Neo-Race Realities In The Obama Era

176 Pages·2019·1.124 MB·English

by  Heather E. Harris

Neo-race Realities in
the Obama Era

Neo-race Realities in
the Obama Era
Edited by
Heather E. Harris
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2019 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic,
electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise
without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Harris, Heather E., editor.
Title: Neo-race realities in the Obama era / edited by Heather E. Harris.
Description: Albany : State University of New York, [2019] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018027994 | ISBN 9781438474151 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781438474168 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: United States—Race relations—21st century. | Racism—United
States. | Post-racialism—United States. | Obama, Barack—Influence.
Classification: LCC E184.A1 N368 2019 | DDC 305.800973/0905—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018027994
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Foreword ix
Amardo Rodríguez
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
Heather E. Harris
Part I
1 Obama’s Transformation of American Myths 3
Zoë Hess Carney
2 Transformational Masculinity and Fathering in the
Age of Obama: “Roses and Thorns” 23
Shanette M. Harris
3 How Obama’s Hybridity Stifled Black Nationalist Rhetorical
Identity: An Ideological Analysis on His Two-Term
Third-Space Leadership 53
Omowale T. Elson
Part II
4 “Who Gets to Say Hussein? The Impact of Anti-Muslim
Sentiment during the Obama Era” 75
Nura A. Sediqe
vi Contents
5 The End of AIDS? A Critical Analysis of the National
HIV/AIDS Strategy 93
Andrew R. Spieldenner, Tomeka M. Robinson, and
Anjuliet G. Woodruffe
6 The President Was Black, Y’all: Presidential Humor,
Neo-racism, and the Social Construction of Blackness and
Whiteness 109
Jenny Ungbha Korn
7 L’homme de la créolisation: Obama, Neo-racism, and
Cultural and Territorial Creolization 131
Douglas-Wade Brunton
Notes 145
List of Contributors 147
Index 151
Illustrations
Figure 3.1 Convergence Spiral of Identity Complex for
Black Nationalism. 64
Figure 3.2 Media-Generated Perceptions of Obama. 67
Figure 4.1 “Do You Believe President Obama Is a Muslim?” 77
Figure 4.2 Public Perceptions toward Religious Groups. 79
Figure 4.3 Countries of Origin. 83
Figure 4.4 Discrimination and Identity. 86
vii

Foreword
Amardo Rodríguez
Our actions and decisions always have consequences and implications.
This is why our actions and decisions matter. So when the United States
finally elected and reelected a Black man to be President, this had many
important consequences and implications. Heather Harris has put together
an impressive set of essays that looks at some of these consequences and
implications. The essays are organized around the notion of identity, spe-
cifically how identity is being negotiated and contested after the election
and reelection of the first Black President of the United States. This volume
promises to make an important contribution to various discourses about
identity, which emerged after the election and reelection of Barack Obama.
Indeed, many contend that our first Black President was in no way
our first Black President. He was supposedly our first biracial President.
His father was just as Black as his mother was White. Compounding
this identity controversy is the fact that our first Black President values
convergence rather than divergence. He came to prominence claiming
that, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There
is the United States of America. There is not a Black America, a White
America, a Latino America, an Asian America. There is the United States
of America.” This convergence trope pervades his most popular speeches.
However, to claim that there is no Black America or White America is to
make believe that the people who constitute these two groups have the
same history and deal with the same challenges and circumstances. This
is false by any measure of comparison. Case in point, after full terms, the
facts reveal that Black folks economically regressed across the board under
ix