It is not Barack Obama's African-American roots or the African-American identity he assumed, but his synthesis of dominant and now familiar elements of the globalized, postmodernism world which accounts for his election to the presidency.
Barack Obama's racial categorization has lately become a topic of interest. This is due mostly to the need of a ubiquitous, hyperactive, competitive media always on the look for new topics; of a media now adept at creating topics ex nihilo. It is also partly due to the inexhaustible curiosity of a widely diversified democratic population and the historical, yet at the time largely covert questions about racial make-up and identification. While the questions and opinions are now mostly in the form of parlor entertainment, since they relate to the soon-to-be president of the United States, they inevitably reflect political and social ideas and mores. And perspectives coming about from the postulates and reasonings over Obama's essential race will inevitably shape future assessments of him and his presidency.
One treatment of how Obama should truly be looked at racially was done by Marie Arana in a Washington Post article titled He's Not Black. Arana's article received attention not only because it was one of the first to explore the question at length, but also because it was not abstract or theoretical. Like Obama, Arana is patently, by appearance, multiracial. Her mother--coincidentally like Obama's--was a white woman from Kansas; her father, a native of Peru. She is seen as more or less Hispanic. Arana thus writes from an experience of multiracism. From old family pictures, she presumes some of her ancestors as Asian and Negroid. The matter is thus more than parlor entertainment for her. Her thoughts and resolutions on it influence the paths she takes and her identity.
Arana sees Obama as "our first biracial president...a bridge between races." Yes, at least. But this does not explain or summarize Obama entirely. This is a handy, almost routine sociological or journalistic remark on Obama. (And one that will likely be increasingly topical.) But it merely describes the surface. It is only a variation on the notion of "multiculturalism" attributed to American society for the past few decades.
Obama has said about himself that he identifies as "African-American--that's how I'm treated and that's how I'm viewed." As anyone who has read Obama's book "Dreams from My Father" knows, Obama's ultimate acceptance of this identity was not as simple it might seem from this quote. But to simplify here, one can say--and Obama would admit--that he accepted this identity because it was the one attributed to him by others and it was also in fact one--the one--he felt most comfortable with particularly given his skin color. But this is only the beginning to grasping Obama the person and his election in today's America.
This simple identity--or reference--of Obama as African-American satisfies different important political and social sentiments and groups. For African-Americans, his election is a milestone of racial progress. For liberals, it gratifies their support of civil rights and equality. Even conservatives who did not vote for Obama recognize that his election demonstrates the genuineness of the prime American virtue of tolerance. Even hate groups such as white supremacists have their own, oppositional, values, views, and aims clarified and strengthened by Obama being seen as African-American. African-American is a category in American culture which enables groups all along the sociopolitical spectrum to position themselves within American society and to assess their relationship to other groups. Take away the African-American label from Obama, and the assessment of American politics and society at this time becomes cloudy and indeterminate. Yet the African-American category or label was not a significant factor in Obama's election.
Reference to the African-American category does not reach to the qualities and parameters of today's world which are the reasons why Obama was elected. It is shared or at least similar qualities by which the majority, particularly the younger generations, identified with Obama; not the superficiality of his African-American identity which they accepted either from ideals or tolerance. The parameters of today's world, not something as narrow ethnic roots, allowed for an unconventional figure such as Obama to find not only political accommodation at the highest and most visible level, but more than this, to find affirmation.
One must look more to Obama rather than to how and that others categorized him. One must look to the breadth of his experience, especially the diverse locales from Indonesia to Boston; to his intelligence and sensitivities; to his discipline and self-control; to his susceptibilities; and to his ambitions and goals. Geographical expanse, opportunities availed by recognized promise, desire to play a role in government (which includes making a name for oneself), and identification with major American, democratic values such as fairness and equality account for Obama's make-up so as to overshadow roots (though these are not irrelevant). It is not genealogy nor even so much biography which opens the window to Obama's nature, but rather the movement of ideas and persons among the areas of the world and the diplomatic and artful ways these are brought into some sort of concord for the accomplishment of practical work and the possibility of change.
