Has Obama Made It Harder To Talk About Race In America?
Posted by Michelle Moquin on March 24th, 2012
Good morning!
Perusing the net, the title of this article from the Washington Post caught my eye. I read the first paragraph (the last sentence raised an eyebrow) and when I got to the end of the second one, I thought, “Yep, that’s sounds like something that would be said”. Then I read the third paragraph and my first thought was, “That is no best friend – she is clueless”.
The first black president has made it harder to talk about race in America
By Reniqua Allen, Published: March 23
A few weeks ago, I was standing outside a posh bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with my friends of almost two decades. I made an offhanded comment about the ratio of blonde-haired-blue-eyed chicks to brown girls like me. It seemed like a zillion to one. My pals, who are white, didn’t get why I was bringing this up. “No one cares about race except you,” one said.
I tried to explain my frustration with having to always choose between an all-black experience or being the “only one,” whether at work, in grad school or even out for a night in New York. I waited for a nod of sympathy; instead, my best friend threw her hands up and said: “How can we all be racist? Look at who is president!”
I didn’t have a response.
Right now the nation has embarked on a massive conversation about race surrounding the tragic death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida. On Friday, President Obama weighed in. “I think all of us have to do some soul searching to figure out: How does something like this happen?” he said.
It’s an important conversation to have — but I fear it won’t lead anywhere. After all, we’ve seen plenty of these debates in recent years, invariably prompted by some tragedy or controversy. Think Troy Davis. Or Shirley Sherrod. Or Jeremiah Wright. Or Henry Louis Gates Jr. Or even Rodney King. We have big debates over racial prejudice and disparities in this country, and then nothing happens.
I thought things would be different by now. The Trayvon Martin story flared up exactly four years after Obama’s famous campaign speech on race in Philadelphia, a speech that made so many of us believe that Obama would launch a serious, enduring dialogue. But the election of the first black president hasn’t made it easier to talk about race in America. It’s made it harder.
Obama’s measured words on Friday only highlighted how removed the president seems from the candidate who gave that stirring speech on race four years ago. Obama was asked directly about “allegations of lingering racism in our society,” but he shied away. He rightly used caution in talking about a case that the Justice Department is investigating, and he offered a moving sentiment for Martin’s parents, saying, “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.” But he hasn’t grappled with this tragedy, or with racial disparities and divisions, along with us, guiding us in a way that only he can — as the commander in chief, as a lawyer, as a community leader and as a black man.
The Obama presidency is “post-racial” only in the sense that it gives us an excuse not to grapple with race anymore.
As I sat at my desk in a newsroom four years ago, Obama’s speech captivated me. Here was a politician who embraced his biracial heritage but also understood how tough it can be to navigate 21st-century America as a black person. A man who lived multiculturalism as much in his private life as his public life and could relate to what it was like to have someone who loved him dearly — his white grandmother — make comments about race that made him cringe.
I understood that this was a speech made out of political necessity, in response to the controversy surrounding Wright, his onetime minister. Obama didn’t make any bold proposals or even outline policies for his White House, as John F. Kennedy did when talking about religion almost 50years prior. Yet he genuinely seemed to want us to grapple with race — to talk about it.
“The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through — a part of our union that we have yet to perfect,” he said.
Once Obama became president, I thought he might be able to somehow help us break through the status quo of awkwardness and silence on race. And I wanted to see him tackle racial inequalities through federal policy, making the system more equitable and fair for Americans of all colors.
But the memory of the speech that day is a reminder of how little the conversation has changed. Less than a year after Obama was elected, Gates, a Harvard professor, was arrested trying to break into his own home, creating a firestorm over racial profiling. The following year, Sherrod was fired from the Department of Agriculture after an edited video misconstrued her comments about her work with a white farmer, depicting her as racist. In 2010, a black congressman claimed that a tea party protester spit on himand shouted racial epithets during a political rally. More recently, we’ve witnessed racially insensitive rhetoric surrounding the rise of Taiwanese American basketball player Jeremy Lin. And of course now the Martin tragedy.
