Piece 3- Research Paper with Interviews

Paper 3 Draft 2

Image and Essentialisms: Barack Obama and the Politics of Representation

“This country’s image of the Negro, which hasn’t very much to do with the Negro, has never failed to reflect with a frightening accuracy the state of mind of the country.”- James Baldwin

Pop culture is the way in which an America creates and reflects identity. It is not only a place where goods are bought and sold, where it seems nothing is sacred anymore, it is one of the best barometers of the nation’s foundational myths. Media representation of Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama has been contested throughout his campaign in the constant questioning of his identity: used as a weapon of Otherizing by his opponents in the volatile weeks before Election Day and also by supporters who plaster his image on T-shirts and speak of finally moving “beyond race.” Both are dangerous in many different ways, causing concern for those working for social justice and equality across racial boundaries. In the space of media representation and pop culture though is where I must begin, as it informs, motivates, and complicates this man’s identity in a coming time of astronomical change.
Stuart Hall’s essay, “What’s this ‘black’ in black pop culture?” is where many begin when looking at the intersection of race and culture. Popular culture, according to Hall, “is where we discover and play with the identifications of ourselves, where we are imagined, where we are represented…to ourselves for the first time” (474). This “we” Hall speaks of is not just the black community, but to people as a whole. The playful nature of popular culture is not all fun and games though, and should not be misread in this light. Instead the “play” that comes from pop culture is the fickleness of the audience, the back and forth that comes from seeing representations of you that you might or might not like. For many Americans, Barack Obama has given us the opportunity to see how the country implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) speaks about race, and how we are truly being shown ourselves for the first time in a time where, “race is a slippery concept…where no one can define blackness, but we Americans embrace it as a matter of common sense” (Smith 180).
This notion of race as common sense has seeped into the American consciousness so much so that to talk about race and racism in regards to Barack Obama has almost been heresy. As Dr. John Streamas mentions, “The media has been bending over backwards not to talk about racism,” which seems to be concurrent with the type of coverage that is being seen. Streamas continues by noting that, “In the coverage after the debates, one person might mention race, another would comment and then one would say, ‘But the bigger issue here is…’ They know it’s a factor but just don’t want to talk about it.” Colorblind racism, illustrated in turns of phrase like those mentioned above, are the “powerful explanations-- which ultimately have become justifications” (2) for racism to continue. This style of talking about “Anything but Race” in media coverage of Obama, specifically in the general election against McCain, has been to ignore outright problems of racism that underlies the “bigger issues” of economics and healthcare (Bonilla-Silva 62). Attacks on Obama’s character as well as how race has played a role in the campaign are not mentioned because of these “bigger issues” facing “every American.”
For communities of color, though, for who race is that which informs opportunities and economics, what bigger issue is there? Even for Barack Obama, an elitist in many aspects, he cannot escape his race and all the stereotypical baggage that comes with it. This baggage comes in the form of essentialisms for the people Obama represents on the screen, where “sweeping generalizations about all group members” create ways to categorize people of color. Americans learn these explicitly and implicitly from birth, and therefore “the groups essence is seen as relatively immutable and as providing an explanation for why groups differ in terms of resources and opportunities” (Jost and Hamilton 214). Discrimination’s affects on people of color’s life chances then are merely essentialized away as something “immutable”, causing worse pain for those who know they are essentialized in a mostly negative light. For a person of color in the everyday, “It is to experience a precarious balance between paranoia and the desire to live life simply as it comes, an endless struggle with humiliation, depression, and rage” (Johnson 58). No day is exempt from this struggle, especially for those poor and working class.
Obama’s public persona and personality (at least in his television life) has not been indicative of that rage. Cool and composed at even the most tense of moments, Obama gives credence to those citizens and critical watchers like Dr. Robert Eddy who believe that, “He is just too brilliant to be essentialized…Obama has overcome that essentialism.” Even though Obama as one man has overcome the stereotypical versions of a black man, Dr. Eddy notes that, “for many that [overcoming essentialisms of representation] is not happening.” Barack Obama as a representation of the Black community and communities of color in general might have escaped these essentialisms of the “angry black man” or “lazy,” but he has not escaped essentialisms in other ways.
This particular political moment is laced with the rhetoric of fear, and new essentialisms have emerged particularly around the idea of the “terrorist” that many in Obama-opposing factions have been decrying. The Other in this case is now the most feared of them all, and Obama has been essentialized broadly as the Other throughout this campaign. “In 2008, you can’t get away with saying ‘Don’t trust him because he’s black’,” notes Dr. Lisa Guerrero. Instead, “the rhetorics [from the opposition] are coming in the back door, saying things like ‘He doesn’t see America like we see America’…and the allegations that he ‘pals around with terrorists’ hurt the larger community.” Not only have these attacks of his character come as a somewhat last-ditch effort by his opponents towards Obama himself, but there are deeper motives at work. Connections with something currently so taboo in this country could negatively affect the way he represents and reflects communities of color, continuing the xenophobia of many Americans towards people of color.
According to Tafjel and Turner’s Social Identity Theory, one gains identity in self by identifying with groups, some ascribed (like race) and others achieved. It is also assumed that, “people are generally motivated to achieve and maintain a positive social identity, thereby boosting their self esteem” (Brown and Zagefka 56). For the ascribed group affiliation for people of color, then, their greatest media representation in Obama insidiously otherized in this way could have catastrophic affects on the whole group’s identity to whites. If clearly many Americans still see any connection to the Middle East as a “problem,” this Otherizing of Obama is detrimental to the Social Identity of Americans of color via their ascribed status. Dr. Guerrero notes, “If the President of the U.S. is identified as the danger because of connections to terrorism, it is far more insidious than, ‘He’s a criminal.’” These connections change the way people see Obama as a leader, and for some this still identifies Obama with otherized communities that potentially threaten a positive social identity for all. As mentioned in a New York Times article on October 19, 2008, “At a recent town-hall style meeting during which an audience member said she thought that Mr. Obama was an ‘Arab,’ Mr. McCain replied, ‘No, ma’am, he’s a decent family man’” (A1). “Family men” aren’t apparently Arab, but more so than anything that comment represents the bigger issue here- that the Other is still zealously feared.
As the Otherizing rhetoric is coming from those that oppose Barack Obama, the supporters of Obama also collaborate with the colorblind racist paradigm in setting himself up as the token, believing that the problems will be solved when Obama is president. The discussion of “The Cosby Show” by Jhally and Lewis can serve us well when looking at Obama as a representation of one of the community of color who has made it, like the Huxtables of 80s television. “White respondents used the acknowledgement of a racist past to demonstrate historical contrast rather than historical continuity. Racism, in other words, is seen by white Cosby watchers as a disease that has been essentially cured; the society requires no further medicine” (Jhally and Lewis 90). Obama is a representation of progress for this county in many ways, but there is a danger of believing that we are now a post-racial society. Dr. Streamas notes this danger when saying, “We have to be careful, because Obama will be a way to disregard race…he will give us something to point to,” when critics say that racism doesn’t exist. In the words of Dr. Lisa Guerrero, “He will give us an out.”
Obama as President, would be a triumph for communities of color and for antiracists. It will be proof that a particularly eloquent and brilliant black man has the possibility of making it all the way to the highest public office in this country. But we cannot stop there. As Tim Wise notes in his alarmingly brilliant and frank book White Like Me, the “argument from exception” that racism doesn’t exist by mentioning the few success stories of people of color is nonsensical and doesn’t help expose white privilege and change racism. It is “tantamount to saying that since lots of Jews survived the World War II era, the Holocaust wasn’t really that bad” (70). If we lift up Obama as a Messiah-like figure he so often is represented as in the minds of liberals, coming to fix the problem of racism by merely being in the Oval Office, those who are fighting for racial equality will be collaborating with the problem.
To truly take on the problems that both essentialisms cause for Obama and communities of color, both must be made conscious to audiences even after Obama is elected. Recognition of the possibility of being a fan of Obama while still being in danger of keeping the racial hierarchy intact must be paramount to understanding of the precariousness of representations. of people of color by Obama. More than anything, though, Obama as President has to tackle both the ideological essentialisms by uttering them and the tangible evidence of discrimination of the poor people of color. That group will not be ignored, especially by a Black man running a government that has left them behind for too long.

