Is it a bigoted statement to say "all Obama has accomplished is being the first black man nominee.."

[Levgreee]

Someone has said this, and I think it indicates bigoted tendencies, or at least has quite racial undertones. Yet I can only partly articulate why, and am not able to convince people who consider it a fine statement otherwise.

Can anyone analyze the statement better than me? What do you think about it, what is the meaning behind it?

[Heidi]

1. It is bigoted because it ignores facts in favor of one's own opinions and prejudices.

:hi:

[Levgreee]

2. But are those necessarily opinions/prejudices against black people, or just Democrats?

Even though I think discrimination against all sorts of people are bad, we take it more seriously in regards to race than political party.

Does it show opinions/prejudice against black people?

Right now I am thinking part of the reason it does, is if you say that all a person has accomplished is being black, you are implicating that they are being voted for "because" they are black. It is their only qualification.

You are calling them an affirmative action president, and dismissing their success as a nominee due to their skin color and other peoples superficial preference towards people of that skin color.


Maybe it is just politically charged people adopting bigoted memes... but does that necessarily make them a bigot to an extent too, or just a vessel for bigotry?

[Heidi]

5. The facts about Sen. Obama are easily accessible to anyone who wants to frame a discussion

about accomplishments, rather than race. When confronted with statements like the example in the OP, I don't call the person a bigot. I present the facts.

[treestar]

17. The people saying this crap would be saying it about a white

male candidate. Had it been Hillary, they'd be saying the equivalent. We shouldn't let them draw us into claims of racial prejudice. Granted, it galls them to have a black president, but in the end, we need not worry about that, as those same people would be finding something rotten to say about any Democratic candidate, had it been Edwards, they'd be coming up with something.

So there is no point in letting them drag us into it. Obama needs white voter, those people are not racist enough not to vote for him due to race, but they are racist enough to resent being called racist (practically all white people are like that). The 21% are racist, but it is irrelevant, since they would be against any Democrat anyway. Let them try to make their racist hints to the masses, but let the masses see the wrong in that themselves. It will gain sympathy for Obama, whom they will like and will resent the hints from the 21%. If we chime in and play the victim for Obama, that's where we make a mistake.

[Radical Activist]

3. There ya go.

Great answer.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

4. Absolutely.

It reveals that the speaker cannot countenance the idea of a black person being able to accomplish anything without the help of affirmative action. It reifies the notion that white people are innately superior. It's racist as all holy fuck.

[TexasObserver]

6. It's racist because it isn't all he has accomplished.

The fact that the speaker has to mention Obama's race to malign him is evidence that the intent of the statement is racist.

Why wouldn't they say "all Obama has accomplished is being the nominee"? Because that doesn't say what they want to say, because they want to say "he's black and that's the only thing special about him!"

Tell them they're racist, and see if they deny it.

[jobycom]

7. Depends on the context. It could be, probably is, but not necessarily.

If the conversation was about Obama having proven that African Americans have "closed the gap" or come a long way or something like that by being nominated, then saying "all he's accomplished so far is being the first black man nominee..." seems reasonable.

If the conversation was more about what all Obama has accomplished to this point, then citing a trivial historical curiosity about him greatly underrepresents what all he's accomplished. He was elected to the US Senate, won a primary race against several very tough and better-known opponents, electrified part of the electorate that is usually complacent--and I'm not talking about African Americans, I'm talking about under-25 voters as well as those who are disaffected by politics--and has given the world hope that he can right the wrongs in America and restore it to the position of world moral leader that the world clearly wants it to be. To negate all of those accomplishments in favor of a single footnote based on race is, to my mind, quite bigoted. It's belittling, and it hints that the only thing significant a black man can do is overcome black stereotypes--as though his whole essence is his race and the limitations others place on it.

[ismnotwasm]

8. Yup

This is from another post of mine elsewhere.

"Whiteness is everywhere in U.S. culture, but it is very hard to see. As Richard Dyer suggests, "White power secures it's dominance by seeming not be be anything in particular" As the unmarked category against which difference is constructed, whiteness never has to speak it's name, never has to acknowledge its role as an organizing principle in social and cultural relations. To identify, analyze and oppose the destructive consequences of whiteness, we needs what Walter Benjamin called "presence of mind. Benjamin wrote that people visit fortunetellers less out of a desire to know the future than out of not noticing some important aspect of the present. "Presence of mind" he suggested, "is an abstract of the future, and precise awareness of the present moment more decisive than foreknowledge of the most distant events" In U.S. society at this time, precise awareness of the present moment requires an understanding of the existence and the destructive consequences of the possessive investment in whiteness that surreptitiously shapes so much of our private lives.