It is not surprising that a population of mostly younger persons reaching out to others by presenting themselves on FaceBook and YouTube; used to purchasing foreign-made consumer goods from cars to computers to toys; increasingly studying abroad for a semester or more in college; and working in jobs from all levels from entry to managerial and executive levels to professional went with Obama for president. Obama's poise and politics correlated to the central circumstances of today globalized, postmodern world. His synthesis of these--kept in balance by his self-discipline, scope of sympathies, and clarity of mind--is the matrix for the leadership he will exercise as president.
END
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
OBAMA'S LONG ACQUAINTANCE
How will the "no-drama" style hold up in the daily swirl of political and internatonal affairs?
After a presidential campaign kicked off two years before the 2008 election day and now into the transition to the presidency on January 20, 2008, the Obama's activity and dialogue have been little more than a drawn-out acquaintance. The columnist Charles Krauthammer remarked on Obama's "brilliant general election campaign [of] tactically perfect minimalism." The minimalism connotes Obama's now much-noted evenness of temperament and self-discipline. Obama has often been described as "cool" with its implications of neat, alluring, and controlled. At this date, more than two years after he assumed a highly visible public role in announcing his run for the presidency and all his thoughts, statements, and actions were directed toward the end of winning the election, thoughts about how Obama will be as president based on how he has been as a candidate and president elect come to mind.
During the campaign not only because as an African-American he was a member of a minority, but also because he was little-known outside of regional and political circles, Obama aimed at reassuring the electorate he was not in any way threatening or foreign. Now into the transition with the big financial crises and potential severe potential economic and social problems facing the country, Obama is again (and rightly) aiming at being reassuring. To achieve this in the transition, Obama has alternately showed himself to be alarmed about the financial, business, and personal hurt many are suffering and, again, showed an even-temperedness, confidence, and optimism which can be summed up as his being a nice guy.
To bolster this nice-guy appearance and continue the principle of nonthreatening normality he maintained in the campaign, Obama with the cooperation of the media and his family has focused on his family life. The family's move to the White House and the choice of a dog for the Obama girls have been central stories. In the political arena, the stories have focused on Obama's choices for key and important positions in his administration. While such choices are substantive political matters, the growing group of appointments is along the lines of Obama's extended family. The focus on political appointments is Obama's timely way of working at reassurance by demonstrating he is at least working on the beginnings of trying to resolve the manifold troubles facing the country.
Basically, however, the show of naming and introducing appointees is elaborated acquaintance. For Obama, it is an extension of the style of acquaintance which he had adhered to since his announcement for the presidency. The "perfect minimalism" of Obama's campaign--a reflection of his low-key demeanor--was a blending strategy and personality that was a type of absence of conventional campaigning. Campaigning in a post-ideological, post-partisan era reeling from the deceptions, looming threats, and near madness of the Bush ideologues, Obama's chief interest in campaigning was not to engage with this madness directly lest the campaign degenerate into customary partisan bickering. This stance also allowed for the seedy ideology and its overt and implicated supporters (McCain sharing something of both kinds) the opportunity to self-destruct. By the time of the campaign, the Bush Administration's duplicities, pathetic rationalizations, and contempt for long-established and widely-admired democratic norms of law and decency were well known. No sense for Obama to harp on these; he would have looked obsessed if he did. And as it happened, McCain and his campaign self-destructed in full view.
Obama gained the presidency mostly by being present as an alternative to the candidate inevitably linked to the Bush administration and by sounding in diverse ways the theme of change (which factor is close to a constant in American political campaigns). This gave some needed coloring to the atypical campaign Obama ran.
Obama's successful, unconventional minimalist campaign offers at best spare clues for how he will govern. It does, however, raise one matter which is likely to be central for at least the early stages of the Obama presidency and perhaps throughout his presidency. Obama campaigned as the candidate of change. Even while he convincingly identified himself as this, he acquired the sobriquet "No Drama Obama." However, change rarely occurs smoothly. Change, almost by its definition, entails and causes some drama. Because of the manifest lawlessness and incompetence of the Bush administration and the plain limitations of John McCain, the drama of the campaign season was confined almost exclusively to the campaigns other than Obama's. Obama's mantra was "Don't make mistakes"; and he didn't make any serious ones. But as president, the focus will be on Obama in ways radically different from the ways it was during the campaign. Obama will not be able to remain distanced from dramas regularly breaking out in the country and internationally and to avoid inevitably playing a part in them. We now look for how the "no drama" candidate will take on his role of a lifetime.
