The Black Presidency
Page 37
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51. Richard Lentz, Symbols, the News Magazines, and Martin Luther King (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990), esp. pp. 176–177.
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52. “Priest Apologizes for Mocking Clinton While at Obama Church,” CNN, May 30, 2008, http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/30/obama.pfleger/.
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53. Susan Taylor, “What We Can Do to Reclaim Black Children,” L.A. Watts Times, February 14, 2013, http://www.lawattstimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=920:what-we-can-do-to-reclaim-black-children&catid=24&Itemid=119.
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54. Luke 12:48 (New Revised Standard Version).
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4. Re-Founding Father:
Patriotism, Citizenship, and Obama’s America
1. Allison Hoffmann, “Oprah Hosts Obama in Star-Studded Event,” Washington Post, September 9, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801197.html.
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2. Chris Rock has told the story several times, perhaps most famously on the HBO special The Black List (vol. 1), 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q1XU07BIO0.
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3. Randall Kennedy draws a parallel between his father’s bitter resistance to American patriotism and Jeremiah Wright’s pungent racial views in The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency (New York: Pantheon Books, 2011), pp. 161–195.
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4. Michael Eric Dyson, “Understanding Black Patriotism,” Time, April 24, 2008, http://www.webcitation.org/5XKexgdfT.
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5. “Frederick Douglass: ‘The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,’” Zinn Education Project, https://zinnedproject.org/materials/frederick-douglass-the-meaning-of-july-fourth-for-the-negro/.
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6. Langston Hughes, “Let America Be America Again,” http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/let-america-be-america-again.
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7. Lentz, Symbols, p. 239; Dyson, I May Not, p. 62.
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8. Jordan Goodman, Paul Robeson: A Watched Man (New York: Verso, 2013); David Garrow, The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.: From “Solo” to Memphis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981).
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9. Martin Luther King Jr., “I See the Promised Land,” in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., ed. James M. Washington (New York: HarperOne, 2003), p. 282.
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10. James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son (1955; repr., Boston: Beacon Press, 1984), p. 9.
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11. When quizzed at the National Press Club about whether his sermons were unpatriotic, Wright responded: “I feel that those citizens who say that have never heard my sermons, nor do they know me. They are unfair accusations taken from sound bites and that which is looped over and over again on certain channels. I served six years in the military. Does that make me patriotic? How many years did [former Vice President Dick] Cheney serve?” “Reverend Wright at the National Press Club, April 28, 2008,” New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/us/politics/28text-wright.html?pagewanted=all.
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12. Two military veterans—Lawrence Korb, from the U.S. Navy, and Ian Moss, from the Marine Corps—penned an article in the Chicago Tribune to clarify and defend Jeremiah Wright’s notable record of service in the military not long after it was integrated. See Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss, “Factor Military Duty into Criticism,” Chicago Tribune, April 3, 2008, http://www.webcitation.org/5WoiVsN1X.
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13. For more of my thoughts on the subject, see Michael Eric Dyson, Pride: The Seven Deadly Sins (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 85–118.
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14. “Michelle Obama Clarifies: I’ve Always Loved My Country,” CNN, February 20, 2008, http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/20/michelle-obama-clarifies-ive-always-loved-my-country/. Initially, what she said was, “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country, because it feels like hope is making a comeback . . . not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.” It seems a reasonable statement to make for a member of an oppressed minority group that has been denied critical opportunities and systematically prevented from flourishing on a number of fronts. Now that the country had shown a profound willingness to change, Michelle Obama could understandably take pride in the country’s ability to move forward, seen in the groundswell of support for her husband’s historic candidacy. It seemed disingenuous for her critics to deny the legacy of inequality that might make a member of a minority group not as happy, or as proud, as she might otherwise be if that group enjoyed the full benefits and ripe fruit of democracy that the majority has had access to all along. Comedian Chris Rock captured the ambivalence that many blacks feel with regard to being a member of a society that has begun to open doors yet has a history of injustice: “If you’re black, America’s like the uncle that paid your way through college—but molested you.” http://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/feb/26/awardsandprizes.oscars2005.
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15. Herb Galewitz, ed., Patriotism: Quotations from Around the World (Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 2003), p. 27.
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16. Salamishah Tillet, Sites of Slavery: Citizenship and Racial Democracy in the Post–Civil Rights Imagination (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012). Tillet argues that “civic estrangement occurs because [African Americans] have been marginalized or underrepresented in the civic myths, monuments, narratives, icons, creeds and images of the past that constitute, reproduce and promote an American national identity” (p. 18).
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17. David Wright and Sunlen Miller, “Obama Dropped Flag Pin in War Statement,” ABC News, October 4, 2007, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3690000.
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18. David C. Anderson, Crime and the Politics of Hysteria: How the Willie Horton Story Changed American Justice (New York: Crown, 1995).
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19. “McCain Distances Himself from Supporter’s Comments,” CNN, February 26, 2008, http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/26/mccain-distances-himself-from-supporters-comments/.
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20. Barack Obama, “Full Script of Obama’s Speech,” CNN, July 24, 2008, http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/24/obama.words/.