Four years ago, Obama said some people had implied that his candidacy was “somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap.” He dismissed that notion. But the idea — of racial reconciliation on the cheap, with deep divides still prevalent — reflects what I feel in my professional and personal life.
I have encountered many people who seem to believe, subconsciously or not, that Obama’s win is proof that America has reached the mountaintop. What more is there to say about race, they ask me, after this country so proudly and overwhelmingly elected a black president? They cite success stories as disparate as Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z and former Time Warner chief Dick Parsons. But Oprah’s billions don’t counteract the dire poverty and unemployment rates in the black community.
Even the most well-intentioned white people, who fundamentally understand the challenges of race in America, often can’t understand why race, as a subject to wrestle with, can never be “over.” They can’t understand what it’s like to walk down the street and have someone fear you just because of your race. Or to go to your doctor’s office after-hours to pick something up and have someone think you’re the maid. Or to have someone give you a virtual pat on the head for being “articulate.”
And they certainly won’t admit that thugged-out guys scare them. Or that if they saw a young black man in a hoodie walking in their neighborhood, like Martin was in his father’s neighborhood outside Orlando last month, they wouldn’t call 911 but they might cross the street.
Just as no well-intentioned person would ever admit those things, no one wants to admit that Obama’s election has changed the way we talk about race. But he’s the elephant in the room peering over so many discussions. His election is part of the reason that blacks, especially those who have “made it,” are hesitant to talk about persistent racial inequality. We don’t want to be accused of whining or being angry for bringing up a problem that many people think is now relegated to history. After all, if Obama could do it, so can any black man, right?
I’ll be the first to admit that I struggle with starting these conversations myself when I have personally seen so much progress from my grandparents’ generation to my own. But there is still so much to talk about.
How do I articulate that it’s harder for me to find jobs with a “ghetto sounding” name, when a man with a “funny sounding” name holds the highest office in the land?
How do I explain how it feels to have almost every accomplishment that I’ve ever achieved be attributed to affirmative action? Most recently, a white PhD student in my program told me that I would sail through graduate school and land a wonderful gig, despite the difficult job climate, because of the “black thing.”
Or how can I not think of redlining’s impact when I, with my good credit and sizable down payment, receive notification that I, too, had been a victim of a discriminatory lender when I bought my condo?
It would be unreasonable to ask the president to spend most of his time talking about race. I don’t need him to attack former House speaker Newt Gingrich every time he calls Obama the “food stamp president.” But with the recession’s disproportionate impact on black Americans, the spirited immigration debate and the Occupy movement’s focus on economic inequality, I am convinced that now is a good time to talk about race. Even if we are tired of it. (A 2010 Blair-Rockefeller Poll found that 56 percent of whites said we talk about race too much, compared with 18.2 percent of blacks.)
Billy Vaughn, a diversity expert who trains Fortune 500 and federal employees on how to become more culturally competent, said that Americans think they’re “open and tolerant” — but no one knows the best way to be open and tolerant. He said minorities tend to be more comfortable talking about race because they’re exposed to discussions about it in their communities, but this doesn’t mean that they understand how to engage in those tough conversations any better than other groups.
“People of color are saying that ‘I want you to get it,’ and the privileged people are saying that ‘I’m not doing it.’ . . . The whole conversation can get out of hand because people are talking past each other,” Vaughn said.
And the president has not really continued the conversation. He seems to speak about race only when absolutely necessary. That’s disappointing. We need more than a beer summit to hash out the very real problems that he talked about just four years ago.
And Obama knows it. In a 2010 address to the National Urban League during the Sherrod controversy, he noted that while progress has been made on promoting fairness and equality, there is still “work to do.”
“We should all make more of an effort to discuss with one another, in a truthful and mature and responsible way, the divides that still exist — the discrimination that’s still out there, the prejudices that still hold us back. A discussion that needs to take place not on cable TV, not just through a bunch of academic symposia or fancy commissions or panels, not through political posturing, but around kitchen tables, and water coolers, and church basements, and in our schools, and with our kids all across the country,” Obama said.
