Will "Black Identity" Survive the Obama Presidency?

You know what? I’m starting to get really worried about whether the concept of having a healthy and positive “black identity” will survive a Barack Obama presidency.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m just as proud as the next guy that the majority of Americans went to the polls in November and elected the first, official, non-white president of the United States. Deep down inside, I always had a sneaking suspicion that being president of a major bank, or a manufacturing company, a national non-profit organization or, even, the United States of America, wasn’t a thing that could only be done by people of European descent.

Accordingly, I’m sure Mr. Obama will do a great job. In fact, I’m willing to “bet the ranch” that his performance, in virtually every recognized, presidential responsibility, will be far superior to that of his predecessor.

No, that’s not the problem.

The problem is all the “noise” we’re now hearing about how Obama’s election proves that there are no longer any impediments to black advancement in this country, how black/white disparities are now, largely, a figment of some relatively unsophisticated black folks’ imaginations, and how focusing on black issues, and our own racial identity, has become, suddenly, obsolete.

Recently, a writer at the Boston Globe named Jeff Jacoby went to great lengths in a column in that paper to make the point that with Barack Obama as president, the “color of the reporters covering him” should no longer be an issue. Sadly, Jacoby naively went on to ask in his column: “Why should it matter to anyone but a racist whether a White House reporter is black or white?”

Does Jacoby really believe that Chinese reporters cover news stories from the same cultural perspective as Tibetan or Japanese reporters? Does he really believe that publications such as the Jewish Exponent should have ceased to exist, and that Jewish journalists no longer needed to be included in news crews assigned to cover the U.S. Congress, once Arlen Specter became a U.S. Senator 28 years ago? Does he really believe that French and German reporters produced the same kind of news reports of the events that comprised World War II?

If Jacoby thought about any of this for more than a minute, even he would have to admit that all news coverage really is subjective, that it is virtually impossible to remove bias -- totally -- from any news story or commentary, and that it really does matter who the journalists are, every day of the week.

Sadly, Jeff Jacoby is not alone in his confusion. In a recent issue of “Diverse Issues in Higher Education,” professors at predominantly white Baylor University, and at historically black Morgan State University, have reported that they are encountering resistance from black students, who believe they are now living in a “post-racial” society and that they no longer have a need to study the works of black authors such as Richard Wright or Alice Walker.

The students at Morgan State had better watch out. With the onset of “post-racialism,” there has been a growing, running debate about whether historically black colleges, and universities (HBCU’s), themselves, are still “necessary” or “relevant.” Where, pray tell, will all of those “formerly black” students at historically black colleges go to collectively ignore their own culture, once the HBCU’s have finally been deemed obsolete and been closed?

Even some respected black commentators have begun to sing the same self-defeating, “anti-black identity” song. A recent post by Mark Anthony Neal on the Mother Jones “Mojo Blog,” carried this warning: “Obama showed a particular disdain throughout his 21-month campaign with being thought of as a black candidate or as a broker of black issues. The president-elect will likely show the same disdain for a black political establishment wholly wedded to the race politics of a quarter century ago. If the NAACP, National Urban League and Congressional Black Caucus aim to remain relevant in the future, it is the new coalition of progressives that they will need to provide leadership.”

Wow! “Brother Neal,” who is the author of four books, a Professor of Black Pop Culture at Duke University, and a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, just made the case for eliminating black consciousness, discarding our most important black political and civic institutions and, even, his own job at Duke University, all at the same time. Or does he think he’s immune to the confusion he’s spreading?

I have nothing at all against those who espouse joining “progressive coalitions.” Why, though, are only blacks being expected to leave their hard-earned consciousness at the door as they step inside to work cooperatively with Jewish, Hispanic, Asian, Christian, feminist, socialist, and Native-American progressives. Why is it O.K. for “other progressives” to maintain their cultural and organizational identities, and why is it mandatory, now, that black people totally discard theirs, if they want to, finally, “move ahead,” in the era of “change.”

What the learned Mr. Neal and other post-Obama advocates fail to fully appreciate as part of their political analysis is that, if black voters had not overwhelmingly adopted the Obama candidacy and had they not given him 96 percent of their vote because they, somehow, “identified” with him, racially, he almost certainly would have lost the election.

Unfortunately, “Brother Neal” is not the only observer questioning whether the Black Caucus will have a “role” during an Obama presidency. Those who have wondered whether there will still be a need for an effective and responsive Black Caucus, however, should look no farther than the Caucus’s unanimous 41-member vote to support Roland Burris for his U.S. Senate seat, a few weeks ago, even in the face of Barack Obama’s own, public, non-support for Burris, up to that point.

What is the source of this recent, curious lack of commitment to our own cultural and racial identity? And, perhaps more importantly, what will we be asked to give up next to prove that we’ve finally and officially “moved beyond” our need to think as part of a black, social and political collective?

Now that Obama is the President, do we no longer, for example, need black radio, black newspapers, black fraternities and sororities? Will we still need black barbers and beauticians?

How about black churches, do we still need them? What say our formerly outspoken black clergy members on this topic?

Should we abolish our professional associations, including the National Association of Black Accountants, the National Bar Association, the National Medical Association and the Black MBA Association? The National Association of Black Journalists… do we still need that or, have we outgrown it, or progressed beyond it?

Are we ready to do without Ebony Magazine, Jet, American Legacy, Black Enterprise, Slam, Vibe and black-focused websites? Or do we no longer need to read about ourselves?

Should we now be ashamed to publicly celebrate Kwanzaa? Should we stop buying black dolls for our daughters, or can we safely go back to providing Eurocentric Barbie’s for our children?

Is black art now obsolete? Can we publicly laugh anymore along with Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, Chris Rock and other black comedians, or is “black humor” something else that we should discard in our rush to become a part of the “Progressive Mosaic?”

Sounds like we’ll no longer be needing Martin Luther King Day or Juneteenth celebrations.

Hey, and while we’re at it, lets give the entire month of February back to the schedule makers. We probably won’t need to celebrate Black History Month, anymore.

After all, now that Barack Obama is going to be president of the United States, there’s, apparently, no longer a need for people who still identity themselves as “black” or African American and, really, nothing left for black people to do – or think about.



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