This book expertly discusses what a Black president of an institutionally racist country like the United States means in terms of the widespread White denial of the existence of such racism.
White racists claim it means White racism no longer holds Blacks back even though White sexists never claim female national leaders means the end of sexism in those nations that have had them! By denying political and historical context, White racists believe they can then deny the existence of racism even though the fatuousness of the denial is proof of the denial's essential falsehood. It is also proof of Their desire to reap the benefits of unearned White privilege in perpetuity – whom, after all, cuts the throat of the goose laying them golden eggs?
The author, Tim Wise, shows White racists find Barack Obama non threatening because he rarely reminds them of the ways in which the US is racist. In so doing, Obama effectively allows White racists to divide Blacks into "Acceptable" and "Non Acceptable" Blacks in order to appear racially tolerant! This is an inherently racist conception since it never applies to Whites because of their skin color but because of their behavior. If White racists claimed there are acceptable and unacceptable humans then their racism would not be so nearly obvious and overt. While doing this, White racists all the while bash Blacks for not conforming to White norms – one of which is institutional racism! "Acceptable", in this context, means allowing White racists relief from the fear of Black revenge (& responsibility) for institutional racism.
President Obama then must avoid mentioning his phenotype in order to maintain his electoral base and placate the White racists who voted for him, despite the claims that it is no longer necessary for him to do so! (Like a man in a wheelchair applying for a job of Runner!) No White politician is required to do anything like this and so this feeds racist White denial by avoiding the entire issue. Barack Obama effectively emancipates White racist voters from race guilt; allowing them to vote for a Black while remaining resolutely racist. This tacit racist White demand is also an implicit command for Blacks to spend their lives seeking a White racist approval that can never really be obtained except by this emotional blackmail.
Wise also critiques racist Whites for wanting to believe Blacks insane by not listening to Their experience of White racism. They claim Blacks exaggerate, "play the race card" and want to blame Whites for Their own (Black) inadequacies – all of which are racist practices, in themselves. Wise marshals detailed proof of contemporary White privilege in such areas as income, housing, education, crime and health. All of which involve unequal treatment in systemic and systematic ways, not to mention the historical legacy of the belief that Blacks are simply inferior because They are Black.
Yet, Wise's thesis that the first Black US president could be more problematic for equal rights than beneficial is partly flawed by its own overstatement. Moreover, made imperfect by the fact that no other president has had to contend with his skin color being an electoral issue. It is this essential fact that makes White racism so overt and so easy to refute – as, indeed, Tim Wise does. However, the author's partial schizophrenia here is inevitable since he is dealing with White racists. They are, perhaps, the most schizophrenic of all the mentally ill; and when one takes a trip around the contents of their minds some of it is bound to rub off.
American Blacks and Whites live on different planets, socially, and it is therefore hard to imagine a meeting of the minds since attitudes are so profoundly entrenched on either side. Nevertheless, the book ends with a plea for Whites to take responsibility for institutional White racism (informal apartheid) since, whether they support it or are against it, They all benefit from it. Such White privilege is ultimately a White problem that Blacks need not solve since it is not a Black problem nor responsibility. Whites must learn to listen to Blacks since not doing so because They are Black is racism. Whites should promote anti racist Whites as heroes rather than guilty secrets, since They show what can be done with sufficient will. Whites should speak up when they see racist Whites since silence is the only privilege a White can voluntarily renounce – no White can renounce his skin pigmentation, after all. Whites must fully accept that the United States was built upon racism: African slavery and Indian genocide. Blacks must face these facts – and do – because not to understand the racial hostility that surrounds one (& to modify one's behavior accordingly [since one cannot change one's skin color]) is to put one's life at risk. Whites have never had to do this to survive so have never really understood their own culture – and have never really wanted to even when the evidence was staring them in the face.
Apart from anything else, the denial Wise consistently demonstrates explains why only racist Whites were surprised by 9/11. A clever, thoughtful book from an incisive, well named, public intellectual.
Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
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