I've had some discussions with radicals (by "radicals," I mean anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, pro-queer, racial justice feminists) -- some who think that Obama's win was glorious, some who feel alienated by what they perceive is uncritical celebration. I think I can relate to both views, simultaneously. But I can't relate to the view that all is the same. That is, same song, different color. All is not the same.
(Drawing by Patrick Moberg)I continue to believe that it is extraordinary that a country can shift from chattel slavery to this phenomenon in 145 years. I remain unpatriotic, I'm no Oprah Winfrey!, but I won't lie and say that I don't think this is not fucking incredible. I just can't. It could be that I'm about to teach a class on Black Feminist Theory, so I've been reading a lot of history, and the background of my consciousness is engaged in a critical dialogue with with Ida B. Wells in the 1890s. I keep being astonished that this daughter of enslaved Black people was able to (practically single handedly) jump start a global movement to end the massive violent attacks against Black people. On one hand, yes, thousands of Black women, men, and children were the victims of systematic terrorist attacks from white folks, and on the other hand, Ida was kicking some major ass while she wrote, researched, hustled people out of the South, spoke around the world, had babies, wrote some more, fundraised, spoke some more, and just caused a whole lot of beautiful trouble. (I keep thinking it's a miracle she wasn't eventually assassinated.)
While others think of this trajectory as slow, I keep thinking how crazy fast it is. It's both. The trajectory is not linear. It was just 3 years ago that we were here
It is both. It is hundreds of thousands of us incarcerated and it is Obama. It is thousands of us lynched and raped and it is Ida. I don't even think of them as exceptional. I use their names as placeholders. It's millions of us living in these contradictions of oppression and possibility. I still think this country is woven with white supremacist identities and agendas, but I am developing a different appreciation for its contradictions and capacity to bend. (Maybe I should make a distinction between the U.S. government, and the U.S. people -- I'm talking about the latter here.)
I will have to get used to the idea that this President Obama thing is happening. Because, frankly, I have my doubts! There is an epistemological problem for me because I deeply associate the U.S. government as a project of whiteness. When he won his first state, Vermont, I was like "I can't believe the brother actually won a whole state." I mean, it was Vermont! I'm a rational person, and I understood rationally that it was highly likely that he was going to win, but there is some kind of deeper distrust in my heart. I don't know, maybe I think the Constitution will burst into flames at his inauguration or something, I am just having a little bit of a hard time. I watched Obama's first press conference today and I kept thinking, "Really? Y'all are just gonna let him do a press conference like he's the President Elect or something crazy like that?"
I guess I don't want to trust it because, unlike my 5 year old nephew, I was not born relatively new into this post-Obama world and I can taste the fear on my tongue. This is a fundamentally different way of relating to the Office of the White House. Both opposed and, despite my politics, on a fundamental level, I am invested. I feel like I can't not support an Obama presidency (even as I oppose much of his politics), my loyalty runs too deep. Over the past few years, I have really tried to critically interrogate my accountabilities as a U.S. citizen while maintaining a DuBoisian dual identity, but I've still been able to create a distance between myself and my government because it wasn't my government, it was theirs. This was especially easy under the W years. But I see now that this move was always disingenuous, even if I wrote in Angela Davis on my ballot. I am experiencing a fundamentally different relationship to the U.S. government and that is really weird.
Also, I think that when we are not used to Black men who become symbols for racial struggle, the way Obama has become, who are not also eventually assassinated. We didn't get to see Martin and Malcolm grow old. They were murdered relatively young, and it was easy to idolize and objectify them, forgetting their errors, only relating to their brilliance. I find myself cringing when Obama makes errors. The bitter thing. The sweetie thing. And today, in his first press conference after becoming President Elect, the Nancy Reagan thing. I sucked wind between my teeth as I watched it, I knew it would cause a wrinkle. I will have to get better at this, lol! It will take some practice letting him occasionally be a doofus, instead of a perfect martyr that will be snuffed out. When my nephew grows up and has reflections about Obama, it won't be of a magnificent lover of Black people that was killed by the U.S. government which will break his heart, it will be the funny, flawed, very smart, center-left community organizer that held the highest office in the U.S. government who (I believe) will live out his natural life. That's a fundamentally different way of thinking about Black heroes and the cost of struggle.
So, the fundamental difference isn't that "We Have Overcome." We haven't and I believe the vast majority of Black folks know this. We haven't overcome capitalist exploitation, imperial projects, and heteropatriarchies. We won't under an Obama presidency. But this win isn't just "mildly better" than W, there is something about it that transcends how Democrats are better than Republicans. It may be an opportunity for how to think about our work and ourselves a little more expansively.
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