[lbo-talk] Staples: Why Obama always appears calm

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Mon Sep 22 03:42:32 PDT 2008


[Although perhaps in a time of catastrophe and hysteria, calmness will look attractive.]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/opinion/22observer.html

The New York Times

September 22, 2008

Editorial Observer

Barack Obama, John McCain and the Language of Race

By BRENT STAPLES

It was not that long ago that black people in the Deep South could be

beaten or killed for seeking the right to vote, talking back to the

wrong white man or failing to give way on the sidewalk. People of color

who violated these and other proscriptions could be designated "uppity

n-words" and subjected to acts of violence and intimidation that were

meant to dissuade others from following their examples.

The term "uppity" was applied to affluent black people, who sometimes

paid a horrific price for owning nicer homes, cars or more successful

businesses than whites. Race-based wealth envy was a common trigger for

burnings, lynchings and cataclysmic episodes of violence like the Tulsa

race riot of 1921, in which a white mob nearly eradicated the

prosperous black community of Greenwood.

Forms of eloquence and assertiveness that were viewed as laudable among

whites were seen as positively mutinous when practiced by people of

color. As such, black men and women who looked white people squarely in

the eye -- and argued with them about things that mattered -- were

declared a threat to the racial order and persecuted whenever possible.

This obsession with black subservience was based in nostalgia for

slavery. No sane person would openly express such a sentiment today.

But the discomfort with certain forms of black assertiveness is too

deeply rooted in the national psyche -- and the national language -- to

just disappear. It has been a persistent theme in the public discourse

since Barack Obama became a plausible candidate for the presidency.

A blatant example surfaced earlier this month, when a Georgia

Republican, Representative Lynn Westmoreland, described the Obamas as

"uppity" in response to a reporter's question. Mr. Westmoreland, who

actually stood by the term when given a chance to retreat, later tried

to excuse himself by saying that the dictionary definition carried no

racial meaning. That seems implausible. Mr. Westmoreland is from the

South, where the vernacular meaning of the word has always been clear.

The Jim Crow South institutionalized racial paternalism in its

newspapers, which typically denied black adults the courtesy titles of

Mr. and Mrs. -- and reduced them to children by calling them by first

names only. Representative Geoff Davis, Republican of Kentucky,

succumbed to the old language earlier this year when describing what he

viewed as Mr. Obama's lack of preparedness to handle nuclear policy.

"That boy's finger does not need to be on the button," he said.

In the Old South, black men and women who were competent, confident

speakers on matters of importance were termed "disrespectful," the

implication being that all good Negroes bowed, scraped, grinned and

deferred to their white betters.

In what is probably a harbinger of things to come, the McCain campaign

has already run a commercial that carries a similar intimation,

accusing Mr. Obama of being "disrespectful" to Sarah Palin. The

argument is muted, but its racial antecedents are very clear.

The throwback references that have surfaced in the campaign suggest

that Republicans are fighting on racial grounds, even when express

references to race are not evident. In a replay of elections past, the

G.O.P. will try to leverage racial ghosts and fears without getting its

hands visibly dirty. The Democrats try to parry in customary ways.

Mr. Obama seems to understand that he is always an utterance away from

a statement -- or a phrase -- that could transform him in a campaign ad

from the affable, rational and racially ambiguous candidate into the

archetypical angry black man who scares off the white vote. His caution

is evident from the way he sifts and searches the language as he

speaks, stepping around words that might push him into the danger zone.

These maneuvers are often painful to watch. The troubling part is that

they are necessary.



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