My original intention when I started blogging was to create a space to collect ideas and flush out concepts. I try to incorporate current events and new ideas into my thinking about ongoing concerns. Case in point, the President had his first "State of Union Address" this week. Once again, the hidden racial context of the President's term in office came to the forefront. MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews suggested he "forgot the President is black," for an hour. The implication that he needed to forgot the President's color is full of questions about the problematic way he sees the President the other 23 hours in the day.
Matthews suggested the President was "post-racial" using language white people have used to get to a idea that the President is fulfilling the United States' destiny as place where everyone is treated equally regardless of race. While you can see this in many places, this is blog about comics, so..........
Obama has been depicted as a Supermanesque President, as well as himself in various publications. In adopting the various uses of the President's image comic creators and publishers are reflecting the wide popularity of the president (especially in younger generation), but at the same time highlighting his unique racial standing, making the subconscious argument, that he is extra special for overcoming his color to become President.
Part of Obama's identity is define and amplified by his race. He is not post-racial, he is post-affirmative action. He is, for some whites, proof that the United States is a place where your color does not matter. Thus, the idea of Affirmative Action, government programs designed to combat structural barriers to minorities should be abandoned. Thus, we would be able to concentrate on the content of each individual characters. The President add to the feeling by looking beyond language and gesture that might be defined as overtly racial. Yet, the language of forgetting racial (or ethnic) identity suggests that the President's racial identity needs to be obliterated in order to accept him as President of the United States. The message given is that the the President's race is a stigma (or burden), that somehow the President overcame it briefly to be seen as a person while delivering the State of the Union speech. It was a good speech, the President is a gifted speaker. He is made all the more gifted in the mind of many white Americans because they tend to think of African-American speech as a ghetto slang, which in turn they links to drugs, crime, and social failure. The often offered compliment educated African-American received of, "You speak well" is actually code for, "I'm surprise that you, being black, are capable of communicating (and thinking) in a way equal to myself as a white person." Given the assumption buried in such language, it no wonder that African-Americans reacted strongly to Matthews' comments. At the same time, many whites are frustrated, since they don't think Matthews is racist. Indeed, many white people voted for the President and, in doing so, felt they were finally getting over the race problem. The truth is more complicated, but clearly being black did not help the President get elected. The fact it didn't prevent him from being elected is not, I fear proof of the end of racism in the United States.
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