The Osterley Times: Obama's Racial Catch-22

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Obama's Racial Catch-22

There's a wonderful article here by Adam Serwer on the way race is being played in the current American election.

He argues that America is terribly pleased with herself for allowing Obama the Democratic nomination and are taking his nomination as proof that the US has transcended race as an issue, which is why McCain's charge that Obama has "played the race card" is actually the greatest race card of all to play, as most Americans fear being accused of racism far more than they are ever likely to suffer from it effects.

The McCain campaign's apparently race-neutral approach, and its subsequent accusation that the Obama campaign is playing the race card, is a well-thought-out strategy -- it is pure Nixon. In his recent chronicle of conservative political history in The New Yorker, George Packer describes Pat Buchanan's plan for exploiting political divisions, particularly ones of a racial nature. Buchanan's assessment was that they could "cut the Democratic Party and country in half; my view is that we would have far the larger half."

In a dispute about race, the McCain campaign knows it will end up with the larger half. For the most part, most white people's experience with race isn't one of racial discrimination. They can only relate to racial discrimination in the abstract. What white people can relate to is the fear of being unjustly accused of racism. This is the larger half. This is why allegations of racism often provoke more outrage than actual racism, because most of the country can relate to one (the accusation of racism) easier than the other (actual racism). For this reason, in a political conflict over race, the McCain campaign has the advantage, because saying the race card has been played is actually the ultimate race card.

This is another reason why Barack Obama's unsolicited remarks about how Republicans might use race against him were so ill-advised and a troubling departure from his standard approach to race. Perhaps the endless stereotypes and double standards he faces as a black candidate -- accusations of being a Muslim, of being a black separatist, of being arrogant -- have taken their toll. Directly acknowledging these stereotypes and double standards would be even more dangerous for Obama, because many white people see his campaign as proof that these types of racism no longer exist, which is unfortunately part of his emotional appeal as a candidate. This is why the campaign needs to avoid dealing with race in the context of his rivalry with McCain whenever possible.

Whenever the subject of race or racism is raised, McCain wins, which is why his campaign rushed to accuse Obama of playing the race card. Which is why Obama needs to keep this campaign about policy and, if possible, on the kind of president the hotheaded John McCain would be.

McCain, as I have said before, is playing Nixon in this election. Pretending to be above the fray whilst subtly playing the race card as often as he can get away with. Serwer argues that there is nothing for Obama to gain by entering such a fist fight and that he needs to keep this campaign focused on policy:

Democrats have a candidate who is sophisticated in his understanding of policy, and Republicans have a candidate who is still largely running on his biography as a war hero, whose only coherent and consistent remaining policy position is support for offshore drilling. Driving home that point will become increasingly difficult if McCain is re-energized by the presence of white voters who are themselves anxious about being seen as racist. From their point of view, Obama's presence on the national stage is proof that any charge of racism on their behalf is frivolous. This is nonsense, but there's nothing really that can be done about it.
Presumably, Obama knew that this was a part of the game when he signed up. He had to, because black folks live with it every day. It's probably best for the members of Obama's campaign to do what most people do when confronted with this kind of casual racism -- shake their heads and move on. Anything more is playing into a game they can't possibly win.