After a presidential campaign kicked off two years before the 2008 election day and now into the transition to the presidency on January 20, 2008, the Obama's activity and dialogue have been little more than a drawn-out acquaintance. The columnist Charles Krauthammer remarked on Obama's "brilliant general election campaign [of] tactically perfect minimalism." The minimalism connotes Obama's now much-noted evenness of temperament and self-discipline. Obama has often been described as "cool" with its implications of neat, alluring, and controlled. At this date, more than two years after he assumed a highly visible public role in announcing his run for the presidency and all his thoughts, statements, and actions were directed toward the end of winning the election, thoughts about how Obama will be as president based on how he has been as a candidate and president elect come to mind.
During the campaign not only because as an African-American he was a member of a minority, but also because he was little-known outside of regional and political circles, Obama aimed at reassuring the electorate he was not in any way threatening or foreign. Now into the transition with the big financial crises and potential severe potential economic and social problems facing the country, Obama is again (and rightly) aiming at being reassuring. To achieve this in the transition, Obama has alternately showed himself to be alarmed about the financial, business, and personal hurt many are suffering and, again, showed an even-temperedness, confidence, and optimism which can be summed up as his being a nice guy.
To bolster this nice-guy appearance and continue the principle of nonthreatening normality he maintained in the campaign, Obama with the cooperation of the media and his family has focused on his family life. The family's move to the White House and the choice of a dog for the Obama girls have been central stories. In the political arena, the stories have focused on Obama's choices for key and important positions in his administration. While such choices are substantive political matters, the growing group of appointments is along the lines of Obama's extended family. The focus on political appointments is Obama's timely way of working at reassurance by demonstrating he is at least working on the beginnings of trying to resolve the manifold troubles facing the country.
Basically, however, the show of naming and introducing appointees is elaborated acquaintance. For Obama, it is an extension of the style of acquaintance which he had adhered to since his announcement for the presidency. The "perfect minimalism" of Obama's campaign--a reflection of his low-key demeanor--was a blending strategy and personality that was a type of absence of conventional campaigning. Campaigning in a post-ideological, post-partisan era reeling from the deceptions, looming threats, and near madness of the Bush ideologues, Obama's chief interest in campaigning was not to engage with this madness directly lest the campaign degenerate into customary partisan bickering. This stance also allowed for the seedy ideology and its overt and implicated supporters (McCain sharing something of both kinds) the opportunity to self-destruct. By the time of the campaign, the Bush Administration's duplicities, pathetic rationalizations, and contempt for long-established and widely-admired democratic norms of law and decency were well known. No sense for Obama to harp on these; he would have looked obsessed if he did. And as it happened, McCain and his campaign self-destructed in full view.
Obama gained the presidency mostly by being present as an alternative to the candidate inevitably linked to the Bush administration and by sounding in diverse ways the theme of change (which factor is close to a constant in American political campaigns). This gave some needed coloring to the atypical campaign Obama ran.
Obama's successful, unconventional minimalist campaign offers at best spare clues for how he will govern. It does, however, raise one matter which is likely to be central for at least the early stages of the Obama presidency and perhaps throughout his presidency. Obama campaigned as the candidate of change. Even while he convincingly identified himself as this, he acquired the sobriquet "No Drama Obama." However, change rarely occurs smoothly. Change, almost by its definition, entails and causes some drama. Because of the manifest lawlessness and incompetence of the Bush administration and the plain limitations of John McCain, the drama of the campaign season was confined almost exclusively to the campaigns other than Obama's. Obama's mantra was "Don't make mistakes"; and he didn't make any serious ones. But as president, the focus will be on Obama in ways radically different from the ways it was during the campaign. Obama will not be able to remain distanced from dramas regularly breaking out in the country and internationally and to avoid inevitably playing a part in them. We now look for how the "no drama" candidate will take on his role of a lifetime.
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