The "post-racial" problem

Mithras thinks Obama’s “post-racial” rhetoric is brilliant politics:

Nearly every presidential election in my lifetime has been won by the campaign which best allayed white people’s fears, and made themselves feel good about themselves. [...]

Feeling good about themselves is what Obama offers white voters. And they don’t have to do much to get that feeling – all they have to do is support him.  The number one applause line in Obama’s speeches is not about the war, not about the economy, not about a new kind of politics – it’s the line about how different people have come together in this movement for change. This is the heart of the “post-racial” appeal, and white voters love it. They see this campaign as a watershed moment in American history, when we reach a milestone that will take the country in a better direction, and leave the past behind. They want to be on the right side of that moment, they want to be present when it happens, they want to help make it happen. All they have to do to claim that they helped is to put a bumper sticker on the car, pull the right lever in November, maybe hit a contribution link online for a few bucks. No legislation, no social spending, no policies or programs, none of the expensive, complicated and contentious stuff they only fitfully and rarely get behind. Just one guy, and poof! Progress, as it says on the poster.

I agree that Obama’s rhetorical strategy has been nothing short of brilliant (and serves as a case study on narrative in politics).  By asking Americans to transcend their racial, cultural and political divisions, and presenting himself as the means through which that is accomplished, Obama has situated himself within the same rhetorical tradition as JFK, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.  If Obama wins the presidency, he will have won it on the strength of his (among other things) expertly crafted and well-honed message.

Electing Obama and placating the anxieties of white people, however, does not actually bring us meaningfully closer to racial and economic justice, and may in fact reinforce the mistaken (but widely-held) view that we are somehow an “equal” society.  It’s already the case that white people underestimate the costs of being black and that a solid majority of white registered voters believe that we have moved past racial problems. If Obama is elected president, I only expect those margins to increase, with white voters believing – not unreasonably – that if a black man can be elected president, then there really isn’t much in America which handicaps black people.

Now, I don’t think Mithras believes that an Obama presidency will bring the magical equality fairy, but I do think he’s giving short-thrift to the not-small possibility that an Obama presidency could complicate the already complicated problem of tackling institutional racism.