Last night I attended the (incredible) lecture given by Paul C. Taylor last night. He was there to discuss the Obama era, and why it was such a letdown for the American people. Of course he mentioned the current events going on with indictment of cops, but he stayed consistent with discussing Obama - and how it all relates.
He largely discussed the concept of post-racialism and how it has been applied in the last 8 years. He said there are many ways post-racial is used, the first kind meaning post-racist. He laughed at the concept of post-racism and said anyone with a brain can easily look up statistics and realize that isn't true. (While I agree wholeheartedly with him, I think if he spent a few nights at various white household's Thanksgiving tables, he would realize there are some people who truly believe in the post-racist sentiment. Everyone is free to join me in my Thanksgiving drinking game for one next year: take a sip every time your family says something offensive). He said a better, but still not correct way, to look at the phrase post-racial is to reject the idea of post-racism but acknowledge that *something* has changed racially in our country and try to figure out exactly what. The problem is that many theorists discuss this change as if it is a linear "we were at point A, now we're at point B" type of thinking. We see this faulty linear thinking a lot in historical discussions: the idea that the Civil Rights movement was simply linear, rather than multiple points going on at once.
He ended discussing the fact that regardless of the definition of post-racial, everyone definitely hoped Obama would serve as some sort of change for America. He paraphrased a quote about Reagan and applied it to Obama in a way that I thought was brilliant: Obama was actually the worst thing that could happen for people of color in America, because he makes it seem like everything is going better, when in fact everything continues to be problematic. I think when Obama rose to power many people sort of saw it as proof that race relations must be doing kind of alright. Unfortunately when Obama has continually spoken to his black communities in a scolding "be more white" kind of fashion, he is anything but progressive.
A blog for the Civil Rights Movement class at Rhodes College, Fall 2014
I think this post definitely highlights some of Taylor's points. But in addition, I liked how Taylor discussed what blacks wanted from Obama. They invested in him and believed in him. He was a symbol, a mockingjay if you will (for the Hunger Games fans out there). They wanted him to change everything. But in fact, Obama did not intend to do anything about those things when he was in office. Taylor said that most black politicians usually do not attempt to change black economic conditions or anything else that blacks struggle with, when they are in office.
ReplyDeleteAlso the myth that Obama becoming President of the United States signaled the end of blacks' struggle.
I like how he brought up this idea of post racialism. It makes me wonder..
What does this mean? What should it look like? And how can we achieve this?