After Obama

The Forum ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Kinder ◽  
Jennifer Chudy

AbstractBarack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, is approaching the end of his second and final term. Obama’s impending departure raises questions about his legacy. Here we explore what the consequences of the Obama Presidency might be for the future of racial politics in America: for prejudice itself; for the racialization of policy; for the mobilization of the Black vote; and for the racial polarization of the party system.

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rogers M. Smith ◽  
Desmond S. King

AbstractIn 2008, following a campaign in which racial issues were largely absent, Americans elected their first Black president. This article argues that Obama's election does not signal the dawn of a postracial era in U.S. politics. Rather, it reflects the current structure of racial politics in the United States—a division between those who favor color-blind policies and seek to keep racial discussions out of politics, and those who favor race-conscious measures and whose policies are often political liabilities. The Obama campaign sought to win support from both camps. Only if pervasive material racial inequalities are reduced can such a strategy succeed in the long run.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-150
Author(s):  
Tim DeJong

This essay examines attitudes toward the future in D. W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation, focusing in particular on the opposed emotions hope and fear. In doing so, it establishes critical connections between the film's aesthetic philosophy – which is marked by an attempt to control its characters, its audience, and even history itself – and the film's troubling and much-discussed racial politics. Griffith's stated beliefs in the ability of cinema to fully capture the past and in turn to dictate to its audience the terms of the future, manifest themselves everywhere in The Birth of a Nation not only thematically but formally. However, the film sets an impossible task for itself, and where it falls short, its own hopes and fears become dramatically visible. This failure indicates that The Birth of a Nation is ultimately imbricated in the modernist episteme of uncertainty it works to deny and disavow.


2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-58
Author(s):  
Edward L. Powers

The election of President Barack Obama, and the candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin raise the issue of whether we continue to need equal employment opportunity and/or affirmative action. The concept of a level playing field is carefully developed, and provides a basis for a more thorough analysis of the future of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action.


2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 84-104
Author(s):  
Simona Kustec Lipicer ◽  
Andrija Henjak

The main goal of this paper is to provide a descriptive analytical overview of the existing evolution of the Slovenian parliamentary arena since its transition to democracy and independence. The paper is divided into two main parts: (1) an overview of a normative insight into the parliamentary and party system, and (2) an analytical assessment of the structure of the parliamentary arena as it is reflected in electoral and parties’ choices and policy preferences. A look at the contemporary democratic parliamentary arena in Slovenia shows that it, in itself, has been quite stable, while, on the contrary, its main integral parts – political parties – have gradually become less stable and less predictable, especially in the second decade of democracy, which can potentially influence the future stability of parliamentary arena, too.


Author(s):  
Desmond S. King ◽  
Rogers M. Smith

This chapter reflects on how Americans can achieve further progress in their long national struggle to reduce enduring material race inequalities. It first returns to the structure of American racial politics as analyzed in previous chapters, before discussing its present state. The chapter then suggests that the effects of the clash of the modern racial alliances have been debilitating on many fronts, illustrating through charts and graphs the effects of these racial alliances, and offers projections on how Americans can tackle current incarnations of racial inequalities, and why progress in that regard seems so slow. Finally, this chapter makes some recommendations for breaking out of the “stalemate” on race that Barack Obama perceived in 2008.


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