The Postracial Saint: On Barack Obama

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent W. Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Black Politics ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Concepts And Categories ◽  
2008 Election ◽  
Black President

All saints are, in a sense, post-racial. By definition, saints transcend worldly concepts and categories, but in doing so they draw on the specificity of their worldly features. During the 2008 election campaign and in the early days of his presidency, Barack Obama was represented as saintly. Was this merely a metaphor, or is there something about the theological structure of sainthood that captures Obama’s representation (and self-presentation)? By moving back and forth between analysis of Obama’s image and reflection on sainthood, this chapter attempts to move both conversations about black politics and about sainthood forward, helping us racially inflect our understanding of saints and helping us theologically deepen our understanding of the first black president.

Black Politics, the 2008 Election, and the (Im)Possibility of Race Transcendence

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (04) ◽  
pp. 739-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Sinclair-Chapman ◽  
Melanye Price
Keyword(s):  
Black Politics ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
The Self ◽  
Keynote Address ◽  
National Convention ◽  
Lasting Impression ◽  
2008 Election

When Barack Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, he was well on his way to claiming the open U.S. Senate seat once held by the only other black Democratic senator since Reconstruction, Carol Moseley-Braun. Although mostly unknown, the self-professed “skinny guy with the funny name,” made a lasting impression. Secure in his own Senate race, Obama, a rising political star, spent much of the fall traveling the country as a surrogate for Democratic candidates.

After Obama

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Healthcare Reform ◽  
Black Politics ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Black America ◽  
Linked Fate ◽  
Criminal Justice Reform ◽  
Black President ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

This book engages the reader in a wide-ranging assessment of the legacy of Barack Obama—the “first Black president”—relative to Black politics. It uses its vantage point of being written during Donald Trump’s presidency to understand what Black politics has and has not inherited from the Obama administration. It is comprehensive in the number of constituencies and policy topics it covers. Its co-editors frame its chapters by explaining how both “inverted linked fate” and an “inclusionary dilemma” shaped the Obama presidency and legacy for Black politics. Nearly twenty prominent or emerging political scientists provide this book’s interior chapters, using quantitative and qualitative methods to draw conclusions. The first group of scholars examines the Obama administration’s impact upon the attitudes and perceived group interests of various Black constituencies, including voters, partisans, civil rights leaders, lobbyists, women, church leaders and members, and LGBTQ persons. The second group examines Obama’s impact upon Black policy interests, including civil rights, criminal justice reform, antipoverty, women’s welfare, healthcare reform, housing, immigration, and foreign affairs. In the conclusion, the co-editors consider what may confront the “next Black president” and the “next Black America.”

The Obama Coalition

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-164
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Corrigan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Black Power ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Racial Liberalism ◽  
Black President ◽  
Over Time

While the tensions between white hope and black despair were a dynamic that characterized politics in the Long Sixties, their structure is recursive. That is, the (positive and negative racial) feelings that undergird racial liberalism did not stop emerging and receding after law and order campaigns destroyed civil rights and Black Power organizing in the mid-70s. Nowhere is this clearer than in the entrance and disappearance of the so-called “Obama coalition” in 2008 to elect Barack Obama as the first biracial/black president in U.S. history. In considering how hope continues to be inextricably linked to rage, contempt, and despair, this brief conclusion considers hope as an ironic discourse of liberalism, particularly as it is racialized. The birth of Afro- pessimism as a coterminous discourse with what we now call the “post-racial” Obama coalition is important because it demonstrates how black feelings in the Long Sixties continue to shape national political discourse, demonstrating how affective politics are iterative as well as how they change over time.

The dynamic political economy of support for Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election campaign

2010 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Scotto ◽  
Harold D. Clarke ◽  
Allan Kornberg ◽  
Jason Reifler ◽  
David Sanders ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
2008 Presidential Election ◽  
Presidential Election Campaign

The Red and Blue State Divide in Black and White: The Historic 2008 Election of President Barack Obama

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 19-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanes Walton ◽  
Josephine A. V. Allen ◽  
Sherman C. Puckett ◽  
Donald R. Deskins
Keyword(s):  
Barack Obama ◽  
Black And White ◽  
2008 Election

scholarly journals Young Voters after the 2008 Election: A Disappearing Act?

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priscilla Southwell
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
National Election ◽  
Young Voters ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
2008 Election ◽  
Election Studies

<p>This study examines the decline in voter turnout among young voters between the 2008 and 2012 elections. Our findings suggest that those young voters who dropped out of the electorate in 2012 were more likely to express feelings of alienation, as measured by the American National Election Studies indices of trust and efficacy. Such “dropout” voters were also more likely to have voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 election. These findings are crucial, as the level of alienation in the 2016 election appears to be even higher, and may influence the outcome of the election.</p>

Black Lives Matter and the Struggle for Freedom

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Brian P. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Black People ◽  
Black Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
President Obama ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Incremental Change ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Black President ◽  
Black Movement ◽  
New Phase

In late April 2016, at a town hall-style event in London, President Obama complained about the rising movement against the state-sanctioned murder of black people often referred to as Black Lives Matter. Activists, he admonished, should "stop yelling" and instead push for incremental change through the official "process."… The spectacle of the first black president scolding black activists in the context of a rising rate of police murder (as of this writing, the police have killed 630 individuals, at least 155 of them black, nationwide in 2016) speaks volumes about the state of black politics today.… For those trying to understand the emergence of a new black movement—or, perhaps more accurately, a new phase of a longer, older movement—on the watch of the first black president, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor's new book, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation is an essential starting point.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

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