Bring Back the White Guys

Recently, my uncle Godfrey bought me a copy of Shelby Steele’s short book on Obama, which has included in the subtitle: “why he can’t win.” Steele’s argument is layered, but as a black man and ardent critic of affirmative action, he’s afraid Obama could be elected because he’s black and that would be a problem for a number of reasons. Steele calls Obama’s campaign a “morality play,” wherein Americans are acting out the guilt, innocence, victimization and redemption of our history.

I think in most ways, Steele is off-base and then I consider the man who gave me this book. My uncle was born and raised in Harlem. He worked his way to Howard University and through medical school and in the 1970s became the first black doctor at his hospital of residence in Manhattan, encountering a lot of resistance along the way. In this way, among others, he has a broader lens on the racial history of America. He is a fervent Obama supporter and blames Clinton for the negative shift in the campaign, going so far as to say that if she wins the nomination, he’ll become a Republican and vote for John McCain.

For most young Americans, this will not translate quite the same. I’ve said it before, but if Clinton and the machine get the nomination, the kids will stay home. And the tactic at this point seems to be: say he’s black, say he’s Muslim and highlight his other-ness, which seems to be resonating with poor white people in America.

It’s such a dirty trick that I can only stammer and ask, “Hillary, how do you justify having racists as your base?” Geraldine Ferraro, a Clinton supporter and former democratic vice presidential nominee, said Obama only made it this far because he was black. (I know, Geraldine, black guys get all the breaks in America.) There’s a twisted echo of Shelby Steele in there, although she’s saying something quite different. She’s rallying the women, who are the yin to the racists’ yang of Clinton’s success strategy. It’s kind of sickening.

Representative Steve King of Iowa had some, amazingly, more absurd comments on a potential Obama presidency, implying that Al Qaeda would be dancing in the streets if he were elected. This comes in the wake of middle-name-gate, the “leak” of Obama’s photo in traditional muslim attire and, of course, Clinton’s now infamous “are your children safe at 3AM from some black guy” television ads.

I didn’t want to have to think of it in any of these terms. In the beginning, it seemed like Obama didn’t want to get into the identity politics of it and people were going to respect that. He was, after all, stepping onto the pulpit in some wild times, in the shadow of stories like Michael Richard’s onstage ni--er tirade, the plight of the Jena 6 and Don Imus’ nappy headed hoes comment.

But his decision to stand apart from the more victimization-oriented black leaders that grew out of the civil rights era meant yes, Shelby Steele was right and Obama, in a way, was agreeing to a bargain: “If you don’t remind white people of what they did to you before, they won’t remind you that you’re black.” This has worked for the young, educated and wealthy white people of his base. Not so much with the old, uneducated and poor people of Clinton’s camp.

But oh well. The naivete and optimism of youth has its limits. Where young people saw an opportunity to transcend dark points of America’s history and write a new chapter independent of race and identity, others saw a chance to tear down something meaningful and potentially great. In an ultra obscure parallel, it reminds me of the French children’s film The Red Balloon.

The movie is the short story of a young boy who finds a red balloon on the streets of Paris that has magical powers. It can follow the boy even when he’s not holding the string. When the bus driver says the balloon cannot come on board, the balloon races behind to keep up with the boy. The headmaster says the balloon cannot come into school with him, so it waits outside until school is done. The balloon offers wonder and adventure for the boy until, inevitably, the balloon attracts the attention of a group of bullies, who begin hurling rocks at it.

I wont give away the ending, just say that this is a good illustration of where we find ourselves right now. I don’t to pretend that Barack Obama is the messiah or even the right person for the job, necessarily. But he is resonating with my generation in a way that nobody ever has before. If we reduce this thing to identity politics and force Obama to fight back, we’ll be yearning for the days when we could ignore whatever anonymous, white males were up for the spot until November and then shrug as we checked a box for “whoever”.

It makes me wish we could bring back the white guys and have them run this race, old school style. Somebody call John Edwards. Get him back out here. I thought we were ready for this, but I was wrong. We’re still just ankle biting racist woman haters and we deserve old, crusty white men for the next 200 years.