Neo-race Realities in the Obama Era

Description

Neo-race Realities in the Obama Era expands the discourse about Barack Obama's two terms as president by reflecting upon the impact of neo-racism during his tenure. Continually in conversation with Étienne Balibar's conceptualization of neo-racism as being racism without race, the contributors examine how identities become the target of neo-racist discriminatory practices and policies in the United States. Individual chapters explore how President Obama's multiple and intersecting identities beyond the racial binaries of Black and White were perceived, as well as how his presence impacted certain marginalized groups in our society as a result of his administration's policies. Evidencing the hegemonic complexity of neo-racism in the United States, the contributors illustrate how the mythic post-race society that many wished for on election night in 2008 was deferred, in order to return to the uncomfortable comfort zone of the way America used to be.
List of Illustrations

Foreword
Amardo Rodríguez

Acknowledgments

Introduction
Heather E. Harris

Part I

1. Obama’s Transformation of American Myths
Zoë Hess Carney

2. Transformational Masculinity and Fathering in the Age of Obama: “Roses and Thorns”
Shanette M. Harris

3. How Obama’s Hybridity Stifled Black Nationalist Rhetorical Identity: An Ideological Analysis on His Two-Term
Third-Space Leadership
Omowale T. Elson

Part II

4. “Who Gets to Say Hussein? The Impact of Anti-Muslim Sentiment during the Obama Era”
Nura A. Sediqe

5. The End of AIDS? A Critical Analysis of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy
Andrew R. Spieldenner, Tomeka M. Robinson, and Anjuliet G. Woodruffe

6. The President Was Black, Y’all: Presidential Humor, Neo-racism, and the Social Construction of Blackness and
Whiteness
Jenny Ungbha Korn

7. L’homme de la créolisation: Obama, Neo-racism, and Cultural and Territorial Creolization
Douglas-Wade Brunton

Notes
List of Contributors
Index

Sujets

• National
• États-Unis
• The
• Central
• History of the Americas
• Central government
• 21st century
• English articles
• United States of America
• USA

