiteness to any extent beyond the superficial qualities by which we recognize them is to point towards a path that gives credence to the idea that these qualities are not superficial. Therefore, IMHO Barack might very well only feel motivated to engage race when he sees people acting upon it, but not as a state of being, a condition, or a ideal. Race is dependent, it is not intrinsic. Of course, Obama is also a pragmatist and a politician.What we are now witnessing is not some new and complicated expression of white racism—rather, it’s the dying embers of the same old racism that once rendered the best pickings of America the exclusive province of unblackness.
In a democracy, so the saying goes, the people get the government they deserve. Part of Obama’s genius is a remarkable ability to soothe race consciousness among whites. Any black person who’s worked in the professional world is well acquainted with this trick. But never has it been practiced at such a high level, and never have its limits been so obviously exposed.
I would definitely agree. In many ways it is astounding that such a superficial thing still holds so much weight in society, and how often the issue of race in politics (while presented in coded ridiculous ways, i.e the birthers controversy) influences the way our politicians act in society.
IMO it boils down to a matter of perspective. Like in the Cultural Revolution of China, you can divide people that look the same and have the same culture simply over the profession of their parents. Children against parents, even. You can divide people over the blocks they live on. But, the moment we are invaded by aliens, we share a powerful unifying perspective. I personally believe (as I think you allude to below) that our politics, institutions and other power structures, have grown to depend upon (or started that way) institutionalized perspectives of division, and that they perpetuate these perspectives to their advantage by supporting whatever feeds them. I believe this is done with good intentions, bad intentions, and ambivalence. I also believe it is done both purposefully, unintentionally, and without reflection. IMHO that's how so many seem to be able to cast aside these assumptions when interacting one-on-one, but cannot make the leap and approach greater society in the same way. We are trained, and we train each other. Who would create the notion of a 40 hour work week de novo?! I strongly believe that when we focus upon our intellect, creativity, achievements, wonder, and our bittersweet human condition, we undermine perspectives of division, in favor of these powerful unifying perspectives that resonate within us all.
So well said! If we look at more homogenous countries similar debates are still being had, though they are over class or religion or ethnic group interactions. It is amazing how our need to catalogue and separate people into the "other" is constantly reapplied thought societies worldwide with various parameters. Focusing on what connects humans would make differences more superficial.
Yes, but it almost always comes from those that want power or are trying to keep it. So I think there is hope. We should be better at identifying it, and squashing it by now. :( Everyone that divides is selling something.It is amazing how our need to catalogue and separate people into the "other" is constantly reapplied thought societies worldwide with various parameters.
Haha, yea he has definitely gone through this horrible moment.I guarantee that Barack has sat among white people, and one of them forgot that he was black and said something negative about blacks, and then he/she qualified it by trying to make a distinction that he/she didn't quite understand himself/herself.