by Henry D. RoseThe summer of 2009 provided plenty of racist reruns from the past, plus scary glimpses into the future. The future “reserved for us by our enemies” is “a place where civility masks oppression, where everything is fine as long as people don’t call Blacks nasty names,” and where “even the perception of radical Blackness is punishable by eternal banishment.”
The Two-Faced Power of Racial Oppression
by Henry D. Rose
“The First Black President pretends that getting slapped around is a sign of progress, a demonstration of the new way to be a Black man.”
It should be January, the month when the past and future year touch. January was named after Janus, the Greek god of doorways and paths whose dual face gazed backwards and forwards simultaneously. That two-faced gaze represented looking at the past and future while standing in the present. It should be January because this is a treacherous two-faced time in America, a time when individual Blacks can reach the pinnacles of power while the masses of Blacks are immersed in ever deepening misery, a time that deserves a two-faced god.
The President is being attacked as radical/nationalist/communist at the same time that he does all in his power to denounce and purge Black radicalism from political discourse. The mass of Black people are committed to the president in part because he is the victim of racialized attacks, in part because after being in the political wilderness under Bush it feels a lot better being in the mix, and in part because Obama is the first Black person to reach such heights. Yet too many Blacks seem impervious to the fact that Obama has no plan, program, or policy directed to help alleviate the systemic social contradictions that Blacks face.
For his part, Obama has proven to be a political contortionist with a level of flexibility and dexterity that is amazing for a vertebrate. His contortions reflect the impact of racialized oppression on U.S. politics. Late summer 2009 served as a clinic on the durability of racial oppression. In this spectacle, we glimpse both the racial past and future. The continued use of racial imagery to attack Obama’s health care legislation, Green Jobs Czar Van Jones’s banishment to the hinterlands, and the virulent reaction to ex-President Carter’s saying racism plays a role in the attacks on Obama, shows that the forces of racial reaction still rule the roost.
“Late summer 2009 served as a clinic on the durability of racial oppression.”
Obama makes himself a willing victim of racialized attacks on his health care proposals. There is nothing radical about his health plan. The hatred he faces, the harsh words, the inability to prove himself sufficiently “American” to satisfy the white Right, are all very much of the racial past. The Right's political operation is crude and blunt, appealing to the base instincts of white power advocates recently out-of-the-cave. They crave red meat and Barack looks like a wobbly reindeer on the frozen tundra. He let these people slap him around for months while he attempted to placate them with beers on the White House lawn, danced a jig about addressing school kids, and said nothing as they accused him of wanting to kill old white folks.
The pit bulls (some with lipstick on) have scented blood and will not be satisfied until they have gorged themselves. And Obama, for all of his uplifting rhetoric, is afraid to take a swing. He just stands there, absorbing the blows. Worst of all, the First Black President pretends that getting slapped around is a sign of progress, a demonstration of the new way to be a Black man. Where I come from, that's called being a chump and a sucker.
Van Jones was the Obama team's most notable progressive appointment. In an administration littered with unremarkable, “make no waves” bureaucrats, Jones stood out as a “movement” person. He was the guy that many progressives looked to as proof that Barack has a left agenda. Obama knew who he was hiring. Any political operator with an ounce of savvy could have predicted that Jones would be attacked by the anti-left, anti-Black, anti-climate change, pro-business denizens of the Right. Obama, himself a notorious centrist, would consider Jones' politics “divisive.” But he hired the young activist anyway, only to leave him on the side of the road at the first sign of trouble. The episode says a great deal about the Administration's moral character. Even the perception of radical Blackness is punishable by eternal banishment.
“Welcome to a place and time where racial oppression is limited to words, not deeds, and intent is given more weight than effect.”
When former US President Jimmy Carter said that racism was a factor in the harsh and disrespectful treatment of the president, the white world shuddered. Pundits branded Carter an idiot. Obama's people distanced themselves from the former president like he had the swine flu. They didn't like Carter's tone, which is always more important than substance in Obama's circles. They refuse to discuss the racial wealth gap, the education gap, the power gap, unless it is done in a way that Black people seem culpable. Their version of the “new America” treats claims of racism as worse than perpetuating racism. And any claim must be able to prove intent. What happens in the perpetrator's heart is deemed more important than the actual impact of his acts, or the ultimate racial outcomes that result from lifetimes of impacts.
Obama is in the web, both spinner and spun, unable to protect his people, his friends, his family (note the attacks on his daughters and wife), or even himself from racialized attacks. This is the future that our enemies have reserved for Black people. A place where silence is the norm, where civility masks oppression, where everything is fine as long as people don’t call Blacks nasty names. Where racial oppression is limited to words, not deeds, and intent is given more weight than effect. In this new world, the victims of racial oppression are obligated to provide cover for the perpetrators.
Welcome to forever January, a two-faced time.
Henry D. Rose is currently the statewide coordinator for the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance. Mr. Rose was lead organizer for SEIU 1199 New Jersey. He is chair and founder of Blacks for Social Justice, the publisher of Chin Check newsletter, and a member of People’s Organization for Progress. Mr. Rose cofounded Genesis Shule (a community school in Newark).
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