Black Agenda Report: Obama's 'Race Neutral' Strategy Unravels of its Own Contradictions

[Maddy McCall]

Black Agenda Report: Obama's 'Race Neutral' Strategy Unravels of its Own Contradictions

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford


The world views of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Sen. Barack Obama were incompatible from the start, just as the mythical American Manifest Destiny world view is directly at odds with the facts as perceived by Blacks in the United States. Wright finally forced Obama to choose sides in the conflict of racial/historical visions, and in doing so, performed a service on behalf of clarity. Obama lashed out in a startlingly personal manner, calling Wright a "caricature" of himself and linking the minister to forces that give "comfort to those who prey on hate." Rev. Wright exposed the flimsy tissues of so-called "race neutrality" in a nation founded on racial oppression.





Things fall apart; some things, like an ill-tied shoelace, sooner than others. Barack Obama's strategy to win the White House was to run a "race-neutral" campaign in a society that is anything but neutral on race. The very premise - that race neutrality is possible in a nation built on white supremacy - demanded the systematic practice of the most profound race-factual denial, which is ultimately indistinguishable from rank dishonesty. From the moment Obama told the 2004 Democratic National Convention that "there is no white America, there is no Black America," it was inevitable that the candidate would one day declare the vast body of Black opinion illegitimate.

That day came on Tuesday, April 29, when a battered and (truly) bitter Barack Obama made his final, irrevocable break with his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose televised Black Liberation Theology tour de force the preceding Friday, Sunday and Monday had laid bare the contradictions of Obama's hopeless racial "neutrality." It was the masterful preacher and seasoned political creature Wright - not the racists who had endlessly looped chopped snippets of the reverend's past sermons together in an attempt to make him appear crazed - who forced Obama to choose in the push and pull of Black and white American worldviews. Obama was made to register his preference for the white racist version of truth over Rev. Wright's, whose rejection of Euro-American mythology reflects prevailing African American perceptions, past and present.

Obama was less than eloquent. "All it was is a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in truth," said Sen. Obama, low-rating Rev. Wright's remarks at the National Press Club, in Washington, the morning before. Rev. Wright had become a "caricature" of himself, said the wounded candidate - another way of calling the minister a clown.

Under questioning from reporters in Winston Salem, North Carolina, Obama swore up and down that he had never before, in 16 years as a member of Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ congregation, observed his pastor behave in such a way. The declaration rang patently false, as even a red-state Republican white evangelical observer would have recognized Wright's Press Club performance as that of veteran pulpit-master with a vast repertoire of church-pleasing moves and grooves to draw upon, all of them honed over decades for the entertainment of his parishioners - including Obama. But the senator was intent on giving the impression that Rev. Wright was - unbeknownst to Obama - a Jekyll and Hyde character, whose statements "were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate."

An amazingly Bush-like turn of phrase! The man who married Barack and Michelle and baptized their children is now rhetorically linked to Osama bin Laden or the Ku Klux Klan.

Clearly, this is what panic looks and sounds like when Obama's flimsy tissues of "race neutrality" are stripped away. He berates Rev. Wright and other Black voices for self-centeredness in failing to strike a balance between African American grievances and whatever ails white people. "When you start focusing so much on the historically oppressed," said Obama, "we lose sight of the plight of others." Obama is desperate to convince these "others" that he rejects anything that smacks of an Afro-centric worldview, as represented by Rev. Wright. "What became clear to me was that he was presenting a world view that contradicts what I am and what I stand for."


MORE: http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=603&Itemid=1

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Maddy McCall]

2. I can handle the attacks from Obama supporters. I've come to expect them.

Now can you address the article? What do you think about the article?

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. I think you do a good job

on your propaganda and


You know, you never really address anything.

But, if you want to ask me a question,
then why don't you really answer the real
questions about your candidate?

You play a character on this stage

that if you really look at it, doesn't
live up to the facts of consistency.

