Ahhh…The Warm Afterglow…Stop It Now, Please, It’s Making Me Sick!…
Christopher Hitchens proudly wears the label ‘contrarian’, meaning that he grows quite uncomfortable when the crowd is all leaning towards one side of the ship…and the afterglow of Obama’s victory, though he supported the candidate, is making him a bit quesy:
[I]f you think our own press and media are too uncritically adoring, just spend a second or two exposing yourself to the overseas version. On election night, I spent a little time on British and then on Australian television. For expressing a few mild doubts about the new president-elect, I was forcibly reminded in one case that the first 14 (I think it was) presidents of the United States could have owned Barack Obama, and was informed in the second case that just 40 years ago, he would not have been allowed to vote in the election, let alone win it.
Well, as it happens, our new president has no slave ancestry, and neither branch of his parentage could have been owned by anybody, or at least not by anybody American. (Muslim-run slavery, though, is an old story in Africa as well as a horribly contemporary one.) And there were not a few elected black American representatives 40 years ago, even if mainly in Northern states. The objection I make is therefore twofold. First, the election of Obama is the effect not the cause of the changes. (One of my questioners appeared to think that our president-elect had been responsible for the decision in Brown v. Board of Education.) Second, a Republican victory would have had absolutely no effect on the legal or political standing of black Americans, which is a matter of our law and our Constitution and cannot be undone by any ephemeral vote or plebiscite.
The recognition of these obvious points should also alert us to a related danger, which is the cousinhood of euphoria and hysteria. Those who think that they have just voted to legalize Utopia (and I hardly exaggerate when I say this; have you been reading the moist and trusting comments of our commentariat?) are preparing for a disillusionment that I very much doubt they will blame on themselves. The national Treasury is an echoing, empty vault; our Russian and Iranian enemies are acting even more wolfishly even as they sense a repudiation of Bush-Cheney; the lines of jobless and evicted are going to lengthen, and I don’t think a diet of hope is going to cover it. Nor even a diet of audacity, though can you picture anything less audacious than the gray, safety-first figures who have so far been chosen by Obama to be on his team?
…[M]any Obama voters appear to believe that the mere charm and aspect of their new president will act as an emollient influence on these unwelcome facts and these hostile forces. I can’t make myself perform this act of faith, and I won’t put up with any innuendo about my inability to do so.
Anne Applebaum is also a bit uneasy, but she ultimately takes the ‘why fight it’ approach:
Rather faster than I would have expected—sometime around close of play last Wednesday—I began to get a familiar creepy feeling. It was that old “Princess Diana is dead, and the media coverage is too much” sensation. I’m not suggesting that the events of Nov. 5 remotely resembled those of a decade ago last August, but I don’t think I’m revealing much to astute readers if I suggest that something else was mixed in with the legitimate rejoicing at a race barrier broken: a touch, just a touch, of the starry-eyed celebrity worship that, for not entirely rational reasons, attached itself to Princess Diana but not to Prince Charles; to John Paul II and not to Benedict; to Barack Obama but not to Bill Clinton. OK, more than a touch. Whatever it was that made teenage girls faint at the sight of Ringo and Paul at the height of Beatlemania also made adult men and women scream when Obama walked onstage in Chicago.
…If some Americans walked away from their election-night party vowing to improve the world around them, maybe it doesn’t matter that their feelings about him were enhanced by his rock-star presence. If some foreigners are now inspired to work for greater ethnic and racial equality in their own societies, maybe it doesn’t matter that they know more about Obama’s good looks than they do about his health care policy. If it was only celebrity charisma making people weep, as celebrity charisma made people weep for Diana, we’d be in trouble. Besides, there isn’t any other good news out there—which is reason enough, perhaps, to hope that the uplifting effects last at least until the end of next week.