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438474168
• Langue: English

Extrait

Neo-race Realities in the Obama Era
Neo-race Realities in the Obama Era
Edited by
Heather E. Harris
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2019 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Harris, Heather E., editor.
Title: Neo-race realities in the Obama era / edited by Heather E. Harris.
Description: Albany : State University of New York, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018027994 | ISBN 9781438474151 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438474168 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: United States—Race relations—21st century. | Racism—United States. | Post-racialism—United States. | Obama, Barack—Influence.
Classification: LCC E184.A1 N368 2019 | DDC 305.800973/0905—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018027994
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Amardo Rodríguez
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Heather E. Harris
Part I
1 Obama’s Transformation of American Myths
Zoë Hess Carney
2 Transformational Masculinity and Fathering in the Age of Obama: “ Roses and Thorns ”
Shanette M. Harris
3 How Obama’s Hybridity Stifled Black Nationalist Rhetorical Identity: An Ideological Analysis on His Two-Term Third-Space Leadership
Omowale T. Elson
Part II
4 “Who Gets to Say Hussein? The Impact of Anti-Muslim Sentiment during the Obama Era”
Nura A. Sediqe
5 The End of AIDS? A Critical Analysis of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy
Andrew R. Spieldenner, Tomeka M. Robinson, and Anjuliet G. Woodruffe
6 The President Was Black, Y’all: Presidential Humor, Neo-racism, and the Social Construction of Blackness and Whiteness
Jenny Ungbha Korn
7 L’homme de la créolisation: Obama, Neo-racism, and Cultural and Territorial Creolization
Douglas-Wade Brunton
Notes
List of Contributors
Index
Illustrations Figure 3.1 Convergence Spiral of Identity Complex for Black Nationalism. Figure 3.2 Media-Generated Perceptions of Obama. Figure 4.1 “Do You Believe President Obama Is a Muslim?” Figure 4.2 Public Perceptions toward Religious Groups. Figure 4.3 Countries of Origin. Figure 4.4 Discrimination and Identity.
Foreword
A MARDO R ODRÍGUEZ
Our actions and decisions always have consequences and implications. This is why our actions and decisions matter. So when the United States finally elected and reelected a Black man to be President, this had many important consequences and implications. Heather Harris has put together an impressive set of essays that looks at some of these consequences and implications. The essays are organized around the notion of identity, specifically how identity is being negotiated and contested after the election and reelection of the first Black President of the United States. This volume promises to make an important contribution to various discourses about identity, which emerged after the election and reelection of Barack Obama.
Indeed, many contend that our first Black President was in no way our first Black President. He was supposedly our first biracial President. His father was just as Black as his mother was White. Compounding this identity controversy is the fact that our first Black President values convergence rather than divergence. He came to prominence claiming that, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is the United States of America. There is not a Black America, a White America, a Latino America, an Asian America. There is the United States of America.” This convergence trope pervades his most popular speeches. However, to claim that there is no Black America or White America is to make believe that the people who constitute these two groups have the same history and deal with the same challenges and circumstances. This is false by any measure of comparison. Case in point, after full terms, the facts reveal that Black folks economically regressed across the board under the first Black President and the number of people in poverty exploded. Only the rich got richer. In fact, never before had so few become so rich.
So yes, identity matters because our actions and decisions have consequences and implications. How we choose to perceive, experience, and narrate ourselves, and how others choose to perceive, experience, and narrate us, matters. It especially matters in a society that is eager to be post-race, that wants to be convinced that after the election of the first Black President, race is now behind us. Post-race means valuing commonality (“There is only the United States of America) rather than diversity (“There is not a Black America, a White America”). We achieve this kind of commonality by masking and downplaying the diversity within groups, such as masking and downplaying the diversity in any Muslim community. We reveal this kind of commonality when we say that certain things are offensive to persons of a certain group, when in fact no group is ever of one rationality, one sensibility, one modality, one history.
Post-race also means privileging economics over politics, such as Jason Riley, author of False Black Power , calling for Black folks to focus on fiscal capital rather than political capital. Most of all, post-race means the end of history, as in the end of Black folks claiming that the legacy of over 400 years of slavery, Black codes, and Jim Crow still impacts the present. Simply put, post-race means emphasizing opportunity rather than history. If a Black man can now become President, then race—or any other kind of difference that was historically marginalized in the U.S.—supposedly no longer has any purchase, and thereby should no longer figure prominently in anything, including identity. From a post-race perspective, our focus should now be on taking advantage of the opportunities that are supposedly there for the taking, regardless of our race, religion, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, or nationality.
Identity must supposedly have nothing to do with history. However, when history is erased, difference is erased, merely another face in a Benetton poster. It means nothing. Challenges nothing. Threatens nothing. Opposes nothing. Stands for nothing. As such, in order for identity to matter, history must remain prominent, which means Black folks reminding this society that choosing to enslave and brutalize a group of people for over 400 years has consequences and implications, and these consequences and implications still linger. Collectively, the essays in this volume do an impressive job of revealing and documenting this important fact.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the Divine who inspires me and to my late mother, Mrs. Euralene Greaves Harris, whose spiritual presence, 40 years later, still comforts and supports me in good and challenging times. Always remembered. Always felt. Always loved.
A hearty and loving thank you to my family and friends, in Canada, the United States, and Barbados, including but never limited to my father, Mr. Ralph Harris; my brothers, Mr. Wayne Harris, and Mr. David Harris; Mr. Graham Prescod; my aunt, Mrs. Eugene Harper; my late Uncle Mr. Selbourne (Uncle Sonny) Greaves, and my late aunt Mrs. Wilma Braithwaite; my cousins, Ms. Lorna Ajala, Ms. Brenda King, Mr. Marcus Francis, Ms. Angela Harris, and my late cousin Mr. Michael Philip (Mr. Miguel); and my tribe of nieces, nephews, and godchildren; and Mr. Victor Ajala.
To my friends and support team, I express gratitude to Dr. Roy Reese, Dr. Robin Means-Coleman, Dr. Amardo Rodriguez, Dr. Carolyn Stroman, Dr. Mutsumi Takahashi, Mr. Reudon Eversley, Ms. Sandy Daniels, Ms. Deborah Medford, Mrs. Balencia Owens, Ms. Karen Carter, Dr. Deric Greene, and Ms. Lori Rubeling; my Howard University Professors, especially Dr. Melbourne Cummings and the late Dr. Lyndrey Niles who made my Howard journey possible; Sista Docs, Dr. Clover Baker Brown, Dr. Cherylann Charles Williamson, Dr. Laura Dorsey Elson, Dr. Diane Forbes Berthoud, Dr. Sharnine Herbert, and Dr. Kimberly Moffitt; and the late Mrs. Marlene Corley and Mrs. Rena Simms.
Thank you to my contributors for your unending commitment to, and enthusiasm for, this project.
To the State University of New York (SUNY) Press team, and especially to Senior Acquisitions Editor, Dr. Michael Rinella, and Senior Production Editor, Ms. Eileen Nizer, thank you for your guidance and encouragement during the publishing process.
To the reviewers, I am grateful for your thorough feedback. Thank you!
Thank you also to my students, friends, and colleagues at Stevenson University for your support.
Peace, love, and laughter.
Introduction
H EATHER E. H ARRIS
We recognize that the excluded are never simply excluded and that their marginalization reflects and determines the shape, texture, and boundaries of the dominant order and its associated privileged communities. The identities of the latter are inevitably defined in opposition to, and as a negation of, the representations of the margin