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21. Jonathan Weisman and Juliet Eilperin, “Race Moves to Center Stage,” Washington Post, August 1, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080102970.html.
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22. Barack Obama’s Speech in Independence, Mo., New York Times, June 30, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/us/politics/30text-obama.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
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23. Barack Obama, “What I See in Lincoln’s Eyes,” Time, July 4, 2005, http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1077287,00.html.
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24. Thanks to Noelle Braddock.
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25. Dinesh D’Souza, The Roots of Obama’s Rage (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2010), and Obama’s America: Unmaking the American Dream (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2012).
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26. Grace Wyler, “John Sununu: ‘I Wish This President Would Learn How to Be an American,” The Atlantic, July 17, 2012, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/07/john-sununu-i-wish-this-president-would-learn-how-to-be-an-american/259948/.
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27. Joy Lin, “Gingrich: Obama Is Most Dangerous President in American History,” Fox News, February 20, 2012, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/20/gingrich-obama-is-most-dangerous-president-in-american-history/.
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28. Daniel Halper, “Senator: ‘I Have Not Been Impressed with [Holder’s] Intelligence,’” Weekly Standard, June 13, 2012, http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/senator-i-have-not-been-impressed-holders-intelligence_647204.html.
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29. Kevin Robillard, “McCain: Rice ‘Not Qualified’ for State,” Politico, November 14, 2012, http://www.politico.com/story/2012/11/mccain-rice-not-qualified-for-state-083824.
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30. Jamelle Bouie, “From Good to Great,” Slate, September 25, 2014, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/09/eric_holder_resigning_as_attorney_general_his_justice_department_was_a_staunch.html.
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31. Of the quickly growing body of literature on the modern-day Tea Party, here are some of the best, and the ones that have influenced my view of the Tea Party in these pages: Matthew W. Hughey and Gregory S. Parks, The Wrongs of the Right: Language, Race, and the Republican Party in the Age of Obama (New York: NYU Press, 2014); David Corn, Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party (New York: William Morrow, 2012); Meghan A. Burke, Race, Gender, and Class in the Tea Party: What the Movement Reflects About Mainstream Ideologies (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2015); Kate Zernike, Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America (New York: Times Books, 2010); Anthony DiMaggio, The Rise of the Tea Party: Political Discontent and Corporate Media in the Age of Obama (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2011); and Jill Lepore, The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010).
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32. Haley Crum, “Obama Provides Birth Certificate—on a Button,” Washington Post, August 27, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2012/08/27/obama-provides-birth-certificate-on-a-button/.
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33. Jim Lobe, “As Iraq Anniversary Fades, America’s ‘Strategic Narcissism’ Stands Out,” Inter Press Service, March 24, 2013, http://www.commondreams.org/news/2013/03/24/iraq-anniversary-fades-americas-strategic-narcissism-stands-out.
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34. Adam Shah, “Having Attacked Obama for Overseas ‘Apology Tour,’ Conservative Media Now Attack Him for Not Going to Berlin,” Media Matters, November 9, 2009, http://mediamatters.org/research/2009/11/09/having-attacked-obama-for-overseas-apology-tour/156748.
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35. Barack Obama, “Remarks by President Obama at Strasbourg Town Hall,” Strasbourg, France, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-strasbourg-town-hall.
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36. Barack Obama, “Remarks by President Obama to the Turkish Parliament,” Ankara, April 6, 2009, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-turkish-parliament.
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37. Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President at Cairo University, 6-04-09,” June 4, 2009, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-cairo-university-6-04-09.
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38. Macon Phillips, “Osama Bin Laden Dead,” May 2, 2011, https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/05/02/osama-bin-laden-dead.
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39. Barack Obama, “Statement by the President on ISIL,” The White House, September 10, 2014, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/10/statement-president-isil-1.
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40. Alex Spillius, “Barack Obama Tells Africa to Stop Blaming Colonialism for Problems,” Daily Telegraph (London), July 9, 2009, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/5778804/Barack-Obama-tells-Africa-to-stop-blaming-colonialism-for-problems.html.
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41. Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President to the Ghanaian Parliament,” Accra, July 11, 2009, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-ghanaian-parliament.
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42. “Interview of the President by AllAfrica.com, 7-2-09,” https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/interview-president-allafricacom-7-2-09.
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43. Obama, “Remarks to the Ghanaian Parliament.”
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44. Stephanie Hanson, “Angola’s Political and Economic Development,” Council on Foreign Relations, July 21, 2008, http://www.cfr.org/world/angolas-political-economic-development/p16820.
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45. Terra Lawson-Remer and Joshua Greenstein, “Beating the Resource Curse in Africa: A Global Effort,” Council on Foreign Relations, August 2012, http://www.cfr.org/africa-sub-saharan/beating-resource-curse-africa-global-effort/p28780.
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46. Nancy Birdsall and John Nellis, “Winners and Losers: Assessing the Distributional Impact of Privatization,” World Development 31, no. 10 (October 2003): 1617–33.