He’s right, of course. That speech, more than the sweeping address in Philadelphia, offers the kind of insight that could lead to real change. Because kitchen tables, water coolers or bars in New York City are where real racial progress can be achieved in America. And that’s where I thought having Obama in the White House might make a bigger difference.
*******
Reniqua: I do HOPE that you are here reading, because this is a venue that talks about race and racism all of the time. I invite you to join us where you will be heard and supported. Here, you’ll meet some real friends who will not shun your concerns, who truly care…people who are living in the real world.
I, for one, hear you.
Don’t give up on Obama. He is not removed from the candidate he was 4 years ago when he gave that stirring speech in Philadelphia. In my opinion, Obama being in the White House has made it easier to talk about race in America. Well…perhaps easier is not the correct word, but more conversations are certainly inspired and surfacing because he is the president.
I HOPE you don’t mind me saying that I believe you’re just hanging out with a crowd that uses the excuse that racism isn’t that bad because “Hey, how can we all be racist? Look at who is president!” (Stick around and read here, you’ll find plenty of responses :) Your best friend seems to be part of the one third group of white America who isn’t racist but stands around and doesn’t do anything to combat racism. I’ve heard people say similar words before as well. They’re just washing their hands like racism isn’t a big problem, brushing it under the table like it racism is not that big of a deal.
Racism is a big deal. It does exist and has always existed. I realize I am not telling you something you don’t already know; just making a statement. Racism has always raised its ugly head, but now with Obama as president, people are talking about it more. And because of his presidency it has brought out racism in people in the worst way. Just turn on any news channel and you’ll experience how racism is running rampant…anything is said, and everything is done to prevent “that black man” from becoming a two-term president. True colors are shining brightly. And as much as what is said and done is disgusting, I’d rather know the truth, than not know. It gives me fuel for the fire to combat racism.
Stick with your gut. You thought right about Obama. He is making a difference. And when he is president for his second term, nothing he can’t say or do now, will be held back. Plan on the conversation changing big time. Plan on some kick-ass action. We will all see just how much of a difference he will continue to make.
I, for one, am committed to making sure that happens.
Lastly, you stated it yourself on your website:
“… the people,that have the power to make change, even if they dont always know it. it’s the power of the people. the power of their voices. The stories from their souls. however, their voices are often silent. particularly the ones we need to hear from most. people are too scared, too apathetic, too confused or feel they dont have anything to say, i hope to change that in whatever way i can. Whether its silly, simple or sad, everyone has a voice, and usually a good story or two to back it up.” (sic)
Plenty of stories have been shared here. I HOPE that you’ll share yours and continue the conversation here with us.
I, for one, would love it.
PS: Rant and vent – it is all welcome as well. :)
Readers: That is it for me today. Thoughts? Blog me.
Peace & Love…
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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March 24th, 2012 at 2:20 pm
There has always been a certain amount of built in respect for our elected Presidents. But that was when they were all white men. Now that is gone. My family who used to get angry if anyone disrespected the office of the Presidency now are among the loudest defaming the office and of the that “black bastard.”
I can hardly look my parents in there eyes. “What fucking hypocrites” I find myself thinking more time that I want to think about.
Too sad.
Stu
March 24th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Good Monday morning to you all. A few days left in winter, and tomorrow is the day in Illinois, where Mitt Romney looks to be cruising to a blowout victory. According to a new PPP poll released today, Romney is polling around 45% to 30% for Rick Santorum, 12% for Newt Gingrich, and 10% for Ron Paul. This is much needed for him, since he was shutout in the Deep South and recent Super PAC numbers are in: $2.6 million for the Romney-affiliated Super PAC to a measly $310,000 from Santorum’s. As always, keep up-to-date with to HumanEvents.com as the news breaks from the Illini state.
This week, John Gizzi will be closely following some of the House match-ups in Illinois, starting with a look at the heated House primary between two conservative members of Congress, veteran Rep. Don Manzullo and newcomer Rep. Adam Kinzinger. The Republican leadership is picking sides in this race, and according to John, the More conservative MoC is being squeezed out.
Audrey Hudson has a look at Congress this week, including more debate in the Senate on the JOBS Act that passed the House last week and Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget unveiling scheduled for tomorrow.
