Broadcasting Obama
- 05.08.2008 - 11:56 AMBarack Obama supporters often argue that a black U.S. president, such as Obama, will be welcomed by the world as a sign of American progress and inclusiveness, a signal to all nations that the U.S. is open to the talents and contributions of diverse peoples. But the idea that the rest of the world shares Americans’ faith in redemption through diversity is itself an unwitting exercise in American solipsism. The perception of the globe as a collection of integrated, post-racial states just speaks to Americans’ capacity to see the entire world as a reflection of our values and standards.
Is it an accident that the rest of the Western world has yet to produce anything approaching a black head of state? In France, for example, only one of approximately 600 members of Parliament is a member of a racial minority. England fares slightly better with fifteen out of 645. Germany’s largest minority, ethnic Turks, make up ten percent of the population, yet they hold less than one percent of the seats in Parliament. Spain’s number are worse than any of the above. Italy is poised to appoint as deputy prime minister a man from the racist Northern League party, who once said that France had “sacrificed its identity by fielding [in the World Cup] niggers, Muslims and communists.”
As you read this, Europe grows less tolerant still, with far-right nationalists making their way to higher and higher office. Still, Europe is a hippie musical compared to Asia and Africa, where ethnic and religious segregation is not only institutional, but fatal. Moving east to west: There are frequent, sometimes deadly, clashes between Hui Muslims and Han Chinese. Throughout the Arab world, racism against blacks is rampant, and in Mauritania pockets of Arab-on-black chattel slavery still exist. Then backtrack a little to the Levant. In 2006, when Condoleezza Rice was on a diplomatic mission to the Middle East, the daily Palestinian Authority periodical, Al Hayat Al Jadida consistently referred to her in racist terms and ran a cartoon of the Secretary of State pregnant with a monkey.
Yet Jimmy Carter, who’s made the Palestinian cause his pet project, insists that, in the eyes of the world, Barack Obama “will bring to the presidency a brand new picture of what the White House and Washington and the United States ought to be.” And he’s not alone. The refrain is constant.
With Obama’s nomination a lock, there’s been increasing discussion of what his Presidency might produce. Time and again, conversation comes back to this question of a black president and America’s image abroad. Yet, no one can name a single country that isn’t ages behind the U.S. in terms of diversity and integration. The notion that there’s a soft and cuddly world just waiting for America to catch up is not “global consciousness” but the very opposite: it is an American fantasy born of prosperity and isolation. If neoconservatives are criticized for their arrogance in assuming the universality of American ideals, how will Obama supporters of this stripe answer similar charges?
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May 8th, 2008 at 12:12 PM
I can’t speak for the people who have made the claim you are criticising, but to me the idea of an African-American president is appealing not because I believe America will be “catching up” to an already “soft and cuddly world”, but rather because it will provide a model of tolerance for diversity which we and the rest of the world would do well to emulate and learn from.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:24 PM
Oh, and then there’s at whole “Muslim apostate” thing. For if there’s one thing our Islamic enemies hate more than Americans, it’s ex-Muslims.
But good luck with that, Obama.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:38 PM
I don’t think Obama admits to having ever been a Muslim at any point of his life.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:38 PM
Aside from the astonishment and disgust that such an unimpressive and unqualified bush league politico could get within a light year of the White House, there is my near disbelief at people like Noah (and Michael Barone) who fall like adolescents for stupid and superficial identity politics and symbolism. Has there ever been a more idiotic statement than that early in the Clinton years of getting a cabinet that “looks like America”? Those whose jaws don’t drop at such a ridiculous approach to serious matters are probably beyond reasoning.
Just look at how two consecutive black Secs of State (one is a woman!!!) has affected, oh, anything at all. Nada. Of course not. While their minds in many cases are crowded with silliness and fantasy, foreign decision-makers don’t give a damn what someone looks like when they represent the US, they care what their policies are. The fact that both Powell and Rice were semi-disastrous appointments should serve to remind folks that substance, not symbolism, count for everything.
If the US had an image problem you could lay off most of the foreign service nationals now staffing our consular sections far and wide, and take down the ropes that organize the lines forming outside the consulates.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:48 PM
It may well be that an African-American president would provide a model for diversity that we and the rest of the world would benefit from. But that is not quite the extent of what is being claimed. What *Is* being claimed– at least implicitly, and if not by Noah, then by many, many others– is that perceptions of American racism hinder America’s image in a non-racist world. Greenwald’s point, if I take it correctly, is that global society is *More* racist and *More* exclusionary– not less– than American society, and so a political demonstration of American tolerance will yield little-or-nothing in the way of additional pro-American goodwill, and indeed will probably yield additional anti-American contempt and aggression.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:14 PM
“I don’t think Obama admits to having ever been a Muslim at any point of his life”…
He may not admit it - for political reasons - but the fact remains that he was born and raised as a Muslim. It’s considered taboo and ‘anti-Muslim’ to mention this in the media, but the facts are there for anyone willing to dig deeper into the story.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:30 PM
I agree with Abe that the idea of Obama rebranding the U.S. by his multiracial ancestral heritage without a corresponding change in U.S. policy is silly. Now if the U.S. adopts Kyoto, we can be more popular with Europe. If we close Gitmo, ditto. If we dissolve our missile defense plans and stop NATO expansion, popularity will ensue with Russia. If we cut our alliance with Israel, popularity with Arab countries will ensue. If we cut our ties to Taiwan and South Korea, we’ll be popular with China and N. Korea. If we eliminate our alliance with Colombia, we will be more friendly with Venezuela. The real question is what matters for to us - our interests and protecting demococies abroad, or assuaging our fair-weather friends and enemies.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:31 PM
Every day I get the same old sh*t drummed in my ears about America’s low stature with the rest of the world, and because of Bush and the neo-cons we are the most dangerous country (feh), blah, blah, blah.
What crap! Just saw a post somewhere that by 2035, the majority in the UK will be Muslim. I’ll take the “horrible” US of A any day.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:37 PM
Dennis — It is an absolute lie that Obama was ever a Muslim. He was born and raised by his aethist white mother and there is no evidence that his Black father (who had almost no contact with him before he died) was a practicising Muslim.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:38 PM
Marketing isn’t the ‘be all and end all’ that our business and institutional cultures seem to think it is, so, simply marketing a prettier version of a president won’t do a thing.
The reason I would like to see an African American president (in the future, not Obama) is that it shows our system allows everyone to have a shot. Of course, that reason goes for a whole variety of biographical types that haven’t made it to the presidency, yet, and I think overall our system is doing a pretty good job of correcting past errors so that everyone does have a shot.