The President, Professor and the Police

A week ago, President Obama delivered his best speech ever at the NAACP 2009 convention. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv6EAaoFNno. Obama’s address was a thoughtful and sometimes impassioned tour de force on race in the US. Most compelling for me, was his acknowledgement of continuing racial discrimination. The President cited new, perhaps more invidious ways in which racism manifests itself in today’s experience. He presented his presidency as an example of progress, but encouraged greater personal responsibility within black community.

In the context of this multi-layered speech, Obama said that black folk should find “no more excuses” and “seize our own future, each and every day.” For me, the President was saying that despite remaining systemic impediments, blacks should press on and strive to succeed nevertheless. Others heard the President berating African Americans for needlessly whining about racial bias, in a country where he could have risen to be commander in chief. His “no excuses” utterance was lifted out of the speech as the banner headline of numerous newspapers around the world, with a narrative that cast Obama’s words as the seal of new, post- racial America.

If the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jnr after Obama’s speech had been scripted in a movie, one could have been forgiven for dismissing the plot as contrived. America’s leading scholar of Afro American studies became his own case study when he was arrested inside his home after police responded to a call of suspected burglary. It turns out that “Skip” Gates was returning from travels and had needed to jimmy his door open with the assistance of his driver, who is also black. Someone called the police to report what was perceived as suspicious activities. The police arrived after Gates had managed to let himself inside his house. Despite furnishing the police with two pieces of identification, the cops – perhaps annoyed by something the professor said in their exchange – arrested and handcuffed him for “disorderly conduct.” (Skip Gates is 58 years old, five feet nine inches and walks with a cane after hip replacement surgery). The charge was later dropped, with a statement of "regret" from the police authorities. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090721/ap_on_re_us/us_harvard_scholar_analysis

The arrest of Professor Gates – and Obama’s full throated intervention in the ensuing public debate – has energized a discussion on race relations in America. At a press conference dealing with his healthcare reform, the President acknowledged that Gates was his “friend” and let rip that he felt the police had acted “stupidly” in arresting the professor. He was careful not to charge that this incident was an act of racism, but laid the context for this conclusion being drawn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvYTNYPDmgQ.

For me, these events are a jarring reminder of how exceptionalism could warp the discussion of race progress in the US. By exceptionalism, I mean the disingenuous way that an exceptional state of affairs may be made to seem like part of normal or customary experience. Barack Obama won the presidency, whilst he was in his first term as the member from the state of Illinois in the 100 member US Senate. He was the only black Senator then, and his nominated replacement after leaving the US Seanate, is also the lone black member now. That Obama rose to be President of the US, is an extraordinary event and does not negate the fact that race still plays a huge role in organizing power relations in the US – often to the disadvantage of people of colour. America still has significant problems of race to contend with, though to say this, presents an inconvenient truth.

Whether deliberately or not, the Obama presidency is drawing attention to the subject of race through not just statements, but actions and symbolism. Earlier this year, the US Congress apologized to African Americans for slavery. In his trip to Ghana recently, President Obama cast the impact of the slave trade on African Americans in the same terms as the effect of the holocaust on Jews. He and his family toured the site where Africans were last held, before they were forcibly sent on slave ships to the Americas. Obama might have been nervous about wading fully into this discussion during his campaign, but now as President, he is showing greater willingness to take on these issues.

Obviously, talking about race carries many political risks. After calling out the police actions in Skip Gates’ arrest, Obama might have been stunned at how much his comment dominated the 24 hour news cycle. Since then, he has dialed back the starkness of his critique and is now inviting Skip Gates and the arresting officer to have a beer with him to discuss what happened. Having been the political beneficiary of hopes for a “colour blind” society, Obama understands the dangers of appearing too coloured. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25403.html

I suspect that Obama will not resolve the debate on race over a beer or two. But I like that a robust conversation on race is now taking place in many different forums in the US and elsewhere. Progress comes through maintaining an open dialogue, even if there is a risk of anger and frustration.