Giz also has the next in the series of Veepstakes interviews. This week is Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana.
And from around the web: More TSA ‘grabbing’ and an incredible video of Eric Holder in 1995. All must reads/watches.
And with that, let’s start the week off right and I’ll be talking to all of you tomorrow!
—Adam Tragone
March 24th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
UNNECESSARY MEDICAL TESTS: 73% OF DOCTORS ADMIT ORDERING THEM
Sometimes people tell me how impressed they are with a doctor for ordering a battery of obscure diagnostic tests — as though this is a sign of great skill! In fact, it could be all about business.
A recent poll commissioned by the Alpharetta, Georgia-based Jackson Healthcare consulting firm reported that 73% of doctors said they practice defensive medicine — which can include ordering unnecessary tests and sometimes even unnecessary treatments to be sure that all bases were covered in the event of a malpractice lawsuit.
Whatever the reason, by the doctors’ own estimate, unnecessary tests and treatments account for more than one-quarter of health-care costs.
Not only is this practice expensive — it also can be dangerous.
For instance, according to the US Department of Health & Human Services, about 1% of people who have a coronary angiogram (a catheter containing contrast dye is threaded through the arteries and the arteries are then x-rayed to learn whether there’s any blockage) experience a stroke as a result of the test.
That’s a significant risk when you’re talking about something as serious as a stroke — and really, there is no point in having a test like this unless it is actually necessary.
DEFEND AGAINST DEFENSIVE MEDICINE
I asked Charles Inlander, a consumer advocate/health-care consultant who authored Take This Book to the Hospital with You: A Consumer Guide to Surviving Your Hospital Stay, whether we consumers can do anything to protect ourselves against defensive medicine… and he assured me that, in fact, we can.
He told me that patients should always ask three questions when a doctor orders a medical test:
1. Why do this test? You want to hear: That there’s a specific question to be answered, either to gain information that will lead to a diagnosis or treatment decision or to rule out a dangerous condition. If your doctor is vague and can’t explain why the information is important, just say “no.”
2. What will we do if the test shows A versus if it shows B? A good answer would include: Information about what your doctor will recommend when results are in or what the next steps will be if something is found.
If there are no specific potential steps that can be discussed, it’s likely the test is better for your doctor’s wallet than for your health.
3. How do the risks of having this test done compare with the potential benefit? All tests have some level of risk — sometimes significant, depending on your health status.
Therefore it’s essential for your doctor to rank the significance of the risk relative to what the test results may show because, in some cases, the risks outweigh the benefits of having a test.
Of course, asking your doctor these sorts of questions may elicit some very defensive answers. If your doctor puts you off: Inlander suggests reminding him/her that you’re gathering information you need in order to decide.
If you don’t get satisfactory answers to all three questions above, Inlander advises seeking a second — even, if need be, a third — medical opinion, asking the same questions of the other doctors.
He told me that he remembers a case where one woman was given just two weeks to live.
Despite the prognosis, her doctor ordered nearly a dozen new tests. When her husband questioned the need for them, the doctor (not surprisingly) was not able to justify them — nothing could change the outcome.
If a test doesn’t stand a reasonable chance of helping you in some way, it’s probably safest to say you don’t need it.
Source(s):
Charles B. Inlander, consumer advocate and health-care consultant based in Fogelesville, Pennsylvania. He was the founding president of the nonprofit People’s Medical Society, a consumer advocacy organization credited with key improvements in the quality of US health care in the 1980s and 1990s. He is author of 20 books, including Take This Book to the Hospital with You: A Consumer Guide to Surviving Your Hospital Stay (St. Martin’s).
March 24th, 2012 at 2:51 pm
The way I look at it is Obama woke up white america to the possibility that they may not always hold the voting majority. That scared us and we are responding like the White man’s backlash only harder.
Harry
March 24th, 2012 at 2:54 pm
Just what are you wanting? More quotas? More welfare? Fewer prisons? Reparations? More hate crime laws.
Just whining about racism, like this author is doing is a waste of time. Offer concrete ways that the white man can satisfy you.