From; "The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, How White People Profit From Identity Politics" by George Lipsitz

It's a great essay.

[blogslut]

9. A little bit bigoted, a whole lot ignorant

Despite a personal history with built-in roadblocks, Barack Obama graduated high school, college and law school. He became a community organizer, editor of the Harvard Law Review, a state Senator, a best-selling author and a US Senator. That's a series of accomplishments anyone should be proud of.

[Hekate]

10. It's a Repub talking point, & that's enough. It belittles his accomplishments, but they'd...

... do that to any Dem regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity.

I think that's the analysis or deconstruction you are looking for: a Republican talking-point that belittles the man's accomplishments in every respect. It has about as much actual content as a bumper sticker.

Hekate

[opihimoimoi]

12. Subtle racism is racism still....too bad many Americans cling to the notion that the

best black is still weaker than an a white dude...this is insane kind of thinking

[vaberella]

11. It is bigoted by the usage of "all, has, and Black"...

What it does is racialize his candidacy entirely on his race. "All" and "has" basically are the marginalizing indicators. He's done nothing else in ways of inspiring people, he has not provided anything new or fresh...it says all in all, his entire worth is the fact that he's a Black candidate and nothing more or less. Everything he's said and done has amounted to nothing of importance.


It has bigotry because his race is the deciding factor. This is what has been done to HRC in the media as well and by the RW people, she's worth nothing but the fact she's a woman...this also is exemplified by HRCs own usage the sexism argument.

It's all in all low key bigotry however it was the "all and black" that pulled me in as definitely knowing this is more racially movtivated than anything else.

[quickesst]

13. From the left.......

It is a great step forward in our society, that Barak Obama is the first black nominee for president in history.

From the right: All Barak Obama has accomplished is being the first black nominee for president in history.

With the general election, as with the primaries, it once again depends upon who said it. The left says it, it's lauded as progressive thinking. The right says it, it's condemned as "racist". Spin lives on the left, as it does on the right. The right-wingers are just better at it than we are. Surely, noone here expected any praise along with the obvious statement. I'd say, after the pummeling "Old Man, bat-shit crazy, insane tempered, senilility-ridden McShame" has taken from the left, the talking point both sides are using (first black nominee), isn't something to get that worked up over. If anyone here has to ask if a certain action or statement is "bigoted", then I submit, the action, or statement requires help in becoming bigoted enough to stir those emotions. Much ado about nothing, and a distraction to more important issues. It seems to be working. Thanks.
quickesst

[MH1]

14. I don't think the words are bigoted, yet it is very highly inaccurate, suggesting...

that the speaker may be getting it from bigoted sources, and certainly from biased sources, and doesn't care enough about his or her own credibility to find the facts.

That's what I think of the statement in writing. But I can imagine it being said in a way that "black man" comes out almost like the n-word, in which case I think it would definitely indicate bigotry.

[JerseygirlCT]

15. It suggests that he hasnt' achieved anything at all

which is false.

It also suggests that what he has achieved is only because of his skin color. Again, not true at all.

[treestar]

16. "All" is what shows it is bigoted

Anyone who accomplishes something like being nominated by one of the two major parties has accomplished a great deal. Anyone who has been elected Senator has accomplished a great deal, more than the speaker. Next this speaker will be saying all Obama did was get elected the first black President, as if being elected President were nothing.

All McInsane has accomplished is to be the potentially oldest President ever elected. Well, maybe we can add to that. We can add that he did manage to be the first Combover Presidential Nominee.

[karynnj]

18. The "all" is the problem - for reasons others note - but consider

the person had said "What Obama has already accomplished is being the first black nominee." That would be a compliment and might be what he/she meant. (Even then that implies that Al Smith be remembered with Kennedy as those who broke that glass ceiling for Catholics. I'm hoping Obama will play both the Smith and the Kennedy role.)

Likewise, I think that the years of HRC being considered the inevitable nominee do mark when a woman was first very seriously considered - with few even mentionming then that being a woman would be a problem.

[World Citizen]

19. behind closed doors...

there are millions that wont vote for Obama for racial reasons. They are unreachable. You will never change their minds even if they make their minds available to you, which very few will.