Obama and
America's Problem with "Race Fatigue"
by Mel Reeves
"Obama
is the rare black man who has won Will's heart."
Sometimes as Black people we get a better idea of what Black
leaders are about, by listening to what our enemies have to say about them.
Enter George F. Will, conservative columnist for the Washington Post.
On the next to last day of 2007, Will penned a column
entitled, "Misreading
Obama's Identity." The Miami Herald reprinted it, titling the piece,
"Obama; Dealing with Race fatigue." The Herald's title was more
enlightening.
While many black people are confused about who and what
Barack Obama represents, yet see him as the "hope" that he writes and talks so
much about, the exceedingly white George F. Will is certain he knows the man.
To Will and his ilk, Obama represents the hope that this one Negro will absolve
white guilt, or he at least won't ask anyone, or any entity ( government) to
take responsibility for racism. Though he is black, Obama reassures America and
its rulers that race is no longer an issue.
"He represents
radical autonomy" explains Will. Reading between the lines, he's saying that
Obama is one of "them," but he is not beholden to "them." According to Will,
"He [Obama] has chosen his racial identity, but chosen not to make it matter
much."
"George F. Will contends
that Obama's candidacy will actually free America from having to deal with
race."
Will argues with his fellow conservative, Shelby Steele, who
contends in his book, A Bound Man: Why We are Excited about Obama and Why He
Can't Win, that Obama can't win, because his candidacy asks America to
complete its maturation as a society free from the constraints of race. While
lauding Steele as "America's foremost black intellectual," the bow-tied
right-winger contends that Obama's candidacy will actually free America from
having to deal with race. Will describes Obama as "a model of blacks'
possibilities when they are emancipated from ideologies of blackness." So,
according to Will, being "black" is an ideological choice.
George F. Will imagines himself an "Emancipator" of blacks
from themselves - an insane proposition. We don't oppress ourselves, or choose
to be discriminated against. We didn't make up our history, or the countless
socio-economic indicators of the legacy of that history.
There is no such thing as an ideology of blackness. Even
Negroes who don't want to be Negroes but have black skin, nevertheless are
confronted at some point, with the fact that they are black. Even Tiger Woods
gets reminded occasionally that he is black, -- which is why a sportscaster
could say that his black behind should be "lynched
in a back alley." Even Obama has
had his "experiences." He can run, but his skin won't let him hide.
According to Will, Obama's success refutes the theory of
"social determinism" which, in Will's twisted mind, is the idea that "blacks
are comprehensively and systematically held back by an oppression that is
prevalent even - perhaps especially - when not apparent."
In other words, blacks are making it up. We have come
through what some are calling the post-civil rights era and have "made it."
Therefore, any complaints about job discrimination, glass ceilings, poor
schools, redlining, racial profiling, individual racist attacks, daily slights
are just figments of our imaginations.
"We don't oppress ourselves,
or choose to be discriminated against."
The truth be told, the supposedly "intellectual" Wills
sounds just like the sophomoric and smug whites we meet in the workplace and on
the internet, who accuse blacks of complaining for no reason and point to middle
and upper class black progress as evidence that blacks no longer have reason to
gripe. "Quit your whining," they say. "I mean, you guys have Condoleezza Rice,
Tiger Woods and now Barack Obama. What else do you want. I don't see no
racism," they declare with absolute confidence - while themselves committing
daily acts of petty racism and exclusion.
George F. Will, diagnosing himself and his fellow
dull-witted bigots, says America is suffering from "race fatigue" - the "I
don't want to hear about it" disease. So "sick and tired" are those whites
afflicted with "race fatigue," I think if some of them would shoot Jesse
Jackson and Al Sharpton if they thought they could get away with it.
But Obama is different than the blacks who so callously
burden whites with constant complaints, says Will. "Obama seems to understand
America's race fatigue." Obama understands "the unbearable boredom occasioned
by today's stale politics generally and the perfunctory politics theatrics of
race especially." Obama is the rare
black man who has won Will's heart - a guy who tiptoes through electoral
politics so well that enemies like George F. believe he is harmless on the
racial front.
Will knows nothing about blacks, but he is quite familiar
with many of his own people's deluded complaints, which he eagerly shares with
the world. Ironically, his praise of Obama is at the same time a curse, better
not said out loud, lest it make African Americans rethink the actual effects on
whites of Obama's public performances.
Mel Reeves is a journalist/activist living in
Miami, Florida. He can be contacted at mellaneous19@yahoo.com.
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