March 24th, 2012 at 11:17 pm
It would be nice to know that those that practice racism were not so gutless.
I like it the way it is. But I am willing to share it with the rest of my fellow americans. I will vote democratic this time because I see what my vote has done so far.
It has placed those like Anon#5 back into office. I will not vote race again.
Janet
March 25th, 2012 at 8:23 am
Michelle, thank you for your help.
March 25th, 2012 at 8:24 am
So where are the aliens? Howie have they left?
March 25th, 2012 at 8:31 am
Hafa adai
So what is really going on? Any Ideas Howie?
=========================
A submarine that will take “Titanic” director James Cameron to the Earth’s deepest point has made a successful unmanned test dive.
Cameron tells National Geographic News that his specially designed submarine called Deepsea Challenger completed the nearly 7-mile test dive Wednesday. The team returned to calmer waters and was headed back to the site Saturday.
If all goes well, he’ll spend about six hours exploring and filming the bottom of the Mariana Trench, about 200 miles southwest of the Pacific island of Guam.
Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh are the only other men to reach the spot. They spent about 20 minutes there during their 1960 dive but couldn’t see much after their sub kicked up sand from the sea floor.
March 25th, 2012 at 8:52 am
This is interesting:
—————–
Nearly a month after the night of his fatal confrontation with Martin, Zimmerman left a message to thank a man who has been one of his most vocal supporters to date, Frank Taaffe:
Hey Mr. Taaffe. This is George. Um, first and foremost, I wanted to say I am very sorry for the loss of your son, and, um, I can’t imagine what you must be going through. Um, secondly, I wanted to thank you for doing everything you’ve been doing. Um, I know you don’t have to, and I appreciate it, and you’re truly setting an example for me for the future of, uh, doing the right thing even when it’s tough, and, uh, I appreciate it. I’ll talk to you soon. Thanks. Bye.
Taaffe, a fellow neighborhood watchman and neighbor, has been very public about his support of Zimmerman. During an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, he said that problem could have been avoided if Martin had been “up front and truthful” with Zimmerman.
He also spoke with NBC Miami about how troubled he was by Zimmerman’s portrayal in the media.
“It’s really sad that he has already been convicted in the public media and has already been sentenced to the gas chamber,” he told the news outlet. “Let’s let justice do its job.”
March 25th, 2012 at 8:57 am
Trayvon Martin’s father admitted that the voice heard yelling “help” over and over in the 911 tape is not Trayvon’s voice. Zimmerman yelled help, repeatedly. No one helped (of course) so he shot the kid in self defense. Case closed.
March 25th, 2012 at 8:59 am
It wasn’t self defense the minute he chased the kid. Even if he needed help, the fact is the minute he followed that kid against the 911 instructions and the neighborhood watch regulations he became the aggressier and the Trayvon became the victim.
You can’t claim self defence when you start a fight and then lose (though I doubt that’s what happened since the guy is obvoiusly a hot head and a liar).
So check your facts and the meaning of self defense before you mouth off.
March 25th, 2012 at 9:01 am
Oh no, looks like one less OBUMMER voter. These loosers are being paid by SOROS and SEIU and Bar’aq al Hussain Obumgo and its not surprising that these loosers are on drugs.
We got to get that coon MUSLIM COMMUNIST SOCIALIST Obummer out of office and get someone smarter like Sarah Palin so she can fix things like she fixed alaska (yes she is smarter, Harvard isnt really that good of school anyway and he only got in because he’s black, true story).
I’m so sick and tired of this MUSLIM pResident not taking any action and ruining our reputation by cowtowing to these TERRORISTS in PAKISTAN.
Maybe if we talk to our congressmen they will find a way to show his REAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE from KENYA (the one he submitted is a FAKE, true story).
We need to have this tea party movement grow so that we can go back to the principles of our founding fathers.
Allow slavery and segregation in certain states so that we can keep the minorities in line so they don’t cause too much trouble because it worked in the past. TEA PARTY ’12!
April 13th, 2012 at 3:46 pm
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May 28th, 2013 at 6:47 am
Wonderful blog. Definitely thought provoking gen, thank you.