Well, not surprisingly, I take the Hitchens approach here. The election of Barack Obama has not solved anything (though I think it did send an important signal to minorities that the American Dream is open to all). It was historic, of that there is no doubt – but the hard work is all ahead, and none behind…
Fawning is too mild a word. Traveling to Syracuse today I brought along the latest issues of Time and Newsweek to read. Reading the contents of Time upset my stomach so much I threw up in my mouth. Newsweek was better, a bit more even-handed and balanced, but not great.
The election of Obama is, of course, historic, but the over-the-top focus on his skin color as the marker of the dawn of some great new era (Time favorably compares him to Lincoln, FDR, Wilson, & Reagan – all before he’s even been sworn in!) is at best superficial, at worst patently racist in the extreme. For god’s sake, he’s as much a white person as he is an african-american.
To be clear, my issue is with the media, both print & broadcast. I am willingly and happily giving my soon to be newly elected president the benefit of the doubt and all possible best wishes.
I’d take issue with Hitchens’ article just a bit, in that he shifts his criticism toward something that nobody said. Somebody reminded him that the first however-many presidents could have owned Obama, which is true. It doesn’t mean, as Hitchens says shortly thereafter, that Obama has slave ancestry. Only that had he been here then, he would likely have been a slave.
No, its not likely.
There was no slavery in New York, Pennslyvania and the New England states during the time of the first 14 presidents. That is quite a lot of the United States at the time.
Plus, you can count on one hand probably the number of East Africans in American slavery at the time. The slaves came from West Africa.
I am beyond sick and tired of guilt over slavery. None of our holier than thou critics are without sin themselves.
It is not like the British Empire abolished slavery so much earlier than the US. In fact, at the time of the independence of the US, slavery was legal in the British Empire.
Britain had Kenya as a colony 50 years ago. I’m sure the blacks there were treated just like whites.
What are the chances that an Aboriginie in Australia or an Asian in the UK could be prime minister?
We fought the bloodiest war in American history to end slavery. Jim Crow was shameful but we eventually stirred ourselves to end it.
Our overseas critics can go to hell. So can our self-loathing Americans.
Yeah! Those bastards who feel guilt about slavery are horrible! Horrible!
Bob, even for you, that was pretty repulsive. Well done.
“We”, as in people like that Commie, Martin Luther King Jr.
Just as a little reminder, here’s a remembrance of Chicago — the town whose streets would not have been safe for our President-Elect to walk, a mere 40 years ago.
Ryan, why are you guilty about slavery? Was an ancestor a slave trader or something? My ancestors were being whipped by Cossacks when we had slavery in the US. It is was a sad and horrible time but it is long gone and swept away in blood. Its not what we are today and I refuse to feel guilty just because I am white.
Europeans started and prospered from the slave trade, killed for centuries over religious reasons, mistreated milions of natives in colonies, murdered millions of Jews, started two world wars in living memory. Yet, they lecture us for our faults.
Our record stakes up pretty well with the rest of the world. Far better than most.
Again, how many Asians in England or Aboriginies in Australia or muslims in France or Germany are let in the houses of power except to clean?
If Barack Obama wiped his arse on Ryan’s face, Ryan would find some way, not simply to justify the act, but to embrace it enthusiastically. I am encouraged by some of the things Obama is saying and doing, and I am very worried about others–that’s been true of most President-elects in my lifetime. The level of adoration and expectation surrounding Obama, divorced as much of it is from any substantive demonstration, is setting up many of his supporters for a pit of disappoint unlike any witnessed in our recent memory. I’m not sure what the reaction is going to be when he shows himself to be simply another human being–with all the inherent flaws and failings inherent in that particular group. He isn’t going to be waving any magic wand, and so many seem to expect that he will.
Dude, I’m not a European. I’m an American from a lineage that extends about three hundred years. When I lecture you about slavery, which I am not really doing anyway, rest assured that I am pure WASP and make no attempts to apologize for the crimes of Europe. Especially such crimes as continue today in, say, France’s overt persecution of Muslims.