Works Cited
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. Racism Without Racists, 2nd Ed. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006.
Bulmiller, Elizabeth and Jeff Zelheny. “Powell Backs Obama and Criticized McCain Tactics.” The New York Times Online.. 19 October 2008, A1. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/us/politics/20campaign.html?hp
Brown, Rupert and Hanna Zagefka. “Ingroup Affiliations and Prejudice.” On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years After Allport. Eds. John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick and Laurie Rudman. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. 54-70.
Eddy, Dr. Robert. Pesonal Interview. 7 October 2008.
Guerrero, Dr. Lisa. Personal Interview. 10 October 2008.
Hall, Stuart. “What is this ‘black’ in black pop culture?” Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies. Eds. David Morley and Kuan-Hsing Chen. New York: Routledge, 1996. 465-475.
Jhally, Sue and Justin Lewis. Enlightened Racism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992.
Johnson, Allen. Privilege, Power, and Difference, 2nd Ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2006.
Jost, John T. and David L. Hamilton. “Stereotypes in Our Culture.” On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years After Allport. Eds. John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick and Laurie Rudman. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. 208-224.
Smith, David Lionel. “What is Black Culture?” The House that Race Built: Original Essays by Toni Morrison, Angela Y. Davis, Cornel West and Others on Black Americans and Politics in America Today. Ed. Wahneema Lubiano. New York: Vintage Books, 1998. 178-193.
Streamas, Dr. John. Personal Interview. 16 October 2008.
Wise, Tim. White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, 2nd Ed. Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull Press, 2008.