DEMOS

Trevor Phillips has once again demonstrated his unwavering ability to make a statement and cause a media flurry. In the latest edition of Prospect, he discusses conservative academic Shelby Steele’s thesis on why Barack cannot win the presidential election. Essentially Trevor/Shelby’s argument is that Barack can’t win because he represents the false promise that America has reconciled its’ racial divides. By positing himself as a unifier, he papers over the real divisions that exist. He can only satisfy one group by disappointing the other, and therefore his candidacy is doomed. It’s an interesting article, much more sophisticated than the newspaper reports suggest.

It goes to the heart of what is the most interesting aspect of Barack’s nomination; what would his presidency mean for the life chances of Black America? The earlier debate across the pond as to whether Barack is ‘black’, was not primarily about genetics or what it means to be black in modern America, it was about Barack’s perceived loyalty to his African-American base. As rapper Mos Def and Professor Cornell West, discuss in this interview with Bill Maher, Barack’s skin colour (obviously) isn’t enough to guarantee support, black America wants to know which side of the fence he’ll come down on over issues where there is a clear difference in perceptions of fairness which divides along racial lines e.g. Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans. Having read Barack’s excellent first book, I think Barack is only too aware of the institutional, economic and social inequalities faced by African-Americans, but as Trevor rightly points out Barack has been too shrewd a political operator to get caught out by emphasizing this in his campaign. But I think Trevor’s accusation of cynicism is unfair, as far as I’m aware Barack has never posited himself as a post-racial candidate. Those proclamations have originated more from the American mainstream (white?) media that is itself uncomfortable with the very real implications that lies behind identity politics, so much so it tries to nullify them.

Barack cannot be faulted for running a shrewd campaign that uses a popular (white?) conceit to his advantage. Barack is neither a ‘bargainer’ nor a ‘challenger’, to use Shelby’s categorization, he has not said enough on the issue to be either. And in the end, I think he’ll prove to be neither. Barack is too smart to forget the real struggle to be black in America and that the struggle isn’t all there is to being black in America. Likewise black America itself isn’t stupid. It has been through enough to know Barack isn’t a messiah who will solve their problems. A President Obama and black America’s success will depend not on whether he disappoints people or not, it will depend on what issues he chooses to disappoint which people on, and to what extent.

But then, isn’t that the test of any President?