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Can We Say 'Fuck Whitey' If the President Is Black?
Obama's victory creates an identity crisis for black men. Whom do we rail against if the guy in the Oval Office is one of us?
Obama’s election necessitates a rethinking of what it means to be a black man.
In our blood there’s a rebelliousness, in our heart there’s a certainty that America hates us, and in our soul there’s an acceptance that America considers us the monster. Black men call each other nigga, in part as a sarcastic embracement of monster status. It’s an article of faith that the country couldn’t, and wouldn’t, fully accept us. We don’t feel fully embraced by America—we often feel officially shunned and hated by America—and it’s showed in major American moments. We celebrated the first O.J. verdict with a sneer at the country—we didn’t particularly love O.J., but we certainly loved seeing the system fight and lose. After 9/11, many black New Yorkers, including Jay-Z, expressed to me that they most definitely felt a twoness, two warring ideas: a sadness for America and the lives lost, but also the chickens coming home to roost. When Hurricane Katrina hit, we felt a devastation more profound, because we saw the literal abandonment of the (mostly black) people left behind as a symbol, a synecdoche of the figurative abandonment we’ve always felt from America.
How can we feel America hates us when a black man is elected president?
When we celebrate Obama’s victory, we will celebrate with America. We will jump alongside supporters of all races. This is a victory for everyone (as opposed to O.J., where whites felt disappointed) and a victory that makes us feel included, rather than exacerbating the divide.
Many of us knew exactly what Michelle meant when she said that for the first time in her adult life she was proud of America. Sure, the country has given us many reasons to be proud before, but it’s also given us many reasons to be ashamed—from slavery to Dred Scott to segregation to Emmett Till to the notorious syphilis experiment to Rodney King to racial profiling to Amadou Diallo to torture to Abu Ghraib to the response to Katrina to Jena to…Barack doesn’t resolve any of that, but how can you not be proud of an America that would put race aside and choose him? (An aside to Michelle Bachmann, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and others who would be offended now—it’s very American to be torn about America and deeply patriotic to make use of my First Amendment rights and criticize America. It is un-American to intimidate or otherwise silence critics of America. We don’t blame America, we criticize because we love, because we see America’s faults and we know how great this country could be. To silence critique is communist.)
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Touré is a columnist for The Daily Beast. He's also an NBC contributor and the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN's first pop culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times.
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Touré is a columnist for The Daily Beast. He's also an NBC contributor and the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN's first pop culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times.
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Touré is a columnist for The Daily Beast. He's also an NBC contributor and the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN's first pop culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times.
Whites were "disappointed" by the O.J. verdict? Wow. We were enraged by the O.J. verdict.
A spoiled athlete who had a history of domestic violence -- and was protected by the LAPD -- used race in the most cynical way possible in order to manipulate a verdict no reasonable person, black or white, could possibly defend.
If Toure has a daughter, I hope she is never treated by any man, the way O.J. treated Nicole Brown Simpson.
Fortunately, white people are not the cartoon characters Toure would like to paint us as. We can easily see the difference between a childish thug like O.J. and a brilliant, grown-up like Barack Obama.
Nice article. I just had a long conversation with a friend tonight and we concluded that Obama means hope, more than anything else -- more than change, more than fairness, more than any other ideal. Of course, the hope he represents will be different for blacks as opposed to whites, but nonetheless, he gives us all, and the world, the same thing: Hope that the future is a better place. There's an overwhelming feeling that we're all in this together now... and I sincerely believe that Obama will at least give his all in destroying the racist socio-economic system that has kept black people down for generations and conditioned whites to ignore the injustices forced upon our black neighbors. I'm talking about the ghettos, the lack of equal opportunity, the lack of education and the lack of hope. I can believe Barack will bring this change because of what he has accomplished in winning the presidency. He overcame so much hate, so much fear, and really had to combat not only anti-black sentiment, but also a disgusting anti-muslim smear campaign. I never thought he'd win, but I've learned it's foolish to underestimate Barack Obama! He can do it! And so can we!
