Obama Reelection Ad

No one cares about Italians for Santorum, etc., because Italians are a subset of whiteness and wield a relatively diluted power when they put themselves forward as Italians. They are rightly seen as attempting to rally around a circumscribed set of interests that do not necessarily portend some sort of wider domination.

There would be some hubub about a candidate trying to rally whites as the potential for domination of minority subgroups would be seen as an implicit possibility. At least if you have any sort of sense of history and white power, etc.

Black power has a more nuanced history because, in addition to racist nonsense, there is a broader underpinning to it that involves fighting for equality and access, etc. Those are two different sets of interests, one of which this nation has always punished or marginalized with severity, and the other of which the country has on occasion recognized as laudable, even supportable. Same with Women's rights vs Men's rights, etc.

African Americans are an important voting block for Obama. The Ad is hardly different from a visit to a black community center. Would it be racist of Obama to visit such a place and speak about his version of the Admin's record on and support for black interests? Is the problem that blacks see themselves as having particular interests that are at least in part deeply rooted in their experience as blacks in America?

Blacks, Hispanics, women, gays (I believe) find themselves in a world that labels and circumscribes them. They adopt a certain amount of the logics and socio-cultural practices that are involved with the construct of race. It is hard, if not impossible, not to. They naturally consider themselves to be members of a subgroup of Americans and to share certain interests, though some have multiple self-identifications with subgroups. Blackness is a powerful mark and usually trumps most others for those who wear the mark. Blacks vote liberal because conservatism hasn't been particularly helpful. Whichever party carries that torch gets their vote as a group that share a powerful marker of experience and, therefore, interests. Obama knows they are important to his re-election bid. He is going to target the groups that he feels will support him. Blacks are such a group. If he wants to get their attention, he needs to recognize the group and call them by name. The group identification is based on race. Noting that is not racist, though it is racialized, which is to say connected with race.


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