On being a black president
I must confess that my first
reaction to Pres. Obama's remarks about Trayvon Martin was outrage.
Here was one more young black man victimized by white racism, and the
president asked us to reflect on his fate. Where were the suggestions
for job and education programs for young black men, where a
re-examination of our voracious prison system, where the bold call
for an alliance of people of color and white
anti-racists
to resist the new racism as we see it in
voter identification laws, in "stand your ground" laws, and
progressively more punitive treatment of young black men?
But
soon I realized that this reaction was unfair and completely
unreasonable. The President can barely get his cabinet members
approved by the Senate. The House of Representatives seems to have
only one goal, to prevent the president from doing anything useful at
all. So how could we expect him to call for a new crusade against
racism?
But
that made me think about being a black president in the United States
today. The United States is still a white country when it comes to
power, to getting one's way, to determining who gets what, who is a
full citizen and who needs to be on the defensive every day. Barack
Obama finds himself at the head all of this white power structure.
His position is to execute laws and regulations, frequently supported
by people motivated by racism. As the head of this white
establishment, he compromises his integrity because he is not only
the President of people of color but also of white citizens, many of
whom are deeply racist. He has to restrain himself and refrain from
proposing actions to mitigate the worst injustices white citizens and
their institutions commit every day.
Yes,
it is progress of a sort to have a black president. Not long ago that
was completely unthinkable. But this black president and any future
one for years to come will be in a terribly ambiguous position that
must surely be painful for him, of being unable to resist racism
where he encounters it and being unable to counteract it by positive
government initiatives.
When, hopefully soon, we elect a
woman as president, we will place her in the same ambiguous and no
doubt painful situation.
We owe President Obama a debt of
gratitude for exposing himself to the pervasive racism in the US and
making himself, occasionally, its executor. He benefits the country
at significant personal cost.
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