Please, Mr. Toure, stop comparing OJ and Obama. Please. It's too much.
As for the African-American male's self-image, I think you're right that Obama ups the ante. It may be time for the black men you mention, the ones with "a certainty that America hates us" (not necessarily the majority of black men, by the way) to grow up, and step up.
Change is good.
Mr. Toure, I suggest you and your editor look up the meaning of "communist" before using it erroneously. Dissent is not silenced in a classic Communist regime, but in a Totalitarian regime. I can see how you could be confused since all Communist regimes have turned Totalitarian rather quickly.
Otherwise, you have an overall nice article. Hopefully, this will repudiate the damaging "thug" and "nigga" victimisation stereotype that the hip-hop culture has force-fed two generations of black males and was every bit as damaging as the subservient "piccaninnny" stereotype of the '30's and 40's.
It is time we move beyond the 19th century artificial construct of race that has been used as a wedge to divide the underclass of this country and look at people only for the content of their character as Dr. King implored. When we stop repeating the "dark skin" bias through endless unproductive discussion of it, we cease to give it power, so please give it a rest and move into a future where we just refuse to acknowledge such thinking.
"Black" and "White" are social constructs - we make up what they mean. Obama is a well educated person who understands the world in a way that Bush and McCain never will. He appeals to people of any skin color who see the need for intelligence and good judgment in the White House. In 2008 this is no longer a "race" issue. The content of his character is more important than the color of his skin to the majority of Americans today. Go MLK.
AND WHEN DOES THIS GOOD JUDGEMENT BEGIN,BY THIS HALF KENYAN FORIEGNER
What's tragic is the continuation of racial politics. That a black man (or woman) can even say "fuck whitey" without censure is untenable. The word nigger has been elevated to a sacred profanity --replaced with the ubiquiotus n-word---whilst other racisl epithets--like "fuck whitey"--remain. What a racket; blaming everyone elkse for your failure using skin color as the excuse. Unbelievable. Who are the racists in America now? Blacks.
Is it going to be white vs black or will Barack Obama be taken as an other US president and seen as American alone?
This man is not an American black man, he is a foriegn black man, they have nothing in common
We should remember also that sharing a particular "race" does not equate to sharing a worldview. Yes, history casts a long, often-ugly shadow over all of us. But thankfully diversity comes in many forms; diversity of thought being perhaps the most important.
I think that not that you are wrong but you don't take it into consideration that his mother was white his dad black making him just as white as he is black. He also was raised by his white grandmother. Somebody told me the other day that he voted for Obama because he will take care of his people (refering to blacks and minorities) when in reality he is just as white as he is black. You sound just as ignorent as he did.
Not to belabor the point but, Obama is not African American. He is an American of Color. He is of mixed race and the offspring of an African (Kenyan) not an African American father and a white American Mother. He is what used to be derogatorily described as a half cast.
The fact that Obama's father was not African American is significant in that he did not come from a lineage that went through the struggle that African Americans had to suffer through, from Slaves to Free Equal Citizens.
His Father and his forefathers had always been and considered themselves Free citizens of Kenya. Therefore they did not carry the psychological scars that inevitably come with the history of struggle of African Americans.
That is why Obama is so free of any hangups, complexes and can exude such confidence and identify with all races. That is why he ran for all Americans and is able to move among whites as well as blacks as if he is one of us.
This man was sent by some higher power to bridge the devide between races and peoples all over the world.
He will have no bias against one or the other, he belongs to all of us black and white.
I think some of these commentors missed the point of this commentary. No one is comparing Obama to OJ, he is comparing the social impacts of the events. And yes, the OJ trial had a significant impact on race in America.
"Who are the racists in America now? Blacks." That is racist dude. Think bigger picture... all races have bigots, if you think different your being ignorant. There is no excuse for racism. Period.