[hokies4ever]

12. Glen Ford doesn't like Obama

just add him to the list that includes the likes of Juan Williams and Mr. Loofah. The media salivates over blacks politically attacking other blacks, as if it's surprised that members of a minority might disagree with each other and not share the same brain.

[aquart]

19. Just like it salivates over women attacking the woman candidate.

You really are irony challenged, aren't you?

[qazplm]

16. its a piece of crap

from a pseudo intellectual who purports, much like Wright, to speak for all AAs.

He doesn't, and you'll see that in the voting.

[democracy1st]

18. Pass that article out all over America and see how far you get

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. Who wrote the article?

If it was written by a sympathizer of Wright, I would say that what I suspected was going to happen, happened. What everyone hoped would happen. Black America had to be sold out, in order for a black man to get into the White House. You can never make the claim that there are two Americas, which, there very well is, and then come out and say otherwise and not expect to leave people confused.

[cboy4]

6. So now, the strategery is to attack Alabamans?

:eyes:

[MADem]

8. Are you directing your comments to the AUTHOR of that piece?

Because he isn't white at all.


Or are you just shooting the messenger?

[zabet]

10. Shooting the messenger.

The only option they have to refute this post with.

[aquart]

17. Like women who have the nerve to run for President?

The hypocrisy just bleeds right thru, doesn't it?

[thunder rising]

3. It's all over, Barack has won ... go home and cry

[Maddy McCall]

4. Ok. It doesn't bother me if you believe that.

Can you address the article, though?

[MADem]

9. That poor guy is spamming the board with that comment. It is in most of the recent threads.

He is trying the repetition strategy.

[zabet]

11. I think he is just delusional, saying the same thing over and over again.

Especially since it is not true.

[Maddy McCall]

24. I saw that last night.

Spamming is against the rules. I didn't alert, though.

[MADem]

33. It's either OCD or a way of getting that old post count up without being too obstreperous.

I guess....

[2rth2pwr]

7. Lance Shabazz, Nation of Islam, on his show today called Obama a weak Negro.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SjIQKEjBEFo

[hokies4ever]

13. Yet it will be spun

as Obama embracing the Nation of Islam. After all, he attended madrassas and is a domestic insurgent terrorist.

What's your point of posting this crap video? Shall I look for an audio of Randi Rhodes talking about Hillary Clinton?

You learned the wrong lesson from the Republican attack machine.

Here's that Randi Rhodes video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=blkKbMN9hzc

Now, we're both dumber from this 'intellectual' exchange. Happy now?

[democracy1st]

21. Who give's a rat azz about the Nation of Islam

[aquart]

23. Too late. He already got that 90% of the black vote.

Which was not racially based, nuh uh.

[oviedodem]

25. Do you not realize that this is a GOOD thing that she did that?? I heard

Sharpton was displeased also!! I say keep it coming!!!

The more outspoken/radical AA's that are AGAINST Obama the better. I am black and I CAN'T STAND SHARPTON AND OTHERS LIKE HIM.

[ellacott]

45. Sharpton is displeased with what?

I don't understand what you are trying to say.

[oviedodem]

48. Sharpton supposedly called Obama to complain that Obama called for calm after

the Sean Bell verdict in NY.

[ellacott]

49. That was a lie from the N.Y. Post

That doesn't even make sense.

They are known not to be a credible source. Sharpton himself called for calm days before the verdict was reached.

[CakeGrrl]

14. In short: A black commentator calls Obama a "sellout". We've already heard this one.

And what's the point? I'm sure there's no love lost for Obama here, so I guess the main goal here is to present yet another voice who doesn't like him. And better yet, a fellow black man to give it some more credibility, perhaps?

The author isn't saying anything we don't already know and that has always been axiomatic of politics: You can't run on a platform that leans too far in any direction and win the votes you need. That's especially true of a black candidate running in majority white - and by many hand-wringers' accounts, substantially blue-collar beer-drinking - America.

