WHAT HASN'T CHANGED IN AMERICA
a staircase built for one
Now that the glow of last week's election has ever-so faded, it's worth taking stock of exactly "what this all means." Let's first start by noting that, previous to the election, one major concern amongst progressives was that more liberal humanist types - to say nothing of the hyperbole-addicted punditry - would perhaps mistakenly construe Obama's then-possible election as a repudiation of America's shameful legacy of race.As if on cue, the day after the election brought an avalanche of superlatives and overbaked rhetoric that made it sound as if, with a single election, America had managed to overcome the racial divisions of the last 400 years. I was especially aghast at the ways in which the election was portrayed as the validation of the Civil Rights Movement...as if the elevation of a single Black leader was what getting rid of Jim Crow was about.
I trust that at least some amongst you were skeptical of this logic from the start but it was surreal, laughable and tragic that the very next day, some genius at CNN (possibly the same one who thought holograms were a good idea) put up a viewer poll about, "Do we still need affirmative action?"
Wait...what?
Last I checked, affirmative action wasn't about trying to get a Black person elected President. It was meant to address centuries of systemic, institutionalized racial inequality. Obama's election is not proof that such institutionalized racism has been eliminated. One person rising above limitations doesn't suggest the absence of limitations. Only a complete fool would assume that Obama's victory represents something truly, paradigm-shifting about American racial inequality.
Consider two things:
1) Obama lost the white vote. Yeah - newsflash to everyone: Obama lost the white vote. Timothy Noah breaks down the numbers in today's Slate: White voters, nationally, went 43% for Obama compared to McCain's 55%. That's 50% higher than Obama's overall national lead over McCain.
Let's put it another way - if the election were in the hands of White America, McCain/Palin would planning their transition team right now, not Obama. Sober up on that for a moment, especially those liberal whites who've been patting themselves on the back.
It is true that Obama did do well amongst white voters compared to previous Democratic candidates; in the last 40 years, only Jimmy Carter did better but even he couldn't get over 50%. This raises Noah's other point: no white majority has voted for a Democratic president since Johnson in '64 (and his election was largely a product of JFK's assassination the year prior). Consistently and overwhelmingly, Democratic candidates cannot depend on majority white support and the conventional wisdom suggests this is at least due in part to the bitterness of Southern Dixiecrats forced by a Democratic administration (Johnson) to abandon Jim Crow. To put it another way, the dismantling of some forms of institutionalized racism (separate drinking fountains for example) has cost the Democratic party a majority of the national White vote for the last 40+ years. Obama didn't change that. In fact, in the deep South, his margin of loss was as great as 6 to 1.
I want to very carefully note that I'm not suggesting race is the only meaningful factor to weigh here. This is something else that's annoying in the current, "America isn't racist!" rhetoric - it actually assumes that race was the overwhelming issue in this election which is absurd. People vote for myriad reasons, race only being one possible factor. That's why it's naive to think that Obama's election represents some kind of mandate on social relations. After all, when whites went 60/40 for Bush Sr. over Dukakis in 1988, does that mean Whites were anti-Greek that year? Of course not.
Moreover, even if we were to accept that race played a major role in this election, the more accurate narrative to follow isn't about the redemption of White America over its racist past but rather, it's about the transformation of America, writ large. It's demographic change that mattered in 2008, not wholesale changes in attitudes. We are a far more diverse society than we have been in the past. Equally, if not important, is where those diverse voters ended up - states like Virginia and North Carolina especially have experienced significant demographic change over the last decade; their populations skew younger, more Latinos, better educated, etc. Those are also demographics that tend to lean Democratic.
Both nationally and in the "swing states," what we saw was the pooling of those different demographics into a voting bloc that was stronger than the white majority that went for McCain. Again: Whites didn't win it for Obama. They just weren't a big enough voting bloc to lose it for him. If Obama's victory says anything about America, it's not that we're "over" the colorline that has dominated our society. It's that our demographic changes managed to weaken the impact of that colorline last week. But as the warning goes: past results are no guarantee of future returns. One only has to compare the relative hopes of 1964 with what happened four years later.