As a "white man" (I could digress here and ask why am I not an Irish American? Or... am I? Why aren't we all just Americans?) ... As a white man married to a black woman who have two children together I have been introduced to the light-dark skinned bias, that I really wasn't aware of before. I grew up in both mostly black neighborhoods and also mostly white neighborhoods. I witnessed many different types of racism and discrimination. I saw my black friends roughed up by cops, white folks spit on by blacks, white people sneer at me for being friends with blacks and my black friends treated badly because they hang with a white kid. What I learned from everything I saw and experienced was the amount of good and bad that people are capable of over something as small as the color of your skin. Lets hope that Obama makes it possible for everyone to see the good they are capable of despite the their color and realize there is NO good in any kind of racism over any kind of skin color, lightskinned, darkskinned or a pink redhead dude like me.
We're missing the point here, Toure'.... the vote was against the Republican Gangsters on Wall Street, et al... not for Omama! B.O. is in reality, by any viseral appraisal, an on-the -job trainee, and yet another Harvard Law School grad. Won't the public ever learn?
This is government of the lawyers, for the lawyers, by the lawyers.... regardless of what color they might happen to be by some twist of fate at a weak moment in our nations history.
Instead of cursing "Whitey" and blaming "them", Caucasian- Americans, for all your problems... just say when our democracy collapses: "Fuck the lawyers!"
That would be much more intellectual, thoughtful and appropriate.
I agree with you whole heartedly, however I don't think we should be having a discussion about the color of his skin or wether he is half black or half white, the fact is he is an American, more so a human being one of us. irrespective of his color, he represents all of us. It's time for us as a nation to sieze the opportunity to make this nation one of the greatest nations ever my looking pass skin color or ethnicity and in so doing embarce our similarities along with our differences, because that will ultimately deternmine how great we become as a people and a country and ultimately the legacy that we will leave behind for the next generations, would we have turn back the hand s of time or did we move it forward?
I couldn't be more proud to be an American then I am today. Yes We Can, Yes we will, Yes we should. Inspriation and intellect, finally.
Focusing on whether or not Obama being part black will be beneficial is somewhat offensive.
People shouldn't be looking at the colour of their presidents skin for inspiration. But for the postitions he takes on policies, the actions he takes while in office, and promises kept as stated
It is a good thing that the american people were able overcome the stigma of a "coloured" man in office and hopefully this will help remove further shortsightedness.
Tour�, this is BRILLIANT. Had the same discussion on the flight back from Ohio today...but you have said it so well.
TOURe.
(Enjoyed you on Tina Brown's "Topic A." Great show.
NBC missed the boat on Tina's engaging star power.)
How can America not accept you? What says progress more than a brotha with a singular name ... and that pretentious little french accent over the lower case (letter) "e." You are the LeBron of journalism.
This article brings up a valid dialog that has long been ensued by many black leaders. You can bet that dialog is taking place now! My hope: I never hear anyone refer to themself or anyone else as a 'nigga'. Thank you President Obama, I believe my 'hope' is possible because of you.
The times are changing. Many of the great men of color you mentioned in your article not only cast an image of positive rebellion against the ills of society, they cashed the checks that came in return for sharing their wonderous gifts and successes in their respective disciplines. So as they called forth a generation of African-Americans to rise up they also were benefiting from the blessings of this country, even as it slowly struggled and stumbled forward to leave the ignorance and bias of race behind. Today, each of those men and women own a portion of the victory Senator Obama experienced.
Everyone should be clearly aware that the Obama Presidency is a defining moment for Black America. There is no higher office, no greater prestige available to an American citizen than to lead the greatest nation in the free world. This opportunity and countless others are available to every person of every color who chooses to make the sacrifices to pursue the dream.
Looking to the past to fall short in the future is no longer an option. The life you live is what you make of it. No more, no less.
Obama is just the first step. Anyone who believes that racism isn't a serious issue is blind... but unfortunately, nearly ALL of white America is obliviouis to the facts. Our country has been transformed and molded by white privilege. Our entire society is a system of racial discrimination. That Barack Obama is now our president is a great sign that things could EVENTUALLY change. But we are not there yet. As a white man I am afforded numerous advantages compared to African Americans. I am part of a racist system and a vicious cycle that favors me and ignores or mistreats blacks (check out number 46 for a perfect example of something largely unnoticeable but completely aligned with white privilege):
"1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.
