The logo for the Daily Beast's Obsessed website. It reads: 'Obsessed: What to Watch, Binge, See, & Skip'
DAILY BEAST
CrosswordNewsletters
  • Cheat Sheet
  • Obsessed
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Entertainment
  • Media
  • Innovation
  • Opinion
  • World
  • U.S. News
  • Scouted
CHEAT SHEET
    POLITICS
    • Biden World
    • Elections
    • Opinion
    • National Security
    • Congress
    • Pay Dirt
    • The New Abnormal
    • Trumpland
    MEDIA
    • Confider
    • Daytime Talk
    • Late-Night
    • Fox News
    U.S. NEWS
    • Identities
    • Crime
    • Race
    • LGBT
    • Extremism
    • Coronavirus
    WORLD
    • Russia
    • Europe
    • China
    • Middle East
    INNOVATION
    • Science
    TRAVEL
      ENTERTAINMENT
      • TV
      • Movies
      • Music
      • Comedy
      • Sports
      • Sex
      • TDB's Obsessed
      • Awards Shows
      • The Last Laugh
      CULTURE
      • Power Trip
      • Fashion
      • Books
      • Royalist
      TECH
      • Disinformation
      SCOUTED
      • Clothing
      • Technology
      • Beauty
      • Home
      • Pets
      • Kitchen
      • Fitness
      • I'm Looking For
      BEST PICKS
      • Best VPNs
      • Best Gaming PCs
      • Best Air Fryers
      COUPONS
      • Vistaprint Coupons
      • Ulta Coupons
      • Office Depot Coupons
      • Adidas Promo Codes
      • Walmart Promo Codes
      • H&M Coupons
      • Spanx Promo Codes
      • StubHub Promo Codes
      Products
      NewslettersPodcastsCrosswordsSubscription
      FOLLOW US
      GOT A TIP?

      SEARCH

      HOMEPAGE
      0

      A 'Black President' Is of No Value to America

      The majority of Americans are ready for a black president; I hope we're ready for a post-American president.

      Rich Benjamin

      Updated Jul. 14, 2017 6:38PM ET / Published Nov. 04, 2008 12:40AM ET 

      © Brian Snyder / Reuters

      Breathe a sigh of relief.

      We now know the answer to a question the media hectored us with for the last 18 months: “Is America ready to elect a black president?” The majority of Americans are ready for a black president; I hope we’re ready for a post-American president.

      With his honey-hue skin (Berber? South Asian? Sorta Rican?), Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, raised in Jakarta, educated in New York City, and fluent in Indonesian, language to the most populous Muslim-majority nation in the world, will be our country’s first post-American president.

      This campaign amplified the ongoing debates between “patriotism” and “cosmopolitanism,” between what I call “patriot-Americans” and “post-Americans.” According to political lore, patriot-Americans do the backbreaking work that keeps the country humming. They occupy “these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America,” as Sarah Palin gushed on the campaign trail.

      A black man, I’m ambivalent about this election’s historical milestone. The first black president! A ‘black President’ is of no real value to America. Let’s celebrate Obama not as the first African-American president. He is our first post-American president.

      Post-Americans, meanwhile, include the ranks of urbane professionals, jetting between New York and London, between This Week with George Stephanopoulos and late-night bites of sashimi. They’re post-national. Post-Americans have become citizens of the world; their political outlook, personal affinities, and cultural tastes are often no more aligned with an American’s than, say, a Spaniard’s or a Singaporean’s.

      The patriot- and post-American world views skirmish ever more fiercely, because America is fighting two global wars and recalibrating itself after a triumphant American Century. We stare a potential post-American century in the face.

      Throughout, Teflon Obama nicely deflected scurrilous rumors and attacks: John McCain’s Ohio supporters hung a large poster near the Stars and Stripes: “Obama—too dangerous for our America.” Joe, Tax-Dodging Plumber, announced at a McCain rally in Ohio that he’d vote for “a real American, John McCain.” Even on the eve of the election, a Florida GOP county chair insisted Obama is not a US citizen. Often dismissed as “exotic,” Obama successfully moseyed into white Americans’ comfort zone, and black and brown Americans’, too, proving that he indeed loves this country.

      To be sure, patriot-Americans are not know-nothing nativists or backwater rubes, nor are post-Americans traitors. “Post-American” does not mean un-American or anti-American. Nor does it mean equivocal to American interests.

      “I believe that the single most important job of any president is to protect the American people,” Obama has said. “And I am equally convinced that doing that job effectively in the 21st century will require a new vision of American leadership and a new conception of our national security—a vision that draws from the lessons of the past, but is not bound by outdated thinking.”

      The president-elect’s foreign policy plans reject the succor of American Exceptionalism, the insidious remnants of Cold War statecraft, and President Bush’s post-9/11 absolutist ideology.

      “The burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together,” Obama instructed the throngs who greeted him this summer in Berlin. “Partnership among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.”

      This commitment to global citizenship is conceptual and personal. “If you can tell people, ‘We have a president in the White House,’” Obama once mused, “who still has a grandmother living in a hut on the shores of Lake Victoria and has a sister who’s half-Indonesian, married to a Chinese-Canadian,’ then they’re going to think that he may have a better sense of what’s going on in our lives and in our country. And they’d be right.”

      No matter how much he might terrify some “patriot-Americans,” Obama is just the leader nimbly to navigate the US in its new role, in a hazy world that is becoming increasingly decentralized (the handiwork of corporations, information, terrorism) and interconnected (the byproduct of markets, media, and problems).

      A black man, I’m ambivalent about this election’s historical milestone. The first black president! A “black president” is of no real value to America. Let’s celebrate Obama not as the first African-American president. He is our first post-American president.

      Rich Benjamin

      Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.

      READ THIS LIST

      DAILY BEAST
      • Cheat Sheet
      • Politics
      • Entertainment
      • Media
      • World
      • Innovation
      • U.S. News
      • Scouted
      • Travel
      • Subscription
      • Crossword
      • Newsletters
      • Podcasts
      • About
      • Contact
      • Tips
      • Jobs
      • Advertise
      • Help
      • Privacy
      • Code of Ethics & Standards
      • Diversity
      • Terms & Conditions
      • Copyright & Trademark
      • Sitemap
      • Best Picks
      • Coupons
      • Coupons:
      • Dick's Sporting Goods Coupons
      • HP Coupon Codes
      • Chewy Promo Codes
      • Nordstrom Rack Coupons
      • NordVPN Coupons
      • JCPenny Coupons
      • Nordstrom Coupons
      • Samsung Promo Coupons
      • Home Depot Coupons
      • Hotwire Promo Codes
      • eBay Coupons
      • Ashley Furniture Promo Codes
      © 2023 The Daily Beast Company LLC