But look, it’s crazy to think that, just because I haven’t owned a slave, the history of slavery hasn’t mattered to my life. I know conservatives think it’s unacceptably postmodern and *liberal* to point this out, but I’m a white guy from a pretty middle class family. I lived in the suburbs, where I went to high school with precisely two black kids (out of 1600), and I got a college education almost entirely paid for by my very good SAT scores. That’s called privilege and I had it in spades. I am not personally guilty for slavery, nor do I think anyone in my family is, but we have benefited through no real fault of our own for crimes committed against generations of black Americans.
So yeah, the sin of slavery has stained me, and I have some duty to make restitution for the blood that bought my privilege. Maybe guilt turns out to be the wrong word for my obligations, and maybe we have done a great deal to rectify the crimes our country committed, but there are things left for us to do. And just because the rest of the Western world is full of hypocrites who are all too eager to find fault in their neighbors doesn’t mean I can absolve my country by pointing fingers back.
Please, OBAMA. Ease Ryan’s angst.
Oh, grow up, DBrooks. I have already made it clear today to several of my liberal friends that, if Obama decides to leave the torture regime in place (as he is sort of signalling), I will be as implacable an enemy of his administration as I have been of the last one. This is a bright line test of basic human decency. If he fails, he will not be my President.
It’s not angst, you twit, it’s justice. I know that’s a foreign concept for Republicans at this point, but you’ll get it if you try real hard.
Sure smells like angst from over here. Whatever he does, Obama will be your President, and mine. If you really believe there is some means of delivering JUSTICE to former slaves, then no wonder you embrace the magic wand.
Also, why in the world is everyone so obsessed with telling me how I feel about Obama? I’m told a few times a day by some idiot conservative or another that I think Obama is the second coming or something. When have I ever said anything that indicates I think that? I have said a lot about how I think he’s a smart, calm guy who is objectively better than the morally reprehensible moron currently running the show and the know-nothing hothead he just defeated, but when have I said I expect miracles out of this guy? And why do conservatives feel the need to pretend I believe things I don’t?
I believe there’s a means of delivering justice to people who still today suffer from the crimes of the past. If you honestly believe slavery and segregation haven’t left deep marks on the black community, or that racism and white privilege aren’t real problems, I have no idea what universe you’re living in.
You need to educate me on why you hold me, and yourself, responsible for things you admit neither you nor anyone in your family are guilty of committing. I am white (Irish heritage, family arrived in Boston in the late 1800’s, my generation, the third since arrival, is the first to attend college) and would defy anyone to describe the environment in which I was raised as “privileged”, does that change your responsibility equation somehow?
Perhaps you weren’t privileged. I don’t know your story. But you can’t honestly believe that the average white person in this country starts at a decided advantage over the average black person (in terms of all sorts of things: family stability, neighborhood safety, school quality, housing opportunities, you name it). And you can’t honestly believe that isn’t a direct result of slavery and segregation. These aren’t nebulous claims that are really open for debate; social science research is pretty conclusive on this issue.
Now, I think we can all agree – because we aren’t idiots – that public policy isn’t perfect. It requires chopping corners a little more than they need to be chopped. Take trade, a favorite of our host here. It is just simply the case that free trade hurts some people through no fault of their own. That’s acceptable because the benefits it provides far outweigh the damage it does to some people. The responsible way to make up for that is to use policy remedies to help those who are hurt – things like job retraining, unemployment insurance, and so on. It’s about doing the best we can.
So yes, I think some remedies for discrimination, segregation, etc are going to necessarily fall on some white people who probably haven’t really benefited from privilege – and they’re going to help some black people who have largely escaped the damage done by slavery and segregation. That’s why I prefer things like affirmative action based on SES rather than race. And it’s why I don’t like to use the word “guilt” when talking about the problems of race. Because it isn’t about guilt and it isn’t about punishment. It’s about fixing the fact that, for the vast majority of people, the color your skin matters pretty substantially to your material well-being.