As for my second point:
Obama's election was an incredible symbolic moment. I don't doubt this at all and I've been swept up in it too. Just the image of the Obamas as the new First Family is so incredibly profound, I still haven't taken it completely in yet.
However, Obama's victory doesn't remotely speak to the condition of poor, urban schools. It won't prevent Brown and Black bodies from disproportionately filling our prisons. It won't magically undo over half a century of preferential mortgage lending to White home buyers or empower families of color to begin building their own wealth. This is how racism is lived in America; it's not just about the dearth of non-white political leadership. It's about fundamentally different and unequal life chances based around race. I challenge anyone to demonstrate how Obama's election speaks directly to those material inequalities. Or why we'd think his Presidency would lead to improvements in those areas without specific policies designed to address them?
Obama's victory says nothing, does nothing about this fact of institutional racism in America. White privilege does not disappear simply because a Black man sits in the Oval Office. We are still the same stratified society we were last week. And last year. And last decade. And last...you get the picture.
If anything, the fear is that Obama's election actually sets the path to progress back since some liberal whites may feel it less urgent to pursue racial equality now that they can celebrate their "courage" for voting for a Black man. Only the next few years will tell what progress can be achieved. Unfortunately, iif we know anything about times of economic turmoil, it's the potential for racial scapegoats to come into play.
It wasn't easy to get Obama elected; his level of organization has been marveled over. But really, getting him elected was simple work compared to actually bringing about the social change many have portended his election represents. That hard work has always been there and will continue to be, regardless of the President's skin color.
Moreover, even if we were to accept that race played a major role in this election, the more accurate narrative to follow isn't about the redemption of White America over its racist past but rather, it's about the transformation of America, writ large. It's demographic change that mattered in 2008, not wholesale changes in attitudes. We are a far more diverse society than we have been in the past. Equally, if not important, is where those diverse voters ended up - states like Virginia and North Carolina especially have experienced significant demographic change over the last decade; their populations skew younger, more Latinos, better educated, etc. Those are also demographics that tend to lean Democratic.
Both nationally and in the "swing states," what we saw was the pooling of those different demographics into a voting bloc that was stronger than the white majority that went for McCain. Again: Whites didn't win it for Obama. They just weren't a big enough voting bloc to lose it for him. If Obama's victory says anything about America, it's not that we're "over" the colorline that has dominated our society. It's that our demographic changes managed to weaken the impact of that colorline last week. But as the warning goes: past results are no guarantee of future returns. One only has to compare the relative hopes of 1964 with what happened four years later.
As for my second point:
Obama's election was an incredible symbolic moment. I don't doubt this at all and I've been swept up in it too. Just the image of the Obamas as the new First Family is so incredibly profound, I still haven't taken it completely in yet.
However, Obama's victory doesn't remotely speak to the condition of poor, urban schools. It won't prevent Brown and Black bodies from disproportionately filling our prisons. It won't magically undo over half a century of preferential mortgage lending to White home buyers or empower families of color to begin building their own wealth. This is how racism is lived in America; it's not just about the dearth of non-white political leadership. It's about fundamentally different and unequal life chances based around race. I challenge anyone to demonstrate how Obama's election speaks directly to those material inequalities. Or why we'd think his Presidency would lead to improvements in those areas without specific policies designed to address them?
Obama's victory says nothing, does nothing about this fact of institutional racism in America. White privilege does not disappear simply because a Black man sits in the Oval Office. We are still the same stratified society we were last week. And last year. And last decade. And last...you get the picture.
If anything, the fear is that Obama's election actually sets the path to progress back since some liberal whites may feel it less urgent to pursue racial equality now that they can celebrate their "courage" for voting for a Black man. Only the next few years will tell what progress can be achieved. Unfortunately, iif we know anything about times of economic turmoil, it's the potential for racial scapegoats to come into play.
It wasn't easy to get Obama elected; his level of organization has been marveled over. But really, getting him elected was simple work compared to actually bringing about the social change many have portended his election represents. That hard work has always been there and will continue to be, regardless of the President's skin color.
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