Is Obama Making Black People More Conservative?
Black people are becoming more conservative in America today at least when it comes to foreign policy. A recent article by John Hudson in Foreign Policy is entitled “Congressional Black Caucus Instructed to Hold Tongue on Syria.”
The CBC has about 40 members in Congress and is expected to be a crucial bloc of votes that Obama will depend on in order to get congressional approval for bombing Syria. Politics aside, there is a potent serving of symbolism at play here that is perhaps becoming a defining moment in the way that black Americans view American power in the world today.
There have been defining moments, or transitions in Black politics before in America. African Americans used to be Republicans, of course, as the party of Lincoln ushered in a new era for blacks with the end of slavery and rights of voting and citizenship being constitutionally rendered. The Great Depression and FDR’s New Deal policies marked the beginning of shift in African American political alliances. This relationship with the Democratic Party was cemented when LBJ became the political force behind new Civil Rights laws during the 1960’s. It also then became clear that African American voters were more concerned with domestic politics than foreign policy. And even though Martin Luther King did speak out against the Vietnam War, common blacks were focused on their more immediate needs as the south began the painful process of desegregation.
Since the 1960’s and through the Reagan and G. W. Bush eras of more active American foreign policy African American views on America’s use of power to influence geopolitical aims in the least could be seen as indifferent. At most it could be summed up by movie producer Spike Lee when he said; “What Clinton did with Monica Lewinsky does not add up to Bush lying to the world, saying, Let’s invade Iraq because they’ve got weapons of mass destruction. It just doesn’t add up. The man cheated on his wife, but nobody died. Americans are not coming home in body bags because of that.” As such, mainstream African American foreign policy views have historically been mostly either those reflecting indifference or pacifism. Until now.
Barack Obama received the overwhelming majority of African American votes when he was elected both in 2008 and 2012. It was a defining moment in American history. The symbolism of a black U.S. president was powerful. But symbolism represents a big picture. Obama was the big picture of hope and aspiration for many. The racial dynamic in America was changed forever. In the minds of many black people a real sense pride arose and with that a sense of power. That sense of power is now being projected in a different way than was perhaps anticipated.
Obama became a wartime president when he inherited the fallout of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Now for the first time in his presidency he is proposing for America to take an unprovoked first strike against a rogue regime in Syria which has been accused of using chemical weapons against its own people.
The point about symbolism now then takes on a larger significance. Symbols are like powerful big white elephants that define and give meaning to people. They become paradigms. But symbols can often be weighted down by baggage that is not always inherent to the organism. Who would have thought for examples that many in the peaceful wing of the Abolitionist Movement in America would have morphed into becoming supporters for a bloody civil war, for example?
America now has a black president. It is not at all clear what that means for the new paradigm that will come to define the new African American agenda. Where this discussion ultimately lands will speak volumes about the degree of sophistication in Black Politics today. Will blacks be dragged along by the big white elephant? If so, would that not reflect a sense of insecurity in the community which derives from the fact that today many African Americans are reluctance and insecure about criticizing a black president for fear somehow being viewed as destructive and disloyal?
Whether blacks are becoming more conservative on foreign policy or not, then, is not as important as how they arrive. In the end and more important and powerful than any symbol is for a society to conduct an honest public discourse on the politics of the day. Black American politics is maturing fast and now its defining moment has arrived.
The CBC has about 40 members in Congress and is expected to be a crucial bloc of votes that Obama will depend on in order to get congressional approval for bombing Syria. Politics aside, there is a potent serving of symbolism at play here that is perhaps becoming a defining moment in the way that black Americans view American power in the world today.
There have been defining moments, or transitions in Black politics before in America. African Americans used to be Republicans, of course, as the party of Lincoln ushered in a new era for blacks with the end of slavery and rights of voting and citizenship being constitutionally rendered. The Great Depression and FDR’s New Deal policies marked the beginning of shift in African American political alliances. This relationship with the Democratic Party was cemented when LBJ became the political force behind new Civil Rights laws during the 1960’s. It also then became clear that African American voters were more concerned with domestic politics than foreign policy. And even though Martin Luther King did speak out against the Vietnam War, common blacks were focused on their more immediate needs as the south began the painful process of desegregation.
Since the 1960’s and through the Reagan and G. W. Bush eras of more active American foreign policy African American views on America’s use of power to influence geopolitical aims in the least could be seen as indifferent. At most it could be summed up by movie producer Spike Lee when he said; “What Clinton did with Monica Lewinsky does not add up to Bush lying to the world, saying, Let’s invade Iraq because they’ve got weapons of mass destruction. It just doesn’t add up. The man cheated on his wife, but nobody died. Americans are not coming home in body bags because of that.” As such, mainstream African American foreign policy views have historically been mostly either those reflecting indifference or pacifism. Until now.
Barack Obama received the overwhelming majority of African American votes when he was elected both in 2008 and 2012. It was a defining moment in American history. The symbolism of a black U.S. president was powerful. But symbolism represents a big picture. Obama was the big picture of hope and aspiration for many. The racial dynamic in America was changed forever. In the minds of many black people a real sense pride arose and with that a sense of power. That sense of power is now being projected in a different way than was perhaps anticipated.
Obama became a wartime president when he inherited the fallout of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Now for the first time in his presidency he is proposing for America to take an unprovoked first strike against a rogue regime in Syria which has been accused of using chemical weapons against its own people.
The point about symbolism now then takes on a larger significance. Symbols are like powerful big white elephants that define and give meaning to people. They become paradigms. But symbols can often be weighted down by baggage that is not always inherent to the organism. Who would have thought for examples that many in the peaceful wing of the Abolitionist Movement in America would have morphed into becoming supporters for a bloody civil war, for example?
America now has a black president. It is not at all clear what that means for the new paradigm that will come to define the new African American agenda. Where this discussion ultimately lands will speak volumes about the degree of sophistication in Black Politics today. Will blacks be dragged along by the big white elephant? If so, would that not reflect a sense of insecurity in the community which derives from the fact that today many African Americans are reluctance and insecure about criticizing a black president for fear somehow being viewed as destructive and disloyal?
Whether blacks are becoming more conservative on foreign policy or not, then, is not as important as how they arrive. In the end and more important and powerful than any symbol is for a society to conduct an honest public discourse on the politics of the day. Black American politics is maturing fast and now its defining moment has arrived.