From: dianne hunter [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Subject: ?Obama"  "invisible"
 
Jonathan, what do you think makes Obama an "invisible man"?


On Jul 30, 2008, at 8:15 PM, Murray Schwartz wrote:

> From: jonathan schiff [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Subject: Obama
>
> Some thoughts on Obama:
>
> Norm mentions Obama's desire to bring people together.  An  
> interesting example of this is the way Obama invokes famous works of  
> African American literature in Dreams From My Father.  He tries to  
> bring some of his literary forefathers (e.g. Ellison and Dubois)  
> into dialogue with eachother in his memoir.
>
> Obama appears to be an example of what we used to call a right- 
> brained personality, although I guess contemporary neroscience would  
> find this term to be reductive.  Obama is poetic, left-handed, and  
> not well-organized (he mentioned in one debate that he can't  
> remember where he places paperwork if his aides give it to him well  
> in advance of when he needs it).  I think Reagan shared these traits.
>
> You can tell in Dreams From My Father and elsewhere that there's  
> much about the world he's angry about (that's one reason I like  
> him), but he tries  to hide this anger under a cool, calm, and  
> collected demeanor.  This demeanor is perhaps a way of countering  
> the stereotype of the angry black man, the stereotype that arose  
> after the Civil War when whites wanted to stir up people's fears so  
> that Jim Crow laws would be enacted.  In the part of Dreams From My  
> Father detailing his adolescence, Obama mentions something about how  
> a black man can get away with more when he stays cool and polite.   
> One could posit, then, that part of Obama's identity results from a  
> process of DISidentification.  (I hope I've used that term correctly).
>
> However, Obama remains an "invisible man," as Ellison might have put  
> it, so many on the right are eager to paint him as an un-American,  
> uppity n____r.   The un-American charge is well-known, and the  
> uppity n__r slur can be seen in the attempts to portray him as  
> arrogant and ignorant.  Obama gets labeled arrogant and ignorant  
> when he does things that white politicians do with impunity.  McCain  
> went on a very similar overseas tour as Obama, yet we didn't hear  
> all these accusations then that he was ignorant and trying to puff  
> himself up.
>
> Still, if people like Sarkozy and his ex-wife, with their Jewish  
> ancestry, got so far in France, I guess Obama can reach the highest  
> level in the U.S.
>
> --Jonathan Schiff