And if one reads the comments following the article, the commenters agree on one thing: The author may have a point, but the first black candidate so close to the presidency has to make some compromises to make long-term progress. Obama did what he needed to do to reach his long-term goal, and if his fellow African-Americans want to hate on his method, it's their right to do so, but they ought to keep their eye on the prize. America is too racist and not ready for Al Sharpton or even Jesse Jackson, and Obama realizes that.

[aquart]

22. Yeah, like women here claim credibility for not supporting the woman.

I'll bet you won't ever write the same words and apply them to the woman who is running.

But you'll also claim you ain't no sexist. Nuh uh.

[CakeGrrl]

30. I don't get what you're getting at

How does HRC apply here?

I believe the OP's point was to trot out another "I don't like Obama" source. I'm not sure what the point was beyond that.

I understand the blogger's stance as labeling Obama as a "sellout" to his fellow black people for 'divorcing' Wright.

I've yet to see anyone post a story labeling HRC as a sellout to women.

But that doesn't stop me, a woman, from being disgusted with the way she has conducted her campaign.

I don't stick by a woman just because she's a woman. Personal conduct and character matter to me, and as this campaign drags on, HRC is showing herself and her campaign to be more craven by the day.

[ima_sinnic]

15. so? some blacks want Obama to "choose sides"--is this a "gotcha"?

let's talk about Hillary's BFEE connections and potential role in continuing the coverups that Bill started, coming to light in this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5731126

or how about her eagerness to send our jobs to India, as the Senator from Punja?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5722906

or, what about "obliterating" Iran? I know 70 million people probably doesn't seem like a big deal when you have so much to fight for, to keep the DLC's wallets stuffed and the imperialist boot on the throat of the world, but some of us disagree. We're also not that crazy about people who do deals with South American death-squad fascists while cackling defensively about it and asking how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

But Obama's race, and Rev. Wright, are sooo much more important than all that.

blather on, you have a job to do.

[Cali_Democrat]

26. LOL!!! Maddy is praying that blacks will flee Obama because of this

You're probably down on your hands and knees right now. It's NOT gonna happen.

You are so transparent.

[Maddy McCall]

27. You have not read the whole article, obviously.

When you do, try to comment on the story instead of on me.

[Cali_Democrat]

28. In a nutshell the author is accusing Obama of selling out

I know you're hoping this will get play on DU and in the AA community.

You would love nothing more than to have Obama's AA support diminished. Or, you would love to tell DUers that his support in the AA community is falling even if it isn't true.

I can see right through you.

[Maddy McCall]

29. Your attacks really have no effect on me.

There's more to the article than what you wish to see.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Maddy McCall]

32. When you attack me instead of discussing the article...

the only thing transparent is your inability to have a rational discussion without resorting to angry attacks on the messenger.

[anonymous171]

34. Obama race has nothing to do with my support of him.

So I really don't care about this.

[xchrom]

35. recommend

[Political Heretic]

36. I have several problems with the substance of this article.

First of all, none of us really know how much Obama knew or heard when it comes to his former pastor. To the best of my knowledge, I know of no one who actually has any information on how frequently Obama even attended that church. I could be wrong about that, but I know I don't. Additionally, its been interesting to listen to other Trinity Church members speak out. One woman on Hardball described the fact that when she moved to Chicago, she was told that basically there was one of two churches she really needed to join as a way to network, get involved in the black community and the local environment - one was Trinity Church.

She also, in response to Chris Matthews asking "Don't you think Obama would have heard some of this during his time there," said, "well as I said, I attended church there several times and never heard comments like the ones being discuss, although clearly we know they were made. Also, when I moved to Chicago, people didn't tell me, you really want to stay away from that church, that pastor is kinda crazy." So when people right stories suggesting that Obama is a liar because he went to Trinity church and was unfamiliar with his most controversial comments out of thirty years, I guess we should ask the same question of the other parishioners who also did not sound the alarm. It seems to me to indicate that these comments were not the rule, but an exception. That doesn't make them okay, but it does address some of the accusations that Obama is a liar.

