Obama and Race, Part Two

When Obama was Barry, his grandmother admitted to him that she was afraid of blacks. Madelyn Payne Dunham loved Obama “as much as she loves anything in this world.” And, nevertheless, she was capable of uttering “racial or ethnic stereotypes” that embarrassed the now president of the United States.

For reasons like this, Florida passed the “Stand Your Ground” law in 2007, which permits citizens to use violence if they are threatened. And for this reason George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watchman, was set free after shooting and killing Trayvon Martin.

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around looking about. He’s just staring, looking at all the houses. He’s coming to check me out. He’s got something in his hands. I don’t know what his deal is… These assholes, they always get away.” This is the transcript of the call that Zimmerman made to the police last February 26, when he saw Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American, walking through the streets of Orlando. Later he shot and killed him. Trayvon was visiting a friend of his father’s; he had left to buy a bag of Skittles and an iced tea. He was wearing a hood and that scared Zimmerman.

“There are neighborhoods where crime is common with blacks who have fewer opportunities to access services such as education,” explains José Manuel Roca, author of Black Nation, Black Power. “This is unquestionable. But the lack of opportunities has created a marginal culture that does not remain in the ghettos and transcends the population. And that is manifested in events like the killing of Trayvon.”

The death of the young African-American has opened a new racial debate in the United States. One month after the killing protests took place. They began in Florida and have extended throughout the entire country: The players of the Miami Heat NBA team posed wearing hoods and prominent African American leaders like Jesse Jackson have asked to turn “pain into power.”

Even President Obama, rarely willing to directly address racial issues, referred to the case at a news conference: “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” Roca explains that, “Obama presented himself in 2008 primarily as a North American, not as a black man.” His objective was “to cut any hint of race from his campaign, so as not to have revanchist politics.”

It’s impossible to know what would have happened if Obama had run a different type of campaign, but an AP-Ipsos survey found that he would have achieved six points more if he were white. Tammy Frisby, of the conservative think-tank Hoover Institution, interviewed by the site Politico, states that the established consensus is that Obama lost between 2-3 percent of the votes because he is black.

Post-Racial Elections

Will the 2012 elections be the first post-racial ones? “My sense is it will play out the same way as it did in 2008,” states Frisby. Republican candidate Newt Gingrich called Obama’s assessment of Trayvon’s death “disgraceful.” “Is the president suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot that would be ok because it didn’t look like him?” he asked. David Plouffe, advisor to Obama, called these words “reprehensible.”

The racial debate has never ceased to be out of the frontline of politics. Many saw racist motivations when Arizona governor Jane Brewer wagged her finger at Obama during a disagreement this past January. First Lady Michelle Obama denounced the attempt to create the image of her as an “angry black woman” with the publication of a book about the presidential couple. Recently, actor Robert de Niro apologized for comments about her.

There is, according to Roca, “an eternal, unresolved race problem.” It causes, for example, the police to lash out against African-Americans “because they seem suspicious.” Much remains to be done, states the sociologist, like offering minorities more opportunities or providing social and educational assistance. “There remains a marginal culture that is difficult to get rid of, which causes a culture of survival that is manifested, ultimately, in crime. We need lots of help from institutions, but the crisis delays it,” finishes Roca.