[lbo-talk] Obamauration

Sheldon Baker humanist.observer at gmail.com
Thu Jan 22 10:02:57 PST 2009


On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 10:07 AM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> The _center_ of racial politics in the U.S. today is the debate over
> "responsility" re poor Blacks. The material grounds of that debate is
> the extreme povety of blacks in the central cities. As long as those
> continue there will be no substantial change in racial attitudes.

A few days or weeks after the Obama election victory I was listening to one of the right-wing talks shows, Dennis Prager I think. Anywhoo...he argued that Obama's victory is ample evidence that the U.S. is no longer "a racist nation" and that this removes the "excuse of victimhood" for blacks who don't succeed. He might have even written this all down in a column at Townhall.com if you care to look.

So it looks as though the ideological usefulness of Obama's presidency can cut both ways. Seems as though its going to be a variation of one of those rags to riches stories we always hear. "If this self-made man could go from nothing to being a millionaire, anybody could do it if they simply have the will and work hard, and if you don't, then you are a loser....."

On the other hand, the Obama presidency does signal that some segments of the white population are less racist than they used to be. This would seem to be undeniable, yet structural and institutional racism persists.



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