No one really knows. If you don't like Obama, then you choose to believe the worst. If you do like Obama, or you just believe in the benefit of the doubt, then you choose to believe the best. What's getting lost in all of this is the clear and unambiguous fact - which no one is seriously disputing - that the views of Rev. Wright are not the views of Barack Obama. So what, exactly is the big deal? When did the democratic party become the party that engages in guilt-by-association tactics? What to the view of Jeremiah Wright have to do with the political run of Obama - other than fodder for a silly media that is loathed to talk about "boring" real issues?

There is a lot in this article that is pretty disingenuous. For example, saying that because Obama said that some of Wrights comments were divisive and give comfort to those who prey on hate he is like George Bush or has equated Wrigth with Osama Bin Ladin is a huge stretch that can only be made by a writer that is already so entrenched in dislike of Obama that he/she is just looking for any reason to insult the man. "Give comfort to" was a phrase that was around long before and will be around long after the idiot in the white house leaves office. Not only is it incredibly reaching, it is also a substanceless point - it is just another example of "gotcha" politics that is only a few degrees of above just pure namecalling.

Third, the article says "He berates Wright and other Black voices...." Other black voices - really? When has this occurred? Oh right, it hasn't. It is just an example of exaggerating to the point of dishonesty. The writer has apparently bought into the idea that Wright was somehow speaking in defense of, or on behalf of, black churches. Black churches are not a uniform group. There are as many, if not more black church goers who are angry and offended by Wrights actions as there are people who support those actions. Jeremiah Wright has made it clear that he speaks for himself and nothing more.

This is very disappointing for me, because I stringently defended this man during the initial pile-on of the media. With the exception of his government HIV conspiracy comments, most of the so-called outrageous comments on video were totally ripped out of context. Within context they were points that - regardless of rhetorical style, were basically true. And Wright was crucified in the media because of it. I was upset because I in many instances the message itself was true. But then Wright stepped up to the media plate, and I got to see Wright the man. And it turns out, that Wright the man is a self-inflated narcissist who sees an opportunity to write a book, make himself a big name, and audition of positions of future power with the NAACP or elsewhere and is willing to say anything to those ends. He claimed criticisms of him were criticisms of the black church, he restated his assertions about the government and aids, he ratcheted up rheoteric about an evil America beyond any ability for the validity of any of his points to connect with anyone, and he essentially called Obama a phony. In short, right before my eyes, I saw the different between defending the context and content of a "message" and the indefensibility of the "messenger."

So... those are my substantive points of disagreement.
Cheers,
PH

[Laura PourMeADrink]

37. you only wish an unraveling. He'll turn back around - don't get

your hopes up Maddy, sorry.

[Avalux]

38. Where do you find this stuff? Black Agenda Report?

Come on Maddy. :shrug:

[Maddy McCall]

39. Google News.

[xchrom]

40. kick

[rodeodance]

41. K and REc

[Occam Bandage]

42. Funny. I could have sworn you disagreed with Rev. Wright. Now you're quoting an article

bashing Obama for distancing himself from Afrocentrism.

[ProSense]

43. This is hilarious, go find all the black groups left of the Dem Party attacking every member

of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Why not quote Final Call?

[IndianaJones]

44. gotta be embarassing for him to have to pander to those typical white people now. nt.

[SeaLyons]

46. K&R

[Phillycat]

47. Great article.

It really helps me to articulate why I find Obama so distasteful and have from the beginning. He just felt FAKE to me, and this is exactly why. There is no way to have this "race-neutral" campaign of his. The presidential campaign does not exist in a vaccuum. It's similar to the vague, fantasy-like "hope and change" slogan he uses. I want a candidate who lives in reality.

[rinsd]

50. Black Agenda Report has been taking shots at Obama all this year & last.

The editors seems to dislike him and it shows in their writing.