American
Studies and the elephant in the room when it comes to race in contemporary
America.
The early
2008 Reverend Wright controversy and Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech in
response, as well as the responses on the right that Obama had
“thrown his grandmother under the bus” in part of that speech. The competing
visions of the election itself: as a triumph of
a “post-racial America,” as the culmination
of the Civil Rights movement, or as an
election stolen by ACORN. The literally untold numbers of racist images, jokes, slurs, and narratives created
by Obama’s
opponents. The books, whether attacking Obama’s identity (such as one on his
“Kenyan anti-colonial worldview”), highlighting its
symbolic power, or simply analyzing its racial and ethnic
contexts. It’s no stretch to say that race has been the single most
consistently defining aspect of Obama’s national presence over the last four
years, and no long-shot to say that it will be just as
defining in the upcoming election as well. [Which will be the recent
election when this post runs. So adjust that sentence accordingly in your
mind.]
Yet aside
from the more complex, scholarly engagements provided by books like the last
two linked in that sentence above—and possibly by other
books by up-and-coming young American Studiers—it’s also
fair to say that we haven’t, in our collective conversations about the issue, analyzed race and Obama so much as
deployed narratives in that general direction. Perhaps that’s a given—certainly
much (all?) of our politics these days consists of deploying narratives rather
than analyzing—but us American Studiers can and should work to push those
conversations in more analytical and meaningful directions. Take, for example,
the 2010
moment when Obama self-identified on the census as “black/African Am”: it might
be impossible for our current racial narratives to deal with that moment with
any real complexity; whereas an American Studies perspective could connect that
complex choice to the long
histories of mixed race Americans’ self-images and identities, to literary
and cultural representations of those identities, to questions
of passing and racial definitions and community in America, to David
Hollinger’s emphases on “voluntary affiliations” as a new defining 21st
century category of identity, to the evolution
of the census itself (which had in 2000 for the first time
included a separate category for “mixed race,” one checked by 6.8 million
Americans; yet which had cut that category for the 2010 census), and more.
That’s one
example; it will come as a significant shock to you all, I’m sure, that I could
go into another half-dozen or –million more. But as I have tried to do in the
past, and will of course keep trying to do, I’d rather turn the American
Studying over to you guys instead. So tell me: to what American histories,
questions, issues, images, ideas, debates, figures, or stories would you turn
to develop American Studies analyses of President Obama? Obviously that can and
should go well beyond race, and wherever your American Studies perspectives
take you and us will be very welcome; although I’d certainly be interested to
hear your connections through this specific lens of race as well. In any case,
I’d much, much rather end this week’s series (which I will do with a new post
of mine tomorrow and then the crowd-sourced post this weekend) by adding some
more voices and perspectives into the mix than by continuing to simply feature
my own. So have at it! If you don’t want to log in to post a comment, email ‘em
to me (brailton@fitchburgstate.edu)! Or
Tweet ‘em (@AmericanStudier)!
Final post
in the series tomorrow,
Ben
PS. You
know what to do!
11/8 Memory Day nominee: Dorothy
Day!
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