African American Studies Week 4

Blog Prompt: The candidacy and later, election of President Obama as the first black president of the United States has generated an extensive academic and news media discussions about the significance of the race in America today. Some individuals and groups argue that the election of Obama signifies that America is beyond race, while others suggest that, if anything, it has created an even deeper racial division. Based on the article, “Barack Obama and the Politics of Blackness,” your own independent sources, and the discussions surrounding the 2016 election campaign, discuss the extent to which the election of President Obama represents a sign of post-racial America, or a further ethnic and racial division. Please make sure to provide examples and illustrations from the assigned reading and your own independent sources.

According to Barack Obama and the Politics of Blackness by Ron Walters there was a controversy over Obama’s “blackness”. One of the arguments, by Debra Dickerson, is based around the idea that the term “Black” refers to people of slave descent — and willing immigrants from Africa are not “Black” (Walters pg. 9). Dickerson claims that by embracing Obama you are not embracing the the black man, and instead you are replacing the black man with an immigrant. She claims that lumping all Blacks together gets rid of the significance of slavery. This goes back to a previous paper that we read that stated that a disproportionate number of Blacks in colleges in the United States are foreign born. 13% of Blacks are foreign born, while 35% of Black students at elite universities are foreign born (Kent pg. 8). This difference is strengthening the point of view of Dickerson and others who hold her views.

There have obviously been many counterarguments to this — such as the basic question what does “not black enough” even mean? However, according to Walters this type of criticism is unsophisticated and views blackness as just skin color bound by biology. Walters says there are, in fact, different kinds of Blacks in America. Going back to the difference in Africans vs African Americans in colleges, Affirmative Action programs have a moral dilemma because Africans can “stand in” for African Americans for the purpose of the quotas. Because of these points, Walters partially agrees with Dickerson. However, he thinks that Dickerson’s view is too narrow.

Walters claims that it is legitimate for Black Americans to raise questions about blackness because it is a core concept that helps define Black cultural experience. The reason that so many people questioned Obama’s blackness was because he had a white mother, lived in Indonesia, and thus was missing cultural markers that many African Americans were familiar with.

Not only is Obama’s “blackness” being questioned, but also many events throughout his presidency have been unique to him, in my opinion, being Black. During a speech a GOP representative yelled “You lie!” to Obama. This has never been done before. This and the current fact that Senator Grassley is refusing to hold hearings for the new judge to be appointed by President Obama are both unprecedented. From these events to some members of the general public saying that he was only elected because he got the black vote, there is struggle, some would claim, specifically because he is Black.

Because of all the points that I have mentioned so far there is strong evidence for a further ethnic and racial division. An example of division from this course is Africans, African Americans, and Caribbean Blacks. This goes further, even down to within countries in Africa. The panel discussion earlier this year described how different cultures even within each African country were. However, while this might be true, according to Walters all blacks have a shared experience — oppression and racism. This was seen above in the section about the events that have happened during Obama’s presidency.

America is not post racial. It cannot be when there are such stark differences between the races on a few key issues. In an examination of police killings African Americans have a significantly higher ratio of deaths than that of white Americans.

Not only this, but the incarceration rate of Black males is extremely higher than that of White males or even Hispanic males.

There is too much evidence of racism, either explicit or implicit, for a post racial America to be a reality right now. Not only are divisions among Blacks becoming more apparent, but there is obviously still institutionalized racism rampant in America.

Overall this section of the course has opened my eyes to the ongoing issues surrounding African American studies, and this course has taught me a lot about Afrocentricism and the diversity in Africa. The group project taught me a lot about affirmative action as well. I have enjoyed this course and learned a lot.

References

• Kent, Mary M. (2007). Immigration and America’s Black Population. Population Bulletin, Vol. 64(4), pp. 1–16.
• Walters, Ron. (2007). Barack Obama and the Politics of Blackness. Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 38(1), pp. 7–29.