And that’s true for a whole lot of people who don’t actually bear any blame for the crimes that led us to this point. When I say I don’t hold myself or my family responsible for slavery, that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize that I’ve had a lot of advantages simply because I’m white. I didn’t earn those privileges and I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be willing to use what I have to help people who were born with disadvantages they don’t deserve.
Whoops!
“You can’t honestly believe that the average white person in this country *doesn’t* start…”
That’s what we call a Freudian slip!
Realizing that slavery left wounds in the United States, for both blacks and whites, is not the same thing as believing JUSTICE can be achieved for those who suffered directly. Or indirectly, for that matter. I still think that what you are describing is punishment and angst relief, and I think it focuses on negatives rather than, what are today, obvious positives.
You might be right. I won’t deny that this country has made enormous strides toward racial equality. I think a lot of it has come from government action and so-called “activist” judges and all of that, but I think you’re at least right that we have come a long way. I also think there’s a tendency to believe that we can just be done, that there are no lingering wounds, that affirmative action of some kind is unnecessary, and so on. And that’s just not the case.
I think conservatives, in their more inspired moments, have made valuable contributions to ideas about racial *politics*. A politics of resentment and, as you say, punishment is basically useless. It heals nothing. Which is why we need more creative solutions (and things like, as I mentioned, SES-based affirmative action). I think the first step to creating those solutions is recognizing that problems persist and that everyone needs to pitch in without trying to assess who was responsible for what. Trying to pin blame is obviously not the way to solve things.
All that said, I think a lot of us are trying to focus on obvious positives. A black guy just got elected President and a whole lot of people are positively elated about what that means for America. But I think you’ll note that it’s folks like Christopher Hitchens who seem to think being excited about the racial progress this represents makes us bad people.
No, no, what Hitchens objected to is the idea that to be even remotely critical of Obama, or even skeptical, makes one somehow on the wrong side of the racial justice equation.
There is no one who writes for this blog (ahem, me) or who reads it (ahem, you) who has worked harder or written more eloquently for the oppressed than Hitchens, I would wager. Don’t misinterpret what he is saying. He is saying that the election of Obama is the effect of the racial progress we have made, not the cause of it.
In other words, too many are celebrating Obama as the deliverer, rather than the delivered…
The power to fix whatever residual effect there may be from slavery rests with individuals, as does the obligation. Can we, as a society, help in some ways? Yes, by making sure there is an equal opportunity to succeed. But society cannot fix the fact that some kid, born into poverty, to poorly educated, too-young parents, will simply have to do the best for himself through hard work and by making smart choices, regardless of his skin color, ethnicity, and ancestry.
To whom, or what, do the Obama children owe their privileged upbringing? Hold on, I’ll answer that: the drive, motivation, and efforts of Barack and Michelle, no more, no less.
Mark: do you think that federal money should be used to bail out GM and Ford?
Good question: you read my mind! That’s worth a post, not a comment…coming up shortly…
I’m giving Steve and anyone else who wants it the last word. I think this has been a pretty valuable discussion, though. It’s one of the things I like best about coming here.
Ditto the last two sentences! All the more reason Mr. Mark needs to keep this puppy going – even if a name change is needed.
Listen after all of this, I think its important to just note that the American people as a whole has made a great gesture towards something. At least the majority of us voted in favor of at least trying to overcome some attitudes and “normalities” that have been so engrained in our culture. After the election, I got text messages from friends who were suffice it to say upset about the outcome of the election but that doesn’t mean that racist words and jokes are funny again. Here’s a classic: “Attn: ALL WHITE PEOPLE. PLEASE REPORT TO THE COTTON FIELDS AT 6AM FOR ORIENTATION -Obama 08″ Proof that this kind of discrimination still exists. (a little off topic) I saw Cadillac Records at a press screening recently and it is almost impossible to ignore the parallels in social atmospheres of today and the 50’s. The movie is about the creation of Chess Records in Chicago with artists like Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, and Etta James that helped bring African American culture into the public sphere. (come out Dec 5). The issue is not that we’ve voted for a black man, but that we’ve voted in the majority and with such excitement.