3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.
4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.
6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.
10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.
11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.
12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.
13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.
15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.
16. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race.
17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.
18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.
19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.
20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.
24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.
25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.
26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.
27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.
28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.
29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.
30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.
31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.
32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.
33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.
34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.
35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.
36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.
37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.
38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.
39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.
40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.
41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.
42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.
43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.
44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race.
45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.
46. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.
47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.
48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.
49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.
50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social."
-http://mmcisaac.faculty.asu.edu/emc598ge/Unpacking.html
Finally - someone in the white house who's life experience differs from white privilege.
Unfortunately for Obama he took the mantel at the worst time in history to be President. Even Roosevelt and Lincoln never had to deal these many crisis: 2 wars, economic recession, global warming, oil woes, nuclear bound states, failed foreign policies--etc. The white house is like a plane in a nosedive and we want Obama to pull us out. Quite frankly no one will be able to do it in 1 term, whether it was McCain or Hilary in the white house. But unfortunately Obama has to deal with it and being a Black man he will be scrutinized harder and feel more pressure to get positive results than any other president before him. Bush's legacy will be that he was a bad president--not that WHITES are bad presidents. But if Obama fails (in a no win situation): it will be perceived as a failure not only for democrats, but for African Americans, and his critics will usher a new wave of "I told you so" and " we gave them a chance" that will propel a stronger republican resurgence in 2012.
@ MyHeartSpits: I suggest you study the history of US immigration better. Irish, Italians, Scot-Irish, Catholics, Jews, (as well as Chinese, and Japanese) were all targets of bias by WASP America, a term that was culturally "white washed" into the erroneous term that you use so freely of "White America". While these groups did not experience the slave trade, many members did experience the ghettos and system of indentured servitude and fought like hell to escape it. There are still areas in the US where the above groups I mention face many of the biases which would force people in these areas to answer "no" to your 46 questions (substituting ancestry for race) even though they are not Black, African-American, or of full African ancestry, their ancestry/cultural heritage still enrages those that feel the need to be prejudiced against what they consider 'out groups'.
Things have changed and yet they have not, even for the above mentioned groups as well. Having a member of an oppressed group serve as President does not open the minds of the prejudiced. Only ordinary people in their every day lives engaged in hard work, gaining economic independence, education, having the ability to not segregate one's cultural identity from the larger generic "American" identity, and removing the chip on one's shoulder will cure prejudice. Most prejudice stems from people not having significant exposure to those they consider out groups, different, or not like them.
Learn to enjoy the moment and see how Mr. Obama used that strategy to achieve great things. Race baiting and pity, which your argument smacks of, has never solved this issue and never will.
@nickfury: Bill Clinton was an example of "white privilege" in the White House? He grew up in a trailer park in very modest means! He worked his butt off to get into great schools and get the opportunities he had. That is not exactly the definition of privilege.
@Santa
You're right that I probably shouldn't use the term 'white america', and I agree with you that other ethnic groups face similar problems. I don't claim to be an expert on any of this, but I strongly believe that we live in a country of white privilege. I don't think I offered a solution, nor do I think pity is the answer, or even desired. I'm against monetary reparations for damn sure. I didn't mention prejudice, either, and I don't think people are the problem, for the most part. Rather, the SYSTEM itself is racist and supports racism rather than dispelling it. Actually, I think a lot of your words support my argument. People living in the ghettos have very little contact with 'out groups', education is not equal, and therefore futures are not equal. It's where they live, their skin color, their environment, everything put together. I agree as well that Obama won't open the minds of the prejudiced. But he will give the victims of prejudice a little hope. And maybe he can begin to level the playing field by offering equal (and hopefully integrated) education... I think that would go a long way.
Thank you.
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