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47. Marcy C. Diang, “Colonialism, Neoliberalism, Education and Culture in Cameroon,” paper no. 52 (Fall 2013), DePaul University College of Education, http://via.library.depaul.edu/soe_etd/52; David William Pear, “Africa: Incredible Wealth, Exploitation, Corruption and Poverty for Its People,” Real News Network, January 27, 2014; http://therealnews.com/t2/component/content/article/170-more-blog-posts-from-david-william-pear/1944-africa-incredible-wealth-exploitation-corruption-and-poverty-for-its-people-.
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48. David Levering Lewis, The Race to Fashoda: European Colonialism and African Resistance in the Scramble for Africa (New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987).
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49. Annika McGinnis, “Obama Urges African Nations Not to Make Economic ‘Excuses,’” Reuters, July 28, 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/28/us-africa-obama-idUSKBN0FX1WW20140728.
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50. For competing arguments about the use of Africom by the U.S. military, see Robert Moeller, “The Truth About AFRICOM,” Foreign Policy, July 21, 2010, http://foreignpolicy.com/2010/07/21/the-truth-about-africom/; and Mark P. Fancher, “Dr. Che Guevera’s Prescription for Africa’s AFRICOM Headache,” Black Agenda Report, July 7, 2015, http://www.blackagendareport.com/che_guevara_AFRICOM.
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51. Bret Stephens, “Obama Gets It Right on Africa,” Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2009, http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124753013433935785.
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52. Toni Morrison, “On the Backs of Blacks,” Time, December 2, 1993, http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979736,00.html.
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53. W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903; repr., Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1994), pp. 2–3.
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5. The Scold of Black Folk:
The Bully Pulpit and Black Responsibility
1. Obama, Audacity, p. 387.
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2. See Shirley Sherrod with Catherine Whitney, The Courage to Hope: How I Stood Up to the Politics of Fear (New York: Atria Books, 2012). Given the play in her book title on Obama’s “audacity of hope,” one wonders if Sherrod isn’t suggesting that audaciousness isn’t enough in a political atmosphere that demands the courage of one’s convictions.
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3. Tony Perry, “Shirley Sherrod Vows to Sue Conservative Blogger Who Misrepresented Her Remarks,” Los Angeles Times, July 29, 2010, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/07/shirley-sherrod-speech.html.
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4. Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “For Obama, Nuance on Race Invites Questions,” New York Times, February 8, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/us/politics/09race.html.
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5. “Racial Disparities in Disbursement of Stimulus Funding,” Hispanic Ad.com, January 22, 2010, http://hispanicad.com/blog/news-article/had/government/racial-disparities-disbursement-stimulus-funding.
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6. Mark Kantrowitz, “The Distribution of Grants and Scholarships by Race,” FinAid.org, September 2, 2011, p. 8, http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/20110902racescholarships.pdf.
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7. William Julius Wilson, “Race-Neutral Policies and the Democratic Coalition,” The American Prospect, December 4, 2000, http://prospect.org/article/race-neutral-policies-and-democratic-coalition.
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8. William Julius Wilson, More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (New York: W. W. Norton, 2009), pp. 141–142.
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9. Stolberg, “For Obama, Nuance on Race Invites Questions.”
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10. As I argue elsewhere: “There were at least a few competing versions of the universal floating around. The trick was to incorporate one version of universalism, black rights, into the legal arc of another version of universalism, white privilege, while preserving the necessary illusion of neutrality on which such rights theoretically depended. Hence a philosophical principle—what the philosopher Hegel might call a ‘concrete universal’—was transformed into a political strategy, allowing both whites and blacks to preserve their specific stake in a universal value: democracy. To miss this process—that is, to mistake politics for philosophical principles, or, in turn, to disregard their symbiotic relationship in shaping American democracy—is to distort fatally the improvisational, ramshackle, halt-and-leap fashion by which American politics achieves its goals.” Dyson, I May Not, p. 26.
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11. Michael Eric Dyson, I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Free Press, 2000), p. 18.
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12. Lauren Victoria Burke, “Is Black America Better Off Under Obama?” Black Press USA, January 5, 2015, http://www.blackpressusa.com/is-black-america-better-off-under-obama/#sthash.XlB2XRKv.dpbs; Zak Cheney-Rice, “13 Startling Numbers Reveal the Reality of Black America Under Obama,” IdentitiesMic, December 19, 2014, http://mic.com/articles/106868/13-numbers-that-highlight-the-difference-between-obama-s-post-racial-dream-and-reality. Also see the predictable—and right-for-the-wrong-reasons—attack from the right: Deroy Murdock, “Black Americans Are Worse Off Under Obama,” National Review, May 16, 2014, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/378087/black-americans-are-worse-under-obama-deroy-murdock; and Jennifer G. Hickey, “Race Gap: Blacks Fall Further Behind Under Obama,” Newsmax, January 8, 2014, http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-blacks-poverty-education/2014/01/08/id/545866/. And, of course, from the black left: Dr. Reginald Clark, “The Expansion of Black American Misery Under Barack Obama’s Watch,” Black Agenda Report, February 9, 2013, http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/expansion-black-american-misery-under-barack-obama’s-watch.