Barack Obama is not a black leader. He’s a leader who’s black. This
is not an insignificant distinction. In order to become President, he
had to promise to be President for all the people and not be someone who
would be a special friend to the black community, and he has lived up
to that pledge. Black America has enjoyed the spiritual boost and pride
injection that’s come from seeing the brother break the highest glass
ceiling and strut through the White House lawn and parade his beautiful
family before the world. But when Obama turns to governing, it’s a
different story.
When he spoke of
Trayvon Martin, Obama did so in a humane and paternal way, though he
was careful not to bias the ongoing Department of Justice investigation.
But more crucially, he was careful not to racialize the situation,
which has become a racialized time bomb. Obama leavened his comments by
using a rhetorical device he often employs, which is to universalize the
situation. He said, “I think about my own kids,” which personalized the
moment but risked coming close to pointing out the racial aspect, so he
immediately followed that phrase with a universalizing statement:
“Every parent in America should be able to understand why it’s
absolutely imperative to investigate every aspect of this.” A moment
later he repeated that pattern: “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,
and all of us Americans are gonna take this with the seriousness it
deserves.” This rhetorical gesture signals to black Americans that he’s
not avoiding race — he references it in coded ways — but avoiding making
white Americans feel guilty about racism.
