Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T11:55:05.205Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

BARACK IS THE NEW BLACK

Obama and the Promise/Threat of the Post–Civil Rights Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

Richard Thompson Ford
Richard Thompson Ford*
Affiliation:
Stanford UniversityLaw School
*
Professor Richard Thompson Ford, Law School, Stanford University, Crown Quad, Room 323, Stanford, CA 94305. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Barack Obama's political strategies during the 2008 presidential election were those of a cohort of younger, new Black politicians, who have rewritten the playbook by which Blacks can win election. Their success suggests that White racism is no longer the insuperable barrier to Black success that it has been for all of American history and that the old style of Black politics, which relied heavily on racial bloc voting and influence peddling within the Black community, may be obsolete. However, Obama's strategy of not appealing to narrow racial solidarities but instead of drawing broad support from voters of all races cast a shadow of doubt on Obama's racial loyalties. It remains unclear whether the Obama phenomenon will mark the renewal of civil rights or the repudiation of its historical commitment to the most disadvantaged.

Keywords

Barack ObamaPostracialRacial DivisionsCivil RightsBlack Underclass
Type
STATE OF THE DISCOURSE
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , Spring 2009 , pp. 37 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cosby, Bill (2004). Remarks at the NAACP's 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education Supreme Court Decision, Washington, DC, May 17.Google Scholar
Dickerson, Debra J. (2007). Colorblind Barack Obama Would Be the Great Black Hope in the Next Presidential Race—If He Were Actually Black. Salon, January 22. ⟨http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/01/22/obama/⟩ (accessed March 5, 2009).Google Scholar
Elder, Larry (2008). Obama or Not, Racial Blame Game Will Endure. Torrance (CA) Daily Breeze, April 12. ⟨http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_8905866⟩ (accessed March 5, 2009).Google Scholar
Frazier, E. Franklin (1957). Black Bourgeoisie. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
Glazer, Nathan (1975). Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic Inequality and Public Policy. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Glazer, Nathan (1998). In Defense of Preference. New Republic, April 6, pp. 18–25.Google Scholar
Keyes, Alan (2004). Interview by George Stephanopoulos. This Week, ABC, August 29.Google Scholar
Kukathas, Chadran (1992). Are There Any Cultural Rights? Political Theory, 20(1): 105–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, Toni (1998) Talk of the Town, Comment. New Yorker, October 5, pp. 30–32.Google Scholar
Raab, Scott (2008). The Battle of Newark, Starring Cory Booker. Esquire, July. ⟨http://www.esquire.com/features/cory-booker-0708?click=main_sr⟩ (accessed April 2, 2009).Google Scholar
Ridley, John (2006). Manifesto for the Ascendancy of the American Nigger. Esquire, November. ⟨http://www.esquire.com/features/essay/ESQ1206BLACKESSAY_108?click=main_sr⟩ (accessed April 2, 2009).Google Scholar
Rimer, Sara and Arenson, Karen W. (2004). Top Colleges Take More Blacks, But Which Ones? New York Times, June 24.Google Scholar
Sheppard, Marc (2007). Obama, Lincoln and the Reformation of Black History. American Thinker, February 15. ⟨http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/02/obama_lincoln_and_the_reformat.html⟩ (accessed March 5, 2009).Google Scholar
Steinem, Gloria (2008). Women Are Never Front-Runners. New York Times, January 8. ⟨http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/opinion/08steinem.html⟩ (accessed March 5, 2009).Google Scholar
Young, Andrew (2007). Interview with Andrew Young/ATL Mayor. Newsmakerslive.com, December 7. ⟨http://newsmakerslive.com/young.html⟩ (accessed March 11, 2009).Google Scholar