Super-Cool Obama and the Spectre of the Angry Black Man

[babylonsister]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/super-cool-obama-and-the-spectre-of-the-angry-black-man/252931/

Super-Cool Obama and the Spectre of the Angry Black Man
By James Fallows

Feb 10 2012, 4:19 PM ET


I'll start posting some of the reactions I've gotten to my current cover story that tries to make sense of President Obama's successes and failures in his first three years in office.

Not many people who have written in about the piece have said, "But gee, it was so short!" It's all of 12,000 words long -- but even at that scale, we left lots of stuff out. Among the cutting-room floor material was an attempt to address the issue this reader's message raises: how much of Obama's super-cool demeanor, which can seem so icily effective when it works and so ineffectively passive when it doesn't, is due to the pressures on him as America's first non-white president. If I, as a middle-aged white guy, am aware of the perils awaiting him at the slightest flash of being an Angry Black Man, I can barely imagine how much more profoundly he must have wrestled with this question.

I am therefore glad that Nancy Wallace, whose name I'm using with her permission, has written in about the issue:

I wanted to write to you because I think there's an important element of Obama's emotional responses and the perception of those responses that you didn't mention: race. I grew up in a family that was black middle-class; we actually were kind of the Cosbys. From the time I was in elementary school, I was aware, even though no one ever said it out loud, that was supposed to be "a credit to the race". I had a responsibility to be a role model which meant studying hard and going to church and getting into a good college and going on to professional school and marrying someone of the opposite gender. I was taught to deal with emotions by hiding them, because tears or anger would immediately slot me into a stereotype of Mammy or Jezebel.

In 1995, I had a nervous breakdown in the office where I worked at Harvard. I was on medical leave for two months. When I came back, I couldn't shake the sense that as the only black woman in my office, my failure to handle an unreasonable and excessive workload would reflect poorly on all black women, everywhere. It took a long time and a lot of therapy to realize that I was carrying a burden that wasn't mine, and that by repressing my emotions to avoid being seen as "too angry" or "hysterical," I'd just made everything worse.

Unlike me, Barack Obama IS a role model. Everything he does and says is, on some level, viewed through the prism of "First Black President". Knowing that has to constrain his public emotional responses, especially anger. If he raises his voice the slightest bit, then he'll be seen as an Angry Black Man, and Angry Black Man is scary. Jan Brewer claimed that the president was being "threatening" toward her, and I believe she probably did feel threatened because there was a tall black guy in front of her who didn't look all that pleased. At any moment, he could have whipped out a gun, or overwhelmed her with his brute animal strength!

Even the media narrative is quick to slap Obama with the "angry" label. After his speech during debt ceiling crisis where he directly criticized the GOP, his demeanor was described in some headlines as "angry", when in reality, he managed to hold it down to vaguely irritated. Can you imagine what would happen if he'd said, "Look, these clowns in the House? Dumb as a box of hammers. If they want to stop dicking around and get serious, I'm here; otherwise they need to stop acting like a bunch of spoiled whiny brats."

Jackie Robinson agreed that during his first year with the Dodgers, he wouldn't respond to any of the abuse he received from players, officials or fans, because even just yelling back would be seen as proof that "they" can't handle the pressure. I suspect Barack Obama is fairly laid back in general, but we'll never know because he can't be anything else.

[Enrique]

1. there is also the longing on our side for the angry black man

off the top of my head, Michael Moore and Bill Maher have both expressed the desire that Obama live up to their ideas of what a black man is supposed to be like, "black ninja gangster president", etc. Also countless online comments, either wanting him to be like that, or else imagining that he is, when he's not.

[JoePhilly]

2. This white guy agrees with you ...

And what I think Michael Moore and Bill Maher forget is that, as WHITE GUYS (like me) we are allowed to get ANGRY!!!

Me, Michael, Bill ... we can get away with displays of anger because we are white men. If we get angry, its a sign of strength and leadership.

If a woman explodes in anger, she's an emotional Bitch.

And if a black guy gets angry ... he proves that white women should cross the street if a black man walks in their direction on a public street.

I do think that Moore and Maher want Obama to punch back hard because THEY would do so. And I think they believe that OBAMA should be able to do so.

But the reality is not that simple. Obama should be able to get just as angry, and be able to display that. But I do not think this country is ready for that. I wish it was.

I think Obama is playing this correctly. The right wing GOP crazies want to negatively stereotype black men and black women.

The Obamas run COUNTER to all of those negative stereotypes. And they best way to kill an abstract stereotype is with real examples that prove it false.

The Obamas are doing this. They are killing the negative stereotype.

[blue neen]

4. Excellent post...

and so very true.

[Tarheel_Dem]

6. Joe, you always know how to sum up the situation perfectly.

I was struck by the First Lady's interview with Gayle King where she opined that she is routinely characterized as "angry". Can you imagine that? I suspect Michelle can get angry, as we all can, but she seems acutely aware of her public profile, and makes me proud everytime I see her. She told Gayle, she asks herself 'which Michelle are they talking about'?
'Michelle Obama'? LOL.

It's funny, but Herman Cain & Allen West can be as angry as they want as long as that anger is aimed at the black guy. But seriously, it's a tightrope that many black professionals have had to walk, just to put our white counterparts at their ease. Whenever you're the first "black" anything, the pressure is enormous.

[Whisp]

8. nice post, Shakespeare.

I mean that in the best way.

[nevergiveup]

3. The man never ceases to amaze me.

He took office in the midst of two wars and an economy in a free-fall unlike none other since the Great Depression. As an older white man I do not pretend to be able to totally empathise with the added pressures of being the first non-white president but my life experiences have been varied enough to recognize these pressures as real and non-arguable facts and the fact he had these as an added burden to what were already daunting tasks makes the steadiness of his first 3 1/2 years all the more remarkable.

[Whisp]

9. I don't think there's been too many unflappable

and centred Presidents (or any politician) as Obama. He's not pretending or working on it, that is his character - patient but not a fool by any means.

This man is real. How refreshing. I want to be more like Obama when I grow up.

[politicasista]

5. Kick

[nofurylike]

7. this definitely improved on the previous article!

thank you very much for posting this, babylonsister!!

LOVE this:

Can you imagine what would happen if he'd said, "Look, these clowns in the House? Dumb as a box of hammers. If they want to stop dicking around and get serious, I'm here; otherwise they need to stop acting like a bunch of spoiled whiny brats."

one day President Obama will write about his Presidency, and maybe then he will tell us what he was thinking at times